For about the next year, the direction you're driving matters most on Dietz Elkhorn Road. The City of Fair Oaks Ranch's traffic plan keeps one eastbound lane open toward FM 3351 while each section is rebuilt, and it detours westbound traffic around the work zone. If you live on the stretch between Fair Oaks Parkway and Ralph Fair Road, your morning drive out probably looks the same as before. Your drive home usually goes through Saddle Song.
The first section is more complicated than "one lane open, one lane closed." The city's Phase 1 traffic control plan has five separate setups. The Preakness Lane intersection opens and closes between them, the detour switches between Saddle Song West and Saddle Song East, and the last setup closes the road completely.
How the start actually happened
Construction was supposed to start in late August. The city moved it to September 8 so Spectrum could finish moving its cable lines out of the right of way. At the September 3 council meeting, Mayor Maxton said prep work would begin September 8, traffic controls and detours on September 9, and road reconstruction the week after. Comal.News reported that work on the new water line also started in September.
As of early October, the detour setup has been in place for close to four weeks. The city's ClearGov capital tracker lists construction as 26.5% complete for a "Sep 1 - Oct 31" window. It doesn't say when that number was measured, so read it as a rough marker. It doesn't tell you where the crews are this week.
The three phases move from FM 3351 toward Fair Oaks Parkway
The July 29 open house estimated construction would run from late August 2026 to late August 2027. The contract with D&D Contractors, Inc. requires completion within 365 calendar days of the notice to proceed.
| Phase | Limits | Who it affects most |
|---|---|---|
| Phase 1 | Preakness Lane to Ralph Fair Road | Drivers using the FM 3351 end, Chartwell Lane, Saddle Song, Preakness |
| Phase 2 | Windermere Drive to Preakness Lane | The middle segment, including Secretariat Lane and Sendero Ridge Drive on the plan maps |
| Phase 3 | Fair Oaks Parkway to Windermere Drive | The west end near Fair Oaks Parkway |
Three rules hold in every phase, according to the open house deck. One eastbound lane stays open while the other lane is under construction. Westbound traffic is detoured. Some intersections inside the active phase may close when other routes are available. Residents on Dietz Elkhorn and on dead-end streets keep access the whole time.
Phase 1 is five setups
The detailed Phase 1 plan shows how those rules play out week to week. The setups below are listed in the order they appear on the city's plan sheet.
- Step 1A, contraflow. Eastbound traffic moves over into the westbound lane. Westbound through traffic is closed from Preakness Lane to FM 3351. The Preakness intersection stays open. Westbound detour: Ralph Fair Road to Saddle Song West.
- Preakness closed. The Preakness Lane intersection with Dietz Elkhorn closes, so drivers on Preakness can't turn onto Dietz Elkhorn. Dietz Elkhorn stays eastbound only. Detour: Preakness Lane, Ralph Fair Road, Saddle Song West.
- Work moves to the westbound lane. Eastbound Dietz Elkhorn is open through to FM 3351 and Preakness reopens. Traffic is still eastbound only. Detour: Ralph Fair Road to Saddle Song East.
- Work at the Preakness intersection. The work zone sits in the westbound lane at Preakness, and the intersection closes again. Eastbound-only operation continues. Detour: Preakness Lane, Ralph Fair Road, Saddle Song West.
- Full closure. Dietz Elkhorn closes east of Chartwell Lane and Saddle Song, with no access toward FM 3351. All traffic follows the posted detour on Ralph Fair Road, Saddle Song West and Saddle Song East.
The last setup is the only one where eastbound drivers also lose their direct route to FM 3351. The deck's summary describes an eastbound lane kept open at all times, but the step-by-step sheet includes this full closure. Neither city document gives dates for the individual steps. The setup you drive through this week depends on where the crew is working, not on the calendar.
The Preakness intersection is the one to watch. It opens and closes twice during Phase 1. Anyone who uses Preakness to get onto Dietz Elkhorn will have weeks when that turn works and weeks when it doesn't.
What the extra lanes of detour are paying for
The current road is 28 to 29 feet wide, with 11-foot lanes, a 5-foot paved shoulder on the north side and only 1 to 2 feet on the south side. The rebuilt road will be 32 feet wide, with the same 11-foot lanes and 5-foot paved shoulders on both sides. The south shoulder gets the biggest change, growing to more than double its current width. The work goes down to the base of the road. Culverts are replaced, the roadside is regraded, and most of the existing bar ditches stay. The city isn't buying any right of way, so the project stays within its current footprint.
The water line is the reason the road is getting rebuilt only once. The city bid the road work together with about 4,565 linear feet of new 12-inch water main so it wouldn't have to dig up a brand-new road later. The staff report says the main is sized to handle future service needs on the east side of the city. In December 2025, the developer of the Sovereign agreed to pay 25% of the water main portion. The main runs under the north shoulder. Comal.News describes the project as voter-funded.
The city received six proposals on June 16. D&D Contractors, Inc. had the lowest bid at $4,559,083.95. The other five ran from $4,836,391.47 up to $8,569,741.70. On July 2, council voted 7 to 0 to award the contract for up to $4,787,038.15, contingency included. At the same meeting, council told staff to use digital signs during the project and to look at a separate detour route for commercial vehicles to keep truck traffic out of residential streets.
Chartwell Lane is still undecided
Chartwell Lane is the one design question still open. It's also the intersection where the full closure in Phase 1 begins. The design that went out to bid includes dedicated left-turn lanes at Dietz Elkhorn and Chartwell. Council members raised concerns about those turn lanes on June 4. Staff then put two more options in front of council. One is a four-way stop with flashing intersection beacons, at an estimated added cost of about $1,000. The other is lowering the school-zone speed limit from 20 mph to 15 mph during school hours.
Staff also looked at running the beacon only during school hours. The Texas Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices doesn't allow that. A beacon would have to work as a full-time traffic control device. The open house deck says council plans to consider additional measures so vehicles can safely exit Chartwell Lane during school drop-off and pickup. In council records through the October 1 agenda, the research found no vote choosing between these options. For now, the final setup at Chartwell is still to be decided.
The west end of Dietz Elkhorn is a separate project. The city closed the stretch from Noble Lark Road to Fair Oaks Parkway for maintenance on Saturday, August 15. It picked a Saturday to avoid weekday school traffic near Van Raub Elementary School. That closure was a single day and isn't part of the year-long rebuild on the east segment.
Carts, mailboxes and the brush pile
For most homes on the corridor, day-to-day changes are small. The city's plan includes these points.
- Mail and packages: Most driveways and mailboxes stay where they are, and delivery continues as usual. One concrete driveway section will be replaced. Two custom mailboxes will be replaced with matching ones, and temporary mailboxes will be set up in the meantime.
- Trash and recycling: Put carts out in the usual spots. The contractor may move them for pickup and then put them back.
- Bulk and brush pickup: Residents on Dietz Elkhorn East are asked not to schedule bulk or brush pickup until their phase is back to two-way traffic.
The brush request lines up with the phase order. Homes near FM 3351 should get two-way traffic back first, and homes near Fair Oaks Parkway will wait longest.
The city doesn't post which Phase 1 setup is active. You can track it four ways. The project page posts schedule updates. The ClearGov capital project tracker shows progress. You can get email alerts by signing up for Notify Me, and emergency notices through Regroup.
If you're planning to sell or buy along Dietz Elkhorn before late summer 2027, which phase the house sits in will affect showings, photos and how buyers get there. Alexis Weigand Real Estate checks every listing and purchase timeline against the city's construction schedule. Schedule a consultation and we'll go through your timing phase by phase.
