'Inspection is Under Way on Milam County’s last one-lane Truss Bridge' by Jeanne Williams/Temple Daily Telegram

                      Inspection is Under Way on Milam County’s
                           Last One-lane Truss Bridge
                                    by Jeanne Williams
                         Temple Daily Telegram - August 8, 2007

SAN GABRIEL - The Worley Bridge “is in the worst shape of any bridge in the county, or so the bridge inspector with TxDOT has said,” commented Burke Bauerschlag, Milam County commissioner for Precinct 4.

The old bridge is the last of its kind still in service in Milam County, Bauerschlag said. Still structurally sound and safe, the bridge “is not built to hold the loads of today,” he said. Motorists, though, are not afraid to drive across the structure.

The one-lane truss bridge built in 1912 that crosses the San Gabriel River on County Road 428 is in no danger of falling down. However, be-cause of its advanced age, the Texas Department of Transportation wants the motoring public to pay close attention to the posted load limit, said Bob Colwell, public information officer for the agency’s Bryan District. TxDOT plans to replace the bridge in 2010, Colwell said.

“There is nothing wrong with it, it is just old, and it’s historical,” Colwell said. “We always have the posted weight limit on bridges of this type. If people abide by those rules there shouldn’t be any problem.”

A historical bridge condition survey is under way at this time, he said.

“Once we get this finished we will know more about it,” Colwell said.

After spending more than $50 million on bridge replacement projects in Milam County over the past decade, TxDOT boasts that the 59 on-system bridges on state highways and farm-to-market roads, and the 50 off-system structures crossing rivers, creeks and sloughs on county roads, are top-notch, Colwell said.

The agency spent $18 million building twin, one-way, north and southbound bridges crossing the Little River on U.S. Highway 77 near Cameron. A new Elm Creek Bridge was completed last year. In the past several years, the historic Sugar Loaf Bridge near Gause was replaced, with the antique model historically restored for pedestrian traffic.

“In Milam County, bridges are anywhere from 15 to 20 years old and all of them are good,” Colwell said. “We have checked them out. We check them every year and we check them after every heavy rain.”

Bridge inspectors check bridge approaches, soils, geometry, condition of the railings, and the condition of the foundation, Colwell said.

“We look and see if there are shifts in the bridges - anything that might indicate there has been movement of the bridge caused by flooding,” Colwell said. “So far there is nothing.”

The agency is awaiting the outcome of the investigation into the cause of the Minnesota bridge disaster, he said.

“Once a report is released to other states, we will be going and checking our bridges again,” Colwell said. “Bridge safety is something TxDOT takes very seriously. Safety is our number one priority to the traveling public. The thing I can say is that the bridges in Texas are safe. If we in the Bryan District or TxDOT as a whole were to have see something that would be unsafe, we would shut down the roadway, and we would fix it before we would put traffic on it.”

Photos taken by Jerry Caywood - April 27, 2009
Photos are not a part of the Temple Daily Telegram article

Worley's Bridge

All articles from the Temple Daily Telegram are published with the permission of the
Temple Daily Telegram.
All credit for this article goes to
Jeanne Williams
and the
Temple Daily Telegram