CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — For the next two nights, the Texas Department of Transportation will be closing the entire JFK Causeway for 30 minutes at a time, to the dismay of Padre Island residents.
"It's just irritating to shut down the traffic,” said resident Marvin Jones. “Generally, people that have been here awhile plan ahead. Do your grocery shopping a day or two in advance. Get all your errands done. Stay home."
Jones said he understands why the closures – happening Monday night through Wednesday morning – are necessary, but said such closures are still a pain.
"No doubt that'll irritate people, once again, but I'd rather have myself being irritated than the bridge breaking," he said.
TxDOT Public Information Officer Rickey Dailey said the closure is necessary so crews can put heavy-duty pads in between the concrete pillars and the concrete cross beams. To do this, the entire bridge will need to be raised a couple of feet.
That's why both directions must be closed.
Everyone knows when there's work being done on the bridge or a special event, sometimes even Spring Break, people may be stuck on The Island until there's an opening. But 3NEWS checked with TxDOT to see how long this maintenance project is going to last.
"We're working with the contractor right now on a schedule update but we expect the work to be done on the top of the bridge within the next month or two,” Dailey said. “We were going to have all lanes open at the beginning of hurricane season. That's June the first. Looks like we may push a little bit into that. And these will be just daily lane closures, and if anything comes up in the gulf, these lane closures would be with barrels. We could quickly remove them and have all four lanes open."
In the meantime, residents and shift workers, be prepared to wait for the next couple of nights.