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After being severely damaged by Hurricane Ike, Bailey Road is now fully repaired, thanks to a $400,000 community development block grant.

“It took more time for funding to get approved than it did to get the work completed,” John Dubose, precinct three commissioner, said.

Les Anderson, county engineer, said that the resurfacing project took about three or four weeks altogether to complete.

The county added six inches of limestone and covered it with a double coat of chip seal down the length of the road, Anderson said.

“Bailey Road was completely underwater during the hurricane and it washed out all the limestone,” he said.

Dubose said that there is no telling what the water by Bailey Road is covering up.

“I’ve joked with people that most of Bailey Road is probably in the bottom of the channel now,” Dubose said. “There was 2,000 tons of material on this road that was just washed away.”

Dubose said that although there are not many residents along Bailey Road, a lot of people come down for fishing recreation at the docks, which were part of Texas Parks and Wildlife funding.

“We have a lot of people coming down here to fish,” Dubose said. “So, it is heavily used by the public. I’m still working on getting a new pier built out here near the old Port Arthur ferry landing.

“We haven’t got that done yet, but it is something I’d like to see done.”

Dubose said that county is looking at doing more roadwork in the near future.

“Currently we are working on East Roundbunch and Japanese Lane, part of funding from the Texas Department of Rural Affairs,” he said. “We have more planned, but it will be under the second phase of funding, which will be from the General Land Office.”

Areas that Dubose said should see work under that second phase of funding is the Country Estates area and the Victory Gardens area.

“The damage to those roads were not seen right away,” Dubose said. “But, about six months after the storm we started seeing break up of the road surface and we’ve been having to just do patch work out there for now.

“Roads and water just don’t mix very well.”