HOUSTON – A bridge reconstruction project in Houston’s Spring Branch neighborhood has hit yet another speed bump along the way, further delaying its reopening.
The bridge that carries part of Campbell Road over a Harris County Flood Control District ditch has been closed since last October.
The Texas Department of Transportation is overseeing the project to bring much-needed repairs to the bridge. However, local business owners and residents who live nearby are paying the price - literally.
People who commute along the road are now faced with a detour of more than 10 minutes. For owners of businesses near the construction site, they’ve seen their sales plummet. Fast forward six months down the road, the bridge is complete, but it still hasn’t reopened to traffic.
“That bridge has been done for three weeks,” said Nasir Zulfiqar, who owns the Dairy Queen on Campbell Road.
He saw sales drop 60% after the bridge was closed. Since then, sales have rebounded, but he’s been forced to take out loans to keep the lights on and employees paid.
READ: Business at Spring Branch restaurant plummets thanks to road construction obstacles
“My sales drastically dropped because no traffic was going through, but slowly customers and everybody realized after months and months have gone by that there’s other routes to get over here and the word of mouth plus the social media, we posted a lot of stuff on there that helped us a lot,” he told KPRC 2’s Gage Goulding.
It took time, but his regular customers are finding their way to his parking lot.
“I go at least maybe one couple of times a week,” said Marie Munoz, who lives down the street in Spring Branch.
She has no other choice but to take the long way for her Blizzard. It’s the same way she goes to work, adding more time to her already long commute.
“If I don’t hit it a certain time It takes about 10 minutes longer,” she said.
The holdup, according to the Texas Department of Transportation, are back ordered railings. The contractor who’s building this bridge and two others as part of a bundle, placed an order for the metal railings in January, but there’s an issue with the manufacturing.
While they’ve put up temporary wooded railings for pedestrians, it’s not ready for cars yet.
“They can easily block this off and have the road open,” Zulfiqar said in rebuttal. “As you can see further down, there’s no railing in the whole sidewalk. They just want it here. This is very, very, very hard to absorb that my bridge is done, but I can’t drive over it. I can’t get my customers to come.”
The bridge, which was slated to reopen in March, is now scheduled to open in early May. According to TxDOT, the project is still within budget.
If you’d like to submit your thoughts on road projects or issues, you can talk directly with TxDOT here.
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