GAINESVILLE, Texas — Traffic is moving through Cooke County again but only after the North Texas skies stopped dumping several inches of Thursday night rain and after road construction crews moved a few concrete barriers that were acting as unwelcome I-35 levies and trapping drivers on the highway for more than six hours.
A section of I-35 south of Gainesville is being widened, with traffic diverted to temporary lanes sometimes bound by concrete traffic barriers on both sides of the highway. Late Thursday night TXDOT said more rain fell in a short amount of time than the traffic barriers, equipped with rectangular drain holes at the bottom, could channel away.
"Late last night due to heavy rain along IH 35 in the construction area south of Gainesville the road had to be temporarily closed due to flooding," TXDOT says to WFAA in a written statement. " The contractor responded and removed some CTB to allow water off the road."
"These barriers prevented water from flowing properly around the 492-mile marker (Spring Creek). Water was over the roadway several feet," Cooke County Sheriff Ray Sappington told WFAA. "The construction company had to remove barriers one side at a time and give the water time to recede."
But for drivers like Marcus Origenes, who was driving from Gainesville to Denton, it was a six-hour wait for that water to recede. He was among thousands of drivers stuck in a backup that stretched several miles.
"There were periods of the time when we would inch forward and everyone would get really excited about then come to find out we were only moving a car's length and then we'd be stuck for another hour," he said. "It was definitely frustrating to have to sit there and the fact that it didn't seem like there was any solution."
By Friday morning the interstate was open in both directions and construction on the widening project resumed.