CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — We're at the corner of Carroll Lane and McArdle for a new Troubleshooters report.
There's a city street improvement project being worked on here, but for the past 3 weeks or so, a piece of heavy equipment being used in the project has been blocking the driveway of one of the nearby houses., making it inaccessible to the homeowner. There's also a school, Gloria Hicks Elementary, and a church, Southcrest Baptist, directly across the street.
The homeowners have called the Troubleshooters for help getting the piece of heavy equipment moved.
The city engineering department calls this street project, from Caroll to Kostoryz, a Road Bond Project, scheduled for completion by February 20-25.
But the Cordero family, who live in the house at the corner of Carroll and Mc Ardle, say they haven't been able to park in their driveway for at least the last 3 weeks because the large piece of equipment hasn't moved. It's just sitting there, according to Joaquin Cordero. "It was a lot higher than this, but it's slowly been dropping on its own. It was higher when they first parked it you're saying? A lot higher. Yes. And it's just been coming down on its own you're saying? Yes. How has that inconvenienced you and your family? Well, we have 5 vehicles that we need to park. And my dad usually parks in the back, and he can't even fit his truck anymore."
What makes this situation more concerning is the school and church directly across the street, and kids, being curious, like the student shown in the family's security cam video, are tempted to climb the stairs and sit in the cab.
The Troubleshooters showed the video to the city's engineering services department, and they responded with a statement that read in part..."There are multiple safeguards in place so that equipment can't be stolen or otherwise operated by an unqualified individual."
By the way, this particular piece of equipment in question is called, according to the engineering department, a cold planer or milling machine. It grinds up existing asphalt.
However, the Troubleshooters wanted to know if the city or the road contractor is responsible for notifying residents of the intent to park this heavy equipment while the project is ongoing. We asked Jeff Edmonds, Engineering Services Director. We should be making sure that the residents are informed that their access is in any way going to be impeded. So that's something that shouldn't happen without their knowledge.
Edmonds added that the project should be completed in February 2025. In the meantime, the Cordero family has parked their vehicles in front of their house, on the Carroll Lane side. But on Monday, March 11th, after the Troubleshooters made the city aware of this, the Cordero's called to let us know the machine had been moved enough for them to access their driveway on the Mc Ardle Street side, again.
That makes this another Troubleshooters case closed!
