When the Texas Department of Transportation announced plans to build an overpass from Hwy. 90A to FM 359 that would run over the Union Pacific Corp. railroad crossing, commuters and local business owners were told it would help alleviate congestion in the area.

TxDOT officials have said the bridge is a necessity due to the fact that with Richmond’s growth, traffic volume will inevitability increase. However, one year into construction, the $27 million overhaul has some local business owners frustrated with the implications of the project and the effects it has had on their livelihood.

“With any construction project, there will be adverse effects to the traveling public during construction, but [once] the project is completed and the at-grade crossing becomes an elevated bridge, [it] will reduce congestion and improve safety in the area,” TxDOT public information officer Deidrea George said.

90A and FM 359 construction

After the project was delayed due to some easement issues, Zachary Construction broke ground along a 1.7-mile stretch of Hwy. 90A and a half-mile stretch of FM 359 in June 2016.

George said the existing Hwy. 90A has two lanes that run north to south, but once the project is completed, two additional inside lanes will be added to connect to the FM 359 overpass in a T intersection where both roads will cross. Continuous lanes will still be available for drivers to continue on Hwy. 90A.

According to George, the project consists of five phases, and the overpass will be done in two separate phases. Early phases shifted traffic outside to allow for construction of the bridge.

Workers are in Phase 3A on Hwy. 90A, and the eastbound frontage road has been completed and is open to traffic. The westbound frontage road will be completed once the bridge is also finished. FM 359 is in Phase 2B, which entails construction to the south and northbound frontage roads. Future phases will bring the total number of lanes on Hwy. 90A to six while FM 359 will still have four.

According to TxDOT, the elevated overpass will help with traffic jams in the area. The vehicles per day traffic count for each highway is estimated to significantly increase over the next few years. Projected numbers of vehicles per day on FM 359 by 2035 is 28,300 and 40,100 for Hwy. 90A, according to TxDOT. With 36 percent of the time allotted for the project used, TxDOT officials said about 44 percent of the project is already complete.

Business owner woes

The project is expected to be finished by May 2019, leaving local business owners with still more than two years of construction to go.

Sam Roayaee has co-owned the Auto Check auto repair store off Hwy. 90 at the corner of FM 359 for four years. Roayaee said since construction began, his store has lost half of his customer in-store visits.

“We have so many problems [because of the construction],” Roayaee said. “We don’t know what we are going to do yet.”

Roayaee said one of the biggest effects of the construction is having to redirect customers to his store.

“They did not [provide] any U-turn for us—we had a U-turn in front of our shop [and in front of] O’Reilly, and they closed all of them,” he said.

According to TxDOT, Fort Bend County handles the procurement of all the necessary right of way and easement parcels required for the construction of the project and then is reimbursed 90 percent of the cost.

One of Roayaee’s neighbors, Richard Spaulding, is another business owner in the area that has experienced setbacks due to the construction. Spaulding has worked as a manager of Integrity Tire & Auto Care for one year and said his business is off historically by about 20 percent.

“There’s no question, there has been some impact,” Spaulding said. “It’s quite an endeavor sometimes to get across the traffic, (and) you can’t see the oncoming traffic coming from Richmond.”

Similar to Roayaee, Spaulding said his biggest complaint is limited access to his business.

“They did a poor job at creating entrances into the business,” Spaulding said. “They are all way too steep. I have a lot of customers that can’t pull in without bottoming out.”

Farther down and along the other side of Hwy. 90, Clem Galvan, owner of Galvan’s Sausage House, said even though he sympathizes with local owners, he sees the construction as a means to a better end for everyone in the area.

“When there’s construction going on, it changes the routine but that is part of growth,” Galvan said. “Construction is automatically going to affect things for a while, but it’s an inconvenience you have to put up with.”

Galvan said even though he sees the construction as a Richmond growing pain, he does agree that some aspects of the project could have been better carried out. Like most business owners in the area, Galvan’s No. 1 complaint is how construction has affected access to his restaurant.

“The drainage ditches [are] inconvenient the way they did it,” Galvan said. “When the vehicles want to come off the road, they only have so much to room to come into the driveway.”

The one business owner who argues he is the most adversely affected by the construction is Frank Nunez, owner of Frank’s Nursery, a garden and landscaping center.

“This is the most frustrating time of my life,” Nunez said.

For the last 20 years, Nunez’s formerly 14-acre nursery used to be a place of routine business. Once construction started, Nunez said his business has been turned upside down and he has had to fight to keep it up and running.

“My sales [have] been affected anywhere from 25-40 percent overall,” Nunez said. “I have complaints from customers every single day.”

On a slow day, Nunez said he would see at least 100 customers per day. On more typical days, Frank’s Nursery sees about 300 to 400 customers a day.

Prior to construction, Nunez said he had three entrances to accommodate the high number of 18-wheelers and regular traffic coming in and out of his business. Now, he only has one narrow entrance at the far edge of his property.

Aside from the entrance issues Nunez shares with other local owners, he has had to rebuild and relocate his store and several greenhouses farther back onto his property to meet state demands.

Nunez said although the project will take another two years to complete, he is hopeful things will improve in the next few months.

Despite the effects construction has inevitably caused for some local businesses, officials from the city and Fort Bend County said the growing pains will be well worth it in the end.

“With the population increase in Richmond and surrounding areas, along with FM 359 serving as a major north-south corridor to [the Grand Parkway], the county recognized long ago how essential it would be to move traffic over the very active Union Pacific railroad tracks,” said Howard Christian, public works director for the city of Richmond. “While the short term is painful, the benefit of the FM 359 [and] Hwy. 90 construction will be felt by businesses as future streamlined traffic flow will encourage continued support of services and purchases in Richmond.”