FORT WORTH — Fort Worth voters Saturday approved a $150 million bond package for road improvements.

That has some residents concerned since the city hasn't even yet completed $230 million worth of projects voters approved back in 2004.

Even the promise of home-baked, home-style cooking gets few drivers to venture down the beaten up path it takes to get to Mama E's diner on East Rosedale.

"It cost us a lot during our lunch rush," said Mama E, Ernestine Edmond.

She said she counts herself lucky to be one of the few businesses to survive tough times and the rough roads in the area.

Widening and improving East Rosedale is one of 71 projects that was approved in Fort Worth's 2004 bond proposal that have yet to turn dirt. East 1st street is another.

Eventually, the two-lane stretch will be a four-lane divided road. Right now, there's not a bulldozer in sight.

"Building a road is not like ordering a pizza," said Janice Thompson-Burgess, a Fort Worth Transportation and Public Works spokesperson. "When the money is there, you don't just call up and order what you want [and] then expect it delivered in 45 minutes."

City officials say dozens of projects are currently under construction and 96 are complete. The rest, they say, will need more time.

"When you're building a road, once you get the money approved, then it's two to three years in doing the behind the scenes work before we can start to deliver the project," Burgess said

Mama E hopes the city will get cooking soon on the East Rosedale project so her diner can do the same.

"They said they'll get it finished by 2009 and I'm just hoping and praying that they will be," she said.

Some projects from 2004 bonds are over a year from breaking ground. The Golden Triangle Boulevard project in Fort Worth had to be completely reworked. It won't start construction, according to city officials, for at least another 18 months.

By then, some of the 2008 bond projects will already have begun.

E-mail jstjames@wfaa.com