LUMBERTON, Texas — The Texas Department of Transportation held its first public meeting Tuesday to get input from Southeast Texans on the future location of their proposed evacuation route.
TxDOT's Beaumont District is proposing a US 69 relief route with the intentions of providing a route to support safe and efficient north to south movement of people and goods between Beaumont and Woodville, according to TxDOT's website.
The project would stretch approximately 20.2 miles from Cooks Lake Road, which is south of Lumberton, to FM 1003, which is north of Kountze, in Hardin County.
US 69 runs from Port Arthur to Denison, Texas and is designated as a hurricane evacuation route.
Community members, truck drivers, council members, farmers and more gathered Tuesday to discuss their concerns over flooding, construction and traffic.
"I don't think anyone can really argue about the need for it," said Lumberton resident of 38 years, David Desormeaux.
Desormeaux has seen a lot of new development in the decades living in Lumberton, but his concern with this proposed route, is flooding.
"This needs to be elevated, not just building up road ways, it needs to be elevated on bridges. From Cooks Lake Road, all the way across 421, it needs to be a series of bridges, where the only thing that affects waterflow, is pylons," he said.
The exact route is still undecided. TxDOT officials are considering four locations and feedback from these public meetings could help them settle on the right spot.
Sarah Dupre with TxDOT encourages everyone to provide input.
"People who live here, people who drive through this area, we want them to all come and tell us what they think about these different routes," Dupre said.
She says the more feedback, the better and everything and everyone is considered.
"US 69 is a very vital corridor for our area, it's tremendously important when it comes to hurricane evacuation, very important for freight movement as well, we want to provide the best system for our area that we can," Dupre said.
Construction won't begin until 2035.
"And I think it can be a pretty good plan, if they will do that," Desormeaux said.
RELATED: TxDOT inviting public to help pick location of proposed US 69 Lumberton-Kountze relief route
Beaumont resident for 36 years, Dawn Singleton, previously told 12News for Hurricane Rita, she along with her daughter, 2-week-old grand baby and four children were stuck on the road trying to evacuate.
"It was very putt putt going, you know people were stopping and going, you know we didn't get very far at all at any particular time," Singleton said.
She says it took 12 hours to get to Lufkin when it usually takes two hours.
"It was very congested. I worry about that now, being that 69 is pretty much got all that construction going on," Singleton said.
The US 69 relief route would include a new location roadway that would require 325 feet of right-of-way width.
The ultimate roadway will include two 12-foot lanes in each direction, a northbound 13-foot outside shoulder to be used as a hurricane evacuation lane and a southbound 10-foot outside shoulder, according to the website.
The project will also include a two-lane frontage road in each direction. Bicycle and pedestrian accommodations will be considered.
Dupree previously told 12News this is very important for hurricane evacuation among other things.
"It's also very important for freight movement. The Lumberton, the Kountze area, they're both getting very congested," Dupre said.
Dupree says this is going to be a completely different roadway.
"This is going to be a relief route around Lumberton, around Kountze and it's going to be controlled access," she said.
TxDOT wants your input to help choose their new roadway route, which you can do through their interactive map.
"We're looking at several different alignments, so we need people to go online and let us know how they feel about that," Dupree said. "Whether you might have property in that area, whether you might travel that area, whatever it may be, drop those pins let us know your comments about that proposed alignment."
TxDOT representatives are hosting another meeting in Kountze for those who missed Tuesday's meeting.
- Kountze Public Meeting
Thursday, May 4, 2023, 6 to 8 p.m.
Kountze High School - Gymnasium
1488 FM 1293
Kountze, TX 77625
The virtual public meeting will provide the same materials as well, including providing a pre-recorded video presentation.
Comments must be received or postmarked on or before Friday, May 19, 2023, to be a part of the official meeting record.
- Online: Comment form
- Online engagement Site
- Email: bmtprojects@txdot.gov
- Mail: Texas Department of Transportation, US 69 Lumberton Kountze Relief Route, 8350 Eastex Freeway, Beaumont, Texas 77708