'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