CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Island residents are going to be experiencing traffic delays soon as the $9 million dollar JFK Causeway rehab project is set to begin.
The Texas Department of Transportation is going to be making repairs to the bridge surface and its support structure.
A TxDOT official told city council today that the bridge has suffered concrete damage over the years that needs to be repaired.
Also, the road surface needs an overlay applied to prolong its life.
The causeway was built back in 1973 and some 30,000 cars go over it each day.
This is going to be a 19 month project which will see one lane closed in each direction beginning in December and running through May.
City Manager Peter Zanoni said "May" is the cutoff date as summer tourism and hurricane season kicks into high gear.
"If the contractor doesn't get their work done at that point and they're going to have to do it next year, we want all lanes open,” Zanoni said.
A number of council members had concerns over the lane closures that are going to take place during spring break.
The period has historically produced large crowds and councilman Mike Pusley said he didn't want the council to be blamed for the closure during that period of heavy traffic.