The Chronicle‘s Rad Sallee investigated a reader complaint at the end of today’s Move It column:
Speaking of Richmond, Dave Waltrip and Tracy Ferguson wondered when work on the road near the West Loop will end.
“In March they put up concrete barriers blocking out the inside lane going west,” Waltrip said. “This was supposed to be for a month, according to the electronic sign.
“So each afternoon the traffic going west must squeeze down to three lanes, and it backs up. Work started in earnest, and they did repave two turn lanes. However weeks went by and no work was done. Now it is like they work on this project periodically.”
Ferguson also had a safety concern. “They have turned four lanes into three, two straight-ahead and one left-turn. Those in the left-turn lane seem to ignore the arrow and go straight ahead,” she said.
Texas Department of Transportation spokeswoman Janelle Gbur says workers were installing a water line at the site when they ran into a storm sewer line not shown in the plans. “The unexpected utility and the work associated with it did extend the contract duration,” she said.
TxDOT engineer Doug Stephens said the intersection is being repaved and should be finished by mid-August.
As to safety, TxDOT spokesman Norm Wigington said a traffic study indicates that “additional signage and lane modifications may be needed to enforce the mandatory left-turn lane.”
Interestingly, as of this morning, TXDOT’s solution was to steal another lane from Richmond and exacerbate the problem described by Sallee’s correspondent (see photo). That was a curveball we didn’t see coming after the comments from Gbur, Stephens, and Wigington.
