‘There ought to be consequences’: This Houston man is suing the state over nearby roadwork that has dragged on for 10 years, costing him customers and a business

Edwards has run Motorcars Limited, his restoration shop for luxury and classic cars, on Hempstead Road since the mid ’80s. As he shared with KHOU, it used to be full of cars. Now it’s nearly empty. It’s hard for customers to drive in.

That’s because for 10 years, Hempstead Road has been under construction with repeated roadwork delays and no end date in sight. Edwards has not only lost customers but had to sell a commercial property across the street when all his tenants moved out due to the disruption.

As for his auto body shop, “I can’t sell it. I can’t rent it. I can’t do anything with it.”

Now he’s filed an “inverse condemnation” lawsuit against TxDOT seeking compensation for lost profits and business damages.

Meanwhile, the road construction is also costing the state a lot of money. TxDOT has to pay for ongoing delays with tax dollars. What is TxDOT doing to recover the cost of delays?

State charges, then refunds, road contractors for cost of delays

KHOU reported that when a roadwork project is past due, the state is within its right to charge the contractor damages. In the case of the roadwork outside Edwards’ business, those damages amount to $1.7 million.

But as the news outlet discovered, as soon as TxDOT charges contractors for these damages, it regularly reverses course and waives the costs, crediting money back to the same contractors.

In the past three years, TxDOT charged roadwork contractors $88 million in damages, but credited them back $39 million. In some cases, the credits were almost equal to the damages, essentially negating the cost to contractors.

“There ought to be consequences,” said Adrian Shelley of the government watchdog group Public Citizen. “If there’s no consequences for delays, they’re going to keep happening, right? It’s that simple."

TxDOT Executive Director Marc Williams told KHOU that contractors are not being let off the hook, but that contractors dispute the damages, claiming legitimate reasons for delays, like bad weather.

“We work very hard to hold those contractors accountable,” he said. “We want the projects … to be done right, to be done on time, but we also are fair.”

What can small business owners do?

But Edwards doesn’t think TxDOT is being fair to business owners.

“I don’t think it’s acceptable at all,” he said.