Residents frustrated by Pearce Lane closure

Neighbors in the Los Cielos neighborhood in Del Valle are upset because of a road closure they believe is for no apparent reason. They say it's causing commercial traffic to speed through residential streets, and with Formula One coming up, it'll be even worse. Seven On Your Side reporter Angela Shen joining us live in studio with the details. Angela? Yeah, the project started in summer of 2025 and is about 50% done. It's expected to wrap up in early 2028, but for someone who's driving by it for the first time, it is somewhat jarring to see a road blocked off that looks fine to drive on. The Los Cielos neighborhood, there are lots of detour signs because of a closure on Pierce Lane. We're having to deal with lots of traffic, 18 wheelers cutting through the neighborhood, people running stop signs, basically people wrecking into cars and not stopping in the neighborhood. Where I live at, Alomar and Pierce, they just run that stop sign all day and I actually got hit by a car about two weeks ago. Trish Burton says it takes her 30 to 45 minutes to get out of the neighborhood to go to work. So it affects all of our community, not just a few people that use that entrance and exit. So we're having a lot of broken mirrors, a lot of wrecks, a lot of parking where it's not supposed to be because both sides of the road are posted, no parking either side. The closure is because of the Ross Road Construction Project, which will add lanes, bike lanes, sidewalks, and have drainage improvements. This section of Pierce Lane is blocked off, but there's not any construction equipment here. It's quiet. The city says that's because they're waiting on a developer to work on a water line. So we have to be done for them to come in, and that transition is happening right now, but during the transition, you know, the whole project team and the developer didn't want to like pick up the traffic barricades for like a couple of weeks and then put them back we feel like that might have been even more disruptive to the residents so why it looks like nothing's happening stuff is happening in the background but the barricades could still be up for months the developers um schedule timeline is roughly like three to four months. So the hope is that we will open this intersection up as soon as they're done with their work. The city says the detour signs in the neighborhood are for residents and commercial traffic should be following signs and detour on Elroy. And I noticed the signs. Now I noticed that some of them probably could be placed better and so that we will revisit that. Neighbors say they've called 911 and 311 about people speeding through the residential streets but nothing changes because the cars go by so fast. I think I can visit with the project team and see if we can make some of the 3-1-1 calls for the residents. More traffic in the neighborhood also means less business for the Breadbasket convenience store, which is right by the closed section of Pierce Lane. The manager there says people carelessly turn around in the gas station, and he says he's lost 60% of business because of the road closure. I think the traffic is way too much and it causes a lot of problems and it's just been chaos lately. With Formula One coming up and kids trick-or-treating on Halloween, residents are worried the traffic will be even worse. Just open up Pierce Lane. Just open up Pierce Lane is all you got to do to ease the traffic through our neighborhood for the kids' safety, for our safety. So we're having conversations now to maybe they can start, you know, further east on Pierce Lane. that way we allow the intersection to open and just close part of the road for their work and then after F1 they can close the intersection so we are in conversations to help alleviate with that and in the neighborhood a lot of cars have also parked onto the grass to avoid getting hit there are also areas where you can't park so buses can pass by the city says they understand the frustration but the roads will be better when the project is done the funding for this came from the 2020 mobility bond. Alec. Angela, is there any chance those barriers could be picked up and put back when the water line workers come? It could change. The city says that's part of the conversation they're having with the developer. Back to you. Thanks, Angela.