ROBSTOWN, Tx — County Road 44 in Robstown has been closed for over a year, forcing drivers to find alternate routes, but city leaders are now working on the road re-opening soon.
“It has been an inconvenience,” said John Reed, owner of Reed R.V. Park, located right next to County Road 44.
County Road 44 has been closed for over a year due to severe flooding and a corroded pipe.
“It has affected all the traffic that hasn’t been able to come and go, and it has really hurt us because we own the five acres next door. And it has potted our property in half we have not been able to access it,” Reed said.
Due to the closure, Reed said he now has to detour all the way around nearly two miles just to access the property located right next to him.
“All of our maintenance materials and limestones and sand and gravel we use to repair the roads — we have to have it delivered on this side of the property and stockpile it here, which is an inconvenience,” Reed said.
“It is unacceptable, it is not acceptable, I have been getting phone calls mostly every other day saying, 'when are you going to open the road,'” David Martinez, the Mayor of Robstown, said.
Martinez said that in order to move forward with the project, he needed extra hands on deck.
“The previous administration did not have the communications, so now that I became the mayor of the City of Robstown. I ran, I called Commissioner Marez, and I called the drainage people,” Martinez said.
Nueces County Commissioner Precinct Three John Marez said previously there were no signs of the project moving forward due to several reasons, mainly a financial factor.
“The road is actually within the city limits of Robstown, and it is also partially owned by the Nueces County Drainage District #2,” Marez said. “So, for Nueces County, it is not ours that we maintain, but because we do have federal funding allocated to us that is a project that I am wanting to partner with them.”
Marez said the project still needs to be approved by Commissioners Court, but he looks forward to working with city leaders to improve the area.
“They have the need. We have the funding, so it makes a great partnership to bring that together, and so that is what we are working on,” Marez said. ”In fact, today we had an update on that project and we are planning to move forward on it.”
Marez said the project will cost anywhere from $400,000 to $500,000 and the project still needs to be approved by Commissioners Court.
Marez said construction should start within the next few months and be completed by the summer.
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