Residents say temporary road patch is creating nuisance for SW Houston neighbors, hazard for drivers

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Residents of a southwest Houston neighborhood say a concrete hump has become a hazard for drivers and a noisy nuisance for nearby homeowners.

The strip of asphalt is a couple of feet wide and spans all four lanes of Willowbend Boulevard between Manhattan Drive and Chimney Rock.

"It's very loud," nearby homeowner Alexis Townsend told ABC13.

Townsend's home isn't far from the new addition in the road. She said the road used to have a large crack, so when she saw the asphalt covering it up late last week, she was happy to see some neighborhood improvement.

"I thought, 'Oh, they fixed the road, that's great,' and then the next morning, I figured out it was not so great," Townsend said.

Willowbend Boulevard is a four-lane thoroughfare where, oftentimes, Townsend said she sees people going well above the posted 30-mile-an-hour speed limit. With no signage announcing the hump in the road, she said zippy drivers are often caught off guard.

"They catch air. You see a lot of airborne trailers and trucks go by. It's very loud," Townsend said.

Eyewitness News contacted the city, which confirmed that Houston Public Works laid the asphalt last week. A city spokesperson said in an email that it's a temporary patch for a road buckle and that crews are scheduled to return Tuesday to try to even it out.

"Instead of actually fixing the problem, it's maybe caused more commotion because people are going by as quickly as they used to," Townsend said.

It's a needed fix that Townsend says will hopefully bring quiet back to his road and save a few drivers from the surprise lift-off.

"They don't know to slow down, so if anything, it's just causing more issues," Townsend said.

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