Houston TX: I-10 San Jacinto River Bridge Closed Due To Barge Strike

[Brian556]

A barge struck and severely damaged one of the piers. https://www.khou.com/article/news/local/i-10-westbound-lanes-shut-down-after-barge-hits-san-jacinto-bridge/285-6d4b7c36-2a28-4de9-a6fb-efdcfbbb6a62

Google Map:https://www.google.com/maps/@29.7937311,-95.0568072,2961m/data=!3m1!1e3

[kphoger]

I read the thread title and wondered how a union strike could cause I-10 to shut down.

[nexus73]

If you saw how narrow the channel is for ships to get past our railroad bridge in the body of water known as Coos Bay, you would wonder how it only got hit ONE time since it was finished in 1914.  Go east a bit and there's the McCullough Bridge (US 101) and since it was completed in 1936, it has been hit once.  That was 1986.  "The Ship Hit The Span!" t-shirts and bumper stickers appeared...LOL!

Those who pilot large ships and barges have to be incredibly skilled in order to achieve such a record.  Moving them on water is not exactly the same as hustling a Porsche through a curve on a track! 

Hope the bridge being out of action can be handled with better detours than we had for 101.  Losing the railroad bridge meant End Of The Line time as there was not an alternate rail route.  That hurt!

Rick

[Brian556]

Sounds like they are re-opening it, but shifting traffic over onto a portion of the bridge that is not supported by the broken pillar

https://www.khou.com/article/news/local/expect-delays-on-i-10-east-westbound-as-bridge-repair-continues-at-san-jacinto-river/285-6d4b7c36-2a28-4de9-a6fb-efdcfbbb6a62

[rte66man]

There is no viable alternative.  I guess you could go south on 8 to 225, east to 146, cross using the Fred Hartman bridge then back to 10 using 146. Otherwise you have to go north to US90, but there's no practical way to get back to 10 from there.

[Bobby5280]

Long distance traffic could bypass that bridge strike area by taking US-90 from the I-10/I-610 interchange up to Dayton and across to Beaumont to pick up I-10 again. With all the growth in the Houston region and farther West in Austin that leg of US-90 between Houston and Beaumont could be upgraded into a freeway and connected to the Grand Parkway to give I-10 traffic headed to/from Austin a viable Northern bypass of central Houston.

[Road Hog]

This reminds me of when a runaway barge took down the I-40 bridge over the Arkansas River in Oklahoma. These piers need to be better protected when they construct these bridges over navigable waters.

[MikieTimT]

This reminds me of when a runaway barge took down the I-40 bridge over the Arkansas River in Oklahoma. These piers need to be better protected when they construct these bridges over navigable waters.

That bridge collapse killed a buddy of mine I used to go fishing with along with his wife who was his high-school sweetheart as well as his little daughter who was the youngest death at that scene.  They certainly need caissons or something stronger to protect the bridge piers on either side of the channel, but in the case of I-40, the barge went out of the channel and hit one of the other piers.  Unless they put caissons on both sides of every pier of every bridge of every navigable waterway, these things are going to occasionally happen.  There is an enormous amount of momentum with a 9 to 15 barge tow, which are common on that stretch of the Arkansas River.

[rte66man]

This reminds me of when a runaway barge took down the I-40 bridge over the Arkansas River in Oklahoma. These piers need to be better protected when they construct these bridges over navigable waters.

That bridge collapse killed a buddy of mine I used to go fishing with along with his wife who was his high-school sweetheart as well as his little daughter who was the youngest death at that scene.  They certainly need caissons or something stronger to protect the bridge piers on either side of the channel, but in the case of I-40, the barge went out of the channel and hit one of the other piers.  Unless they put caissons on both sides of every pier of every bridge of every navigable waterway, these things are going to occasionally happen.  There is an enormous amount of momentum with a 9 to 15 barge tow, which are common on that stretch of the Arkansas River.

That is correct. The bridges all had protective caissons on the north side (heading downstream) but none on the south side (heading upstream).  None thought it was possible for a barge to be that far off when fighting the current.  Oklahoma retrofitted all of the McClellan-Kerr bridges with caissons soon after.