County to retire historic bridge

County road crews will perform a long list of road repairs this year to offset the $3-4 million cost for the Texas Department of Transportation to build a new bridge over Hot Wells Road in South Bend. Zack Husen, a transportation engineer with TxDOT, told County Commissioners on Jan. 8 that the state agency would trade them the County’s share of the project - 10 percent of the total cost – if County crews would perform a list of repairs where County and State road intersect.

The County has already built up credit of about $150,000 doing previous work on County- State road projects and can work on its in-kind payoff for the next several months while engineers design the bridge and get state approvals, Mr. Husen said.

The State will build the new bridge parallel to a pre-World War II bridge over the Clear Fork of the Brazos River at South Bend. The new bridge will sit beside the old bridge, which has been declared a historic structure, Mr. Husen said.

“It has a historical component that basically renders it it virtually impossible for us to demolish and replace the structure,” Mr. Husen told the Commissioners. The structure was “underbuilt,” Mr. Husen said, using beams half the length that the plans called for and has lasted far longer than anyone expected.

County Judge Win Graham said he spoke with landowners to the north and south of the bridge who are ready to work with the County and TxDOT. “I think they all see the importance of putting a usable bridge there,” he said.

Mr. Husen said the County has about $150,000 in credit for jobs it has already completed but must finish some paperwork to put those funds on its books.

Judge Graham said the County would use the time it will take to design and permit the bridge to raise the matching funds.