Drivers heading up Highway 69 through Bullard are getting their first real taste of the lane shift that started Monday, September 28. Traffic is now one lane in each direction on the eastern side of the highway, with a center turn lane in the middle, while crews work on the western half as part of the US 69/FM 2493 overpass project. Morning commutes toward Tyler have taken the hardest hit. One driver reported a trip that normally takes 20 to 25 minutes recently stretching past an hour, and around 7:24 a.m. traffic was backed up roughly two miles. Conditions tend to improve later in the day, so midday drivers are faring better than the early crowd.

The timeline is the part worth circling. TxDOT says this lane pattern will stay in place for several months, and the broader $68 million overpass project, with East Texas Bridge, Inc. as contractor, isn’t scheduled to wrap up until Spring 2029. Local business owner John Beasley of Camp Davis Stone & Grass is among those keeping an eye on how the changes ripple through the community. For anyone who regularly makes the Tyler run, this is less a brief inconvenience and more a new routine to plan around.

For now, the practical move is simple: give yourself extra time, consider shifting your departure a little earlier or later, and test out alternate routes before you need them. If you find a back road that’s saving you time, share it with your neighbors, because that’s how small towns get through big projects. Have the Bullard backups changed your daily drive? Let us know what you’re seeing out there.