TEXAS CITY — Protective barricades are coming to a bridge that the mayor says is so hazardous he won’t drive on it, but one grieving family said the improvements should have come sooner.
The new $7.87 million state Highway 146 bridge — which was the scene of a deadly head-on collision last month — will likely have center concrete barricades installed this year, a state transportation official said Friday.
Meanwhile, Texas City Mayor Matt Doyle encourages his family to seek a safer route to avoid traveling the bridge that spans the 197 North Loop, saying the design is inherently hazardous.
Deadly Crash
On Jan. 8, two people died and three others were seriously injured in a head-on collision near the entrance to the bridge.
The accident involving two minivans killed Yvonne Cole, 36, of Santa Fe and Moises Gomez, 20, of Channelview.
Glo Ann Cole said her daughter-in-law worked for 12 years as a dispatcher with the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Both Cole and Doyle questioned the safety and design of the bridge, which carries interstate-speed traffic on one of the deadliest highways in Galveston County.
“That’s a very unsafe bridge,” Cole said. “When you’ve got other roads that are not as hazardous that have barricades down the middle ... I don’t want this story to die.”
Doyle said the Texas Department of Transportation’s plans originally called for two parallel bridges to separate north and south lanes of traffic.
“Before we had that overpass, there were quite a few fatalities there,” Doyle said. “It was supposed to be a four-lane overpass, but by the time they got around to it, they didn’t have the money.”
Norm Wigington, a spokesman with the transportation department, said cost escalations and budget constraints resulted in the construction of a single, two-lane bridge.
The bridge, which was completed by the contractor and then accepted by the state in April 2007, cost $7.87 million, Wigington said.
Design Flaw?
If drivers did nothing as they approached either the north or south entrances of the bridge, their vehicles, which were traveling in a straight line, would enter the opposing lanes of traffic.
The design forces drivers to steer away from a head-on collision on both sides of the bridge.
Following the Jan. 8 fatal wreck, Texas City police said the state installed additional stick reflectors that help alert drivers to the terrain.
The reflective sticks, called candlesticks, are an ineffective substitute for barricades that could deflect inattentive drivers, Cole said.
“I agree it’s poorly designed,” Doyle said. “I’ve complained to them, the county has complained, the city has written the Texas Department of Transportation. It’s very dangerous, and I’m not pleased.”
Doyle said he’s personally asked state transportation officials to reassess the design. Meanwhile, he has encouraged his family to take an alternate route.
“I don’t use the bridge,” Doyle said. “I use the feeder. I don’t let my wife or daughter use it either.
“I try to stay on the feeder and go around it, even if it means going through the traffic light.”
Speed Limit, Signage, Terrain
A sign just south of the Dickinson Bayou bridge alerts southbound drivers of the upcoming Highway 146-Loop 197 split, detailing how they must keep left to merge onto the single lane of Highway 146 to avoid the two-lane north loop feeder road.
The Moses Bayou bridge, however, blocks drivers’ view of the split until a second set of signs gives drivers traveling at the 65 mph speed limit about 3 seconds to make a decision on which route to take.
Drivers traveling north on Highway 146 are encouraged to accelerate as they approach the north loop bridge. The northbound 55 mph speed limit increases to 60 mph on the bridge.
Wigington said the installation of concrete barriers are also hazardous, but the decision to install the barriers was made after other safety measure were taken.
“It’s been under review since 2006,” Wigington said. “First, we wanted to make everyone aware with signage ... and then install candlesticks. We moved to the next step, which was the implementation of the barricades. It’s always been part of the discussion.”
After The Daily News told Wigington how the state encouraged drivers to accelerate through the bridge, he said transportation officials decided to review the posted speed limit.
“It was because of your suggestion,” Wigington said, noting the bridge’s speed limit and design conforms to federal safety standards for construction. “It was a judgment issue, dealing with combinations of line of sight, traffic, speed and it all must be reviewed to make sure we provide a safe facility.”
Cole said her daughter-in-law’s former co-workers at the Department of Public Safety plan to honor her by wearing T-shirts in her memory during a run in Austin this spring.
“Day by day, we’ll get through this,” Cole said. “We want safe homes, safe schools — but what about safe highways? How do we fail there?”
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By the numbers
• 29 — Number of fatalities from 2000-05; 13 in Texas City. • 4 — Number of fatalities in Texas City from Aug. 1 to Jan. 31; 2 near the bridge. • 49 — Wrecks with injuries in Texas City from Aug. 1 to Jan. 31. • 145 — Total wrecks in Texas City from Aug. 1 to Jan. 31. • 26,920 — Number of vehicles traveling the bridge daily in 2005. • 24 — Wrecks within about a mile of the bridge from Aug. 1 to Jan. 31. Sources: Texas Department of Transportation, Texas City Police Department
