Kings Highway Bridge Closure in Texarkana: Detours and Access

The Domino's Pizza in 989 Plaza opened last December. For most of its first year, it sent drivers over the Kings Highway bridge to Alumax and other customers south of Interstate 30. By September those deliveries had ended. "We completely dropped the other side of the bridge," assistant manager Aaliyha Moore told the Texarkana Gazette. "We dropped 250 customers."

To make up for it, the store pushed its delivery area west almost to Hooks, about 10 miles away. A pizza from 989 Plaza now reaches a house 10 miles down the road more easily than a business just across the interstate. That's what the closure has done to this part of town. Until the new bridge opens, I-30 at Kings Highway works less like a road you cross and more like a line that splits north from south.

How a Nine-Minute Detour Reshapes a Neighborhood

The FM 989/Kings Highway bridge closed to all traffic on June 11, 2026. That overpass connected northern Nash to southern Texarkana, Texas. The Gazette reports that drivers on Kings Highway near the bridge now have to take the frontage roads, drive farther east or west, and loop back to Kings Highway on the other side.

Moore put the cost of that loop at "about nine minutes." If you're running a quick errand, nine minutes is a nuisance. For a business that depends on quick delivery, it can decide whether a customer orders at all. "When delivery times are bad, customers don't want to order," she said. The store has also trimmed staff. "Saturdays, we don't need the whole crew here anymore."

Other nearby businesses are adjusting too:

• Golden Chick in Nash put a sign on its door saying it will close at 8 p.m. every day "due to the construction" until further notice. If you're used to a later dinner run, check before you go.
• Cosmetology Academy of Texarkana is a few doors from Domino's. Owner Peggy Smith said the new traffic pattern has cut into her customer count, and her students need those customers for training. "I should be full, and I've got maybe three or four out there," she said.
• The roads around 989 Plaza have large sections of pavement removed. Smith also raised concerns about road conditions near the plaza and the bridge.

All of these businesses are still open. They are simply harder to reach from one side, and hours and service areas are shifting as a result. If one of them is on your regular list, the store's current hours and delivery area matter more this fall than they would in a normal year.

What's Open the Week of October 4

Some of this routing is temporary and changes in stages. TxDOT's Atlanta District roadwork report for the week of October 4 to 10 is the latest snapshot. It lists the Kings Highway bridge as still under replacement with traffic detoured, along with these conditions near the closure:

A June KSLA report described the planned detour using the FM 2148 underpass and the FM 3419 turnaround bridge, with the University U-turn bridge keeping traffic moving. That same pair of crossings still shows as open in October.

If you're coming in on eastbound I-30

Eastbound is where drivers are most likely to get caught out, because a wrong lane choice can carry you past every local exit. Here's TxDOT's current eastbound layout:

1. Take Exit 217 for Kings Highway and FM 2148.
2. Past that exit, the lanes split. Use Exit 218 for local stops east of Pecan Street.
3. Stay out of the left through lane if you plan to stop in Texarkana. It has no exit.
4. From I-369/U.S. 59/Loop 151, take Exit 114B to Richmond Road for local access. The eastbound I-30 connector bridge has no exit.

TxDOT says this eastbound pattern will stay in place through Phase 3 of the widening, which it estimates will finish in late summer 2027. Weather or other unforeseen problems could move that date. You can check live conditions before you drive at DriveTexas.

One note on old information: the frontage road diversion from June, with westbound traffic sent off at Exit 222/Summerhill Road, covered only the week the bridge was being demolished. If someone gives you directions based on it, they're out of date.

Why the Line Holds Through Most of 2027

In its June 9 notice, TxDOT estimated about 19 months to rebuild the bridge, "subject to change due to weather and other unforeseen circumstances." TxDOT hasn't published a calendar date. Our own math, adding 19 months to the June 11 closure, lands around January 2028. As of early October, about four months have passed and about fifteen remain. We haven't seen a revised completion date. The bridge is a separate job from the eastbound I-30 pattern, which TxDOT expects to last until late summer 2027.

That means the 989 Plaza businesses face more than a single slow season. They're looking at another holiday season, a full 2027, and possibly the start of 2028 with this detour in place. The Domino's switch from south-side customers to a delivery area stretching toward Hooks looks less like a short-term fix and more like a working map for a year or more.

What the New Bridge Changes When It Opens

The new bridge is designed to fix things the old one couldn't, and several of those changes affect everyday local trips, not just interstate traffic. According to TxDOT:

• Clearance goes from under 17 feet to 18.5 feet, which meets new vertical clearance requirements.
• Five lanes across the top. Each direction gets a 12-foot inside lane and a 14-foot outside lane shared by cars and bicycles, with a 16-foot flush median between them. TxDOT Texarkana Area Engineer Dana C. Moore described the layout in the June release.
• 6-foot sidewalks on both sides. That means people can walk between the north and south sides of Kings Highway without sharing a lane with traffic.
• A new east-to-west turnaround bridge on the west side of Kings Highway. The current west-to-east turnaround on the east side will stay but remains closed during construction.
• Three lanes each direction on I-30 once the larger widening project is done.

The sidewalks and shared-use lanes stand out. The new crossing is built for walking and biking between Nash and south Texarkana as well as driving. Once it opens, the nine-minute loop that pushed 250 customers off the Domino's route goes away, and the stores on both sides of I-30 will be close neighbors again.

If you live near Kings Highway, the coming year will bring more detours and changing hours, and the local businesses that are still open will be working around them. If you're thinking about a move on either side of the bridge before it reopens, Doris Morris Real Estate can help you time it. We'll map the real weekday drive from a specific address and plan showings around the current detours. Let's Talk Strategy.