HOUSTON – Road construction in Spring Branch is tearing up business at a local restaurant.
The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) began tearing up the old Campbell Road bridge near Emnora Road in Spring Branch last fall.
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According to documents obtained by KPRC 2, the bridge spans a Harris County Flood Control District ditch.
Since then, the owner of the Dairy Queen nearby says he’s seen a 60% drop in business.
Gage Goulding: “How do you afford to pay your employees and keep your lights on?”
Nasir Zulfiqar: “Two months ago, I got a personal loan and we got that loan to pay my employees because I don’t want to let them go. I’m paying them out of pocket. I haven’t collected a paycheck for the last four months myself.”
The reason: it’s too difficult for customers to get to the restaurant thanks to the construction.
Nasir Zulifqar owns the ice cream shop and restaurant that’s been in the community for more than 50 years.
He says that a supervisor on the job said the work would be done in 40 days. That was back in October. Fast forward three months, and the work is still ongoing.
“This is probably going to put me out of business if it doesn’t open in the next month or so,” he said.
A TxDOT Spokesperson told KPRC 2 over the phone that the project did hit some snags along the way, including design flaws and rain, which rendered the construction site unable to be worked on for days at a time.
The project is part of a bigger slate of work including rebuilding three area bridges.
“I’ll see em maybe one day and they’ll disappear for, like, 4 or 5 days,” Zulfiqar said.
Those crew members are working on at least two of the nearby bridge rebuild sites.
According to TxDOT, a project like this would take four months to complete - not 40 days. The spokesperson couldn’t confirm who relayed that information to local business owners.
However, after the delays, the bridge is expected to reopen in March.
