HUMBLE, Texas — Amazon cart deliveries have been shut down at a warehouse in Humble.
In a story you’ll only see on KHOU 11, there have been changes after we highlighted community frustrations about big rigs causing major traffic issues.
The City’s Police Chief Ken Theis said things were actually going according to plan for about a week until a technology glitch with a dispatch center occurred.
Deliveries are indefinitely shut at the warehouse for the moment but it doesn’t mean this area is through dealing with big rigs.
In the heart of Humble sits Rankin Road. As of Thursday night traveling is a bit easier than the past few days.
“This is something I assure you nobody had planned and nobody wanted the roadways to get blocked,” Chief Theis said.
One day after we reported on community concerns about the 18-wheelers causing traffic and being in residential areas we met with Chief Theis.
He said they found out about the issue Tuesday morning. Theis reached out to Marsden Services, who is leasing the warehouse to Amazon. Marsden Services is not the owner of the warehouse.
“None of us could get ahold of a dispatch center that was able to reroute the trucks. It’s taken us about a day and a half to finally make contact,” Chief Theis said.
They learned the warehouse has capacity for 80-100 trucks per day.
“Due to a third party dispatching service, the dispatching didn’t get regulated properly and they ended up with closer to 1,000 trucks dispatched to this location,” Chief Theis said.
This is why residents have seen issues the past few days.
“The roads aren’t designed for heavy truck flow trying to get in and out of a building,” Chief Theis said.
Thursday morning the city shut down deliveries to the area indefinitely and several trucks being rerouted to Brookshire.
If you sit at Rankin Road you’ll still see some 18-wheelers and a bit of traffic backup.
Humble City Manager Jason Stube said this is due to Amazon being unable to recall trucks already en route.
The last anticipated surge is Friday morning.
“He and the Mayor made it clear said the impact to the residential areas is not going to be tolerated,” Chief Theis said.
Right now, city leaders and Amazon are working on a plan to address what they anticipate traffic looking like when the back log is fixed.
This means there will still be 18-wheelers driving on Rankin road but at a pace in which it shouldn’t hold up traffic.
If any issues arise Chief Theis said city leaders will address it.