A portion of Loop 288 is set to close as the Denton County Transportation Authority begins construction on an overpass for its passenger rail project, the A-train.

Starting Wednesday, DCTA officials plan to close about 750 feet of the two center lanes of Loop 288, between Colorado Boulevard and Brinker Road, so bridge piers can be built in the median. The closure is expected to last through mid-May.

“That’s barring any crazy weather conditions,” said Dee Leggett, vice president of communications and planning for DCTA. “But the weather hasn’t impacted us at all, considering all the rain and cold weather we have had.”

Leggett said officials are sensitive to community concerns about closures to Loop 288 only a few months after the Texas Department of Transportation completed its three-year widening project.

Leggett said project planners anticipate much of the traffic will spill over onto side roads, and the main lanes of Loop 288 will be able to accommodate any traffic pattern changes. The closure will be a headache, she said, but one that officials hope they will minimize by closing only the two center lanes.

“Obviously, Loop 288 is a major thoroughfare. We are trying to keep impacts to a minimum, [realizing] the headaches the community has experienced, but we have to close those lanes. There’s no way around it,” Leggett said.

Another longstanding issue with the rail project is negotiating water line relocation with the city. Leggett said the two parties are close to a final agreement.

“We’re working out the timing so we’re not impacting the city’s water supply,” she said. “We wouldn’t want to locate them during the heat of the summer.”

The construction slowdown in Denton is not impacting the project’s milestone deadlines, Leggett said.

“We’ve been able to negotiate with our contractor, and had a resequencing of construction activities so the overall project budget has not been impacted,” she said.

When it’s finished, the A-train commuter line will extend 21 miles from downtown Denton to Carrollton.

Officials are still confident they will open the Medpark Station in Denton in the spring of 2011 and have access to downtown Denton in the summer of 2011.

In 2006, DCTA moved up its projected date for Denton service from 2013 to 2010, but has since decided to launch the A-train with a “phased implementation of service” beginning in the south end of the corridor in December 2010.

With each lane or road closure related to the rail line construction, DCTA has a communication plan to go with it. These include message boards alongside the roads to alert the public to traffic changes and e-mail alerts that people can sign up for on the DCTA Web site.

“Loop 288 has been one of those that I wish we could avoid impacting because the citizens have just now gotten it back open, but there’s no way to avoid it,” Leggett said.

BJ LEWIS can be reached at 940-566-6875. His e-mail address is blewis@dentonrc.com .