ORANGE, Texas — The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is sharing the news that the two construction projects along Interstate 10 in Orange County won't be completed for another three years.
TxDOT shares that crews are 11 months behind their original schedule.
Work started on the stretch between Adams Bayou and the Sabine River back in 2014.
One business owner who works just off of I-10 about a mile from Adams Bayou says he's lost customers because they can't get to him.
"We've lost a lot of our Louisiana business. We got construction on Louisiana side and on the Texas side now," said Owner of The Horseman's Store Gordon Worlow.
He knows all about how much of a headache construction along I-10 can be.
"They started the reconstruction of the Sabine River bridge out there. And that was a long process which nearly put us out," Worlow said.
The Horseman's Store is located in the middle of Adams Bayou and the Sabine River, surrounded by the two construction projects.
"That off ramp has just opened back up. It's been closed for a year and a half so they had to exit back on the other side of 16th street," said Worlow.
TxDOT officials tell 12News the first project to reconstruct I-10 began in 2014 and was supposed to be done in 2018. The second project, to widen the highway from four lanes to six started, in 2020 and was supposed to be done in 2024.
Both are now slated to finish in 2026.
"In spring of 2016 immense floods hit Southeast Texas and Orange, flooding Interstate 10. Then in October of 2016 it was found that water and sewer was not accommodated for the travel center that went through a core of engineer permit process," TxDOT Engineer for Orange and Jasper County Bryce Broussard said to the Orange City Council.
He blames everything from floods to pandemics.
"Each month the contractor submits a schedule. So we go through that and make sure nothing has changed or moved," said Broussard.
But for Worlow, and other business owners in the area, that's another three years customers will have to suffer.
"We've had people call us asking us to stay later because their trying to get to us. Trying to figure out how to get to us, it's been a challenge," Worlow said.
TxDOT says COVID and supply shortages have also played a role in construction delays for these two projects.