JEFFERSON COUNTY, Texas — The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) will be making changes to a construction zone, along Highway 365 near Hillebrandt Bayou Bridge.
They come weeks after 12News shared a head-on collision that left one man bloodied.
Hunter Hentrich was shaken-up after a vehicle hit him head-on while crossing the bridge almost a month ago.
For the last three months, the Hillebrandt Bayou Bridge has been reduced to one lane for construction.
It meant drivers had to stop and wait their turn at a red light on each side.
The lights have become an issue with drivers, which has led TxDOT to adjust.
Last week, they moved back the lights to give drivers more room to operate.
Now, they hope to install countdown timers on the temporary lights.
"Hopefully those will be in sometime later this week, so we'll be able to get those installed," said Sarah Dupre, Public Information Officer forTxDOT. "That way, it will give people a little bit of an idea of how much longer they'll have to wait and hopefully increase some of that patience."
Horace Brown lives in La Belle and tells 12News he drives over the bridge twice a day.
Brown said "I think it's a needed project because the bridge is very old and very narrow, so I think it will be very beneficial in the long run."
TxDOT has received a number of complaints about the lights not working.
However, Tucker Ferguson who is the Beaumont District Engineer for TxDOT, said on Wednesday that the lights would blink if they malfunctioned.
He added that TxDOT has not received any reports of that happening.
Multiple wrecks have been reported at this construction site in just a short time, with a some as a result of drivers getting impatient according to TxDOT.
Brown encourages drivers to endure the construction and not put themselves in danger.
"I think the red lights and green lights are working properly, they're about three to four minutes wait time which is not really that bad," said Brown. "It's just some people are getting impatient, they don't realize how long the wait is."
12News tested the wait time on Wednesday and found that the lights run red for nearly four minutes while going green for one minute.
"We have been trying to get as much information out to the community as possible, I think people are starting to get used to the lights," said Dupre. "We are still seeing some issues with drivers running the red light."
TxDOT tells us that the Hillebrandt Bayou Bridge will remain one lane for approximately 15 months, before expanding back to two lanes while they finish the project.