Hutto residents frustrated over road conditions, county response
HUTTO, TEXAS - As the population grows, construction booms in Hutto.
"This is going to be nothing but dump trucks and excavation for years," said Serena Balch, who lives in the Lookout at Brushy Creek neighborhood along the border of Williamson and Travis counties. "So this is just going to get worse and worse."
Balch and other residents have been frustrated with road conditions in and surrounding their neighborhood. Balch showed FOX 7 Austin cracks, dips and potholes in the road, some of which have resulted in flat tires and even injury.
The recurring cracks and drainage issues may be due to the type of land they sit on.
"There's no rock," said Balch. "This is all just dirt and old farmland."
A couple of years ago, a pothole that supposedly had been fixed caused Balch’s son to flip his motorcycle.
"I had a couple of neighbors say, ‘We called that pothole in, but it had rained, and it pushed everything out, and then he was driving and caught it and broke his clavicle," said Balch. "Everything's just a temporary fix."
Another area of concern for a while was a large dip on the road she lives on, Comanche Circle. It was filled the week before 7 On Your Side stopped by.
"You would have bottomed out and hit your head," said Balch. "But it's still a dip. So they didn't fill it in properly, in my opinion."
Another resident echoed what Balch said in an email to FOX 7.
"I banged my head on the ceiling going the speed limit," he said, describing the dip before it was fixed.
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Adding to the confusion, a couple of the nearby roads are split by the county line.
"So you have to figure out who you're calling to begin with," said Balch.
Residents are asking for more transparency and a more efficient system.
"It’d be nice to have…some type of website that shows the calls and where they happened and that they are scheduled…not only would it help us, but it would also help them cut down on their calls," said Balch. "And if the website showed, we're going to temporarily fix it because we have plans in the future to completely redo those roads, that would at least help us understand why you're just filling a pothole for it to basically wash away in the rain."
Williamson County encompasses most of the area of concern. FOX 7 Austin reached out to Williamson County requesting information about upcoming projects and road maintenance protocols and is still waiting to hear back.