Get ready for Spring Break, Corpus Christi! More than 880,000 people looking for fun things to do will soon be checking into your hotels, filling up your restaurants, shopping in your stores and playing on the beaches. They will also be clogging your roadways, leaving behind trash and keeping you awake with the beat, beat, beat of their drums.
“We are expecting another busy Spring Break for 2014,” said Ashley Higson, Communications Director of the Corpus Christi Convention and Visitors Bureau. “We happily anticipate an increase in visitors over last year.”
The almost 900,000 people who came last year spent $23.4 million, says Higson. They occupied 96 percent of the area’s hotels, while area attractions reported record-breaking attendance. This year, the biggest influx of visitors is expected during the week of March 7-16.
The hoards will begin to load up the Hwy 361 ferry and back up traffic on Park Road 22 around 2 p.m. Friday, March 7. The highest traffic throughout the entire week will be between 5 and 8 p.m. each day.
Residents have mixed feelings, but are mostly positive about the onslaught of college kids looking to unwind. Schools on break that week include the University of Texas campuses at Austin and San Antonio, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi and the local independent school districts.
“It’s an exciting time for our community,” said Chris Duff of Re/Max Real Estate. “It’s great for business, but troublesome when it comes to traffic. You just have to find your way to work around them.”
Duff commended the Corpus Christi Police Department for the work it has done in the last several years to alleviate snarled traffic.
Port Aransas and Corpus Christi officials plan ahead and load up on orange cones, traffic barrels and new strategies for traffic control.
“We have two different plans this year,” said Port Aransas Chief of Police Scott Burroughs. “We’ve got one for the beach and one for the highway.”
On the highway, Access Roads 1 and 1A will be set up with delayed entry to push northbound Island Road (Hwy 361) traffic further along before cars can enter the beach.
“When the traffic starts backing up in town, we’ll open up 1 and 1A, and when it bleeds off, we’ll close them back down,” Burroughs said. Delayed access on 1 and 1A will not be in effect on Monday and Tuesday of spring break week, just the other days.
On the beach, traffic barrels will better define the beach road, especially between markers 19-35, where no bollards are installed. Parking will also be restricted to between traffic barrels.
All police officers will be working 12 hours on, 12 hours off, with no leave throughout the nine days. DPS, Parks and Wildlife and the Texas Alcohol Beverage Commission are all sending in extra officers for the week.
Despite the inconvenience, Coastal Bend residents take spring breakers as a necessary part of life on the beach.
“I just think it’s exciting that people look toward our town to come and hang out when they have time off,” Duff said. “It’s a great place for family vacation. We want them to come here, rather than go somewhere else. It brings a crazy atmosphere, but it’s a lot of fun.”
Chief Burroughs noted that 96 percent of the crowd is well behaved and most of the rest straighten up when told the rules.
“Business owners like it, some of the locals leave town for the week, the rest grin and bear it and people watch,” he said.
