AUSTIN COUNTY, Texas — Many drivers last weekend spent up to five hours on a bridge between Sealy and Brookshire, and they say they didn't get a warning that the construction delay was coming.
Some people called it the worst back up on I-10 they’ve ever seen in Austin County.
One of the frustrated drivers stuck in the gridlock wrote in to KHOU 11 News for help.
Drivers blocked by the brake lights resorted to illegal detours on the freeway near the Brazos River all weekend.
“The (Texas) DPS was pulling (and) giving tickets,” Stephanie Ashley, a witness said. “People were desperate.”
However, it is the Texas Department of Transportation apologizing for warnings missing in action.
“We certainly can do better,” said TxDOT spokesperson Deidrea George. “I’m not saying there was a breakdown in communication because two different districts are working together. We just have to do a better job.”
TxDOT engineers found problems with asphalt in the outer eastbound lane of I-10 near the river, George said.
It needed near immediate repair, which required one of the highway’s two lanes to close while crews work every weekend for the next month. TxDOT received one week’s notice, George said.
Combined with another TxDOT district’s project closer to FM 1489, nine miles of freeway narrowed into one with concrete barriers on either of drivers.
One KHOU 11 News viewer stuck there for three hours Saturday sent an email calling it a public safety hazard.
“You don’t know what’s going to happen,” Ashley said. “You don’t know how fast you’re going to move, how long you’re going to be sitting there and you may have an emergency and could be stuck.”
So, KHOU 11 News called TxDOT for answers and solutions.
“We thank you for bringing it to our attention,” George said. “We also did received a few calls into our office. So they’re working on operations right now.”
The department plans to get more and better signage up to warn drivers and send officers to the construction zone to better guide people through.
Until then, it is on drivers to use a mix of DriveTexas.org and Houston Transtar maps to work out their own legal detours.
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