MCLENNAN COUNTY, Texas (KXXV) — Residents along Tom Ledbetter Road near Woodway are concerned about clouds of dust kicked up by heavy truck traffic on their partially paved street, saying the constant dust is affecting their health and property. They say this has been an issue for years.
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The road in Precinct 4 serves as a route for trucks heading to a sand and gravel plant at the end of the street. With only partial paving, nearly every passing vehicle creates dust clouds that settle on homes, lawns.
"When they drive, they drive through, it picks it up and it brings it, just makes a cloud of dust that comes into our house onto our property onto our homes, onto our lawn and it just creates a very bad environment for us right here where we're at," Angel Rojas said.
Rojas said the dust is killing his grass despite daily watering efforts. He's trying to establish a soccer league on his large property, but the constant dust makes it nearly impossible to maintain the field.
"We're trying to do a soccer league here, so it's a big piece of land that we water it every morning, but it really doesn't help at all because my grass is dying because of the dust," Rojas said.
Cam Lee, who owns an RV park on Tom Ledbetter Road, said customers are complaining about the dust problem.
"So far, we have a few customers complaining about it, too much dust around here. So what can we do about it?" Lee said.
Residents said they've repeatedly complained to the county but haven't seen any lasting solutions. Precinct 4 staff acknowledged the road continues to be a challenge and said they've tried temporary fixes that don't hold up to heavy truck traffic.
"In order to properly construct the road to accommodate the number of trucks, it would take an extravagant amount of money," Precinct 4 staff said in an email.
The county road could potentially be annexed by the city of Waco if the proposed Westlake housing development moves forward, according to engineers.
Precinct 4 staff said the commissioner's office will meet with other county workers this week to plan how to address the issue. However, residents said they've heard similar promises before without seeing results.
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