It's going to be a traffic nightmare on the Gulf Freeway starting Friday night.
Crews with the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) will be closing the overpass at El Dorado at 9 p.m.—and it will remained closed through November. Construction will begin on a new overpass over I-45, so the main lanes will pass over El Dorado Boulevard.
Friday afternoon traffic was already starting to crawl.
"It's been terrible," said traveler Nicole Niles. "We live in Cypress and we're trying to get to Galveston; it's been a couple of hours.
"My wife was worried about how to get to work back and forth, because all this construction going on, makes it harder for everybody," said David Sierra, who lives nearby. "We know it needs to be done, though. But as far as I remember there's been construction going on here."
Vehicles traveling west on El Dorado to I-45 will turn right on the I-45 northbound frontage road and U-turn at Dixie Farm/ FM 1959 to access I-45 southbound exit and turn right on El Dorado.
TxDOT officials say the project is part of a $93 million renovation along the Gulf Freeway that includes widening the existing six lanes to 10.
