Design for replacement Fourth Avenue bridge in Smithville 98% complete

A $1.3 million bridge to replace the deteriorated Fourth Avenue bridge spanning Gazley Creek in Smithville is 98% designed and the construction project could be awarded to a contractor in the next 30-45 days, City Manager Robert Tamble said.

The Texas Department of Transportation committed to paying for the bulk of the project after the Texas Department of Emergency Management turned down a request by the city for emergency financial assistance to construct the replacement bridge. As per the city’s December resolution, the federal Highway Bridge Replacement and Rehabilitation Program would have paid for 99.5% of the project, leaving the city to cover .5%, or $6,531.25, of the cost.

Tamble said that the state emergency management department denied Smithville’s request because the Fourth Avenue bridge’s deterioration could not be traced to a specific event, like Hurricane Harvey.

On Nov. 20, TxDOT permanently closed the Fourth Avenue bridge due to safety concerns. The state highway department determined the single-lane bridge had become deficient after withstanding several flooding events, which had settled the bridge’s support columns and damaged lateral support beams.

“After Hurricane Harvey, TxDOT and the city began to monitor the structure for any movement or deterioration,” TxDOT spokesperson Alex Navarro said in November. “One of the flooding events in the past two years damaged the substructure of the bridge, which we have been monitoring for the last six months.”

Tamble said that because the request for emergency funding to replace the bridge wasn’t done immediately after Hurricane Harvey, and instead over two years later, the state emergency management department denied the city’s application. However, he said, TxDOT decided to pay for the replacement bridge’s construction.

The bridge will be a two-lane bridge with 5-foot shoulder on either side. Tamble said utility relocation is currently being coordinated, a cost the city has to cover.

Once a contractor is selected for the project, construction should take between four to six months, Tamble said.

Traffic blockages

After the state closed the Fourth Avenue bridge, Live Oak Street became the only roadway into and out of the Mount Pleasant subdivision, affecting 150 homes.

Live Oak Street is intersected by the Union Pacific Railroad just south of FM 2571, and stationary trains have blocked the railroad crossing 38 times since Nov. 20, according to a log kept by Tamble. The road blockages ranged from 15 minutes to two hours, effectively trapping residents in and out of the neighborhood.

On Feb. 10, Union Pacific senior public affairs director Ivan Jaime told the City Council that the company is committed to limiting the number of trains that block the crossing at Live Oak Street.

Jaime said that a lot of the Live Oak Street blockages should be eliminated by having train crew changes done north of Live Oak Street instead of at the street’s intersection with the rail line. He said that blockages at that intersection by stationary trains would happen only when no other option was available.

He said that if a train crew is not available on the train and it becomes necessary to block Live Oak Street, the railroad company will make sure the train is split in two to keep the roadway open. However, he cautioned that at times the train will need to block the street as line switches have to be made to move the train from one rail line to another. Those blockages should last on average 15 minutes, he assured the council.

Since Feb. 10, when Jaime made his presentation to the City Council, a stationary train has blocked the Live Oak intersection three times, Tamble said Tuesday.

Much of the train traffic through Smithville comes from the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex heading to Houston, Jaime said. Between 10-15 trains move through Smithville on a typical day on the Union Pacific rail.