It’s human nature to make mistakes. And similarly, after a costly error, Harris County Commissioners opted to scrap the parts of the Beltway 8 bridge that were already constructed over the Houston Ship Channel.
“I do not want to be in my grave, turning over, that we didn’t do something to address the safety when we could have and not move forward to deliver,” Precinct 2 Commissioner Adrian Garcia said last week.
After a flood of concerns and developments caused moving forward impractical, work on the new bridge development stopped 23 months ago.
News plans are aimed toward building the bridge again from scratch.
Houston Chronicle reported that the design of the bridge was flawed.
“The previous design was flawed,” Harris County Toll Road Authority executive director Roberto Trevino said.
“It would have led to the failure of the bridge.”
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After winning the contract in 2018, FIGG Bridge Group tried a new idea to begin work. Unfortunately, the plan didn’t work out.
Cranes were going to lift the bridge into place after it had been built on the ground.
The plans were inspected in 2019 by a different firm, which found 21 design flaws.
Demolishing what is already there will cost $50 million, and starting from scratch will cost another $291 million. This amount to a total sum of $341 million.
Approximately 2025 will be the completion date of the first span, and 2027 will be the completion date of the second span.
