On a side note, additional construction is set to start for SH 550 next year. Currently, the road is a super 2 lanes. I kinda feel bad that they would need to take down some relatively young bridge structures if they were to simply widen the road by paving new lanes on the edge of the current lanes.
Texas has a fairly large history of widening girder/ stringer deck bridges. A couple of decades ago, there was extensive widening from 30' to 38' or 40' on most of the rural 2x 2 interstates throughout Texas. The bridges can be widened. It WOULD be a pity if they are unable to be widened for whatever reason.
Even if they are widening by pasting a lane on each side (so to speak), they can and have split them off at the bridge sites and adding a separate bridge, then merging the tracks back together .
I knew they could create a second bridge, but I didn’t know it was possible to widen an existing super 2 bridge. I assume that would involve more beams, drilling shafts, and relocation of concrete guards.
On a side note, I found that the SH 550 SE of the existing I-169 has a bridge for FM 511 that goes over SH 550. Would they need to remove the drilled shafts supporting the bridge? Because last time I checked, they are configured in a way that two lanes won’t fit between any gap. Please excuse me if I missed something from your previous reply. Here’s the bridge at FM 511. https://goo.gl/maps/BCcKc2qZSFP7pmCF9
The overpasses are a totally different problem. As to widening the two lane bridges to four, you have it generally right.
49Toll in Tyler (TX) built 2-lane overpasses over the tollway that clearly will not handle 4 lanes. Made no sense to me, but obviously they did cost less to build.
It will be interesting to see how the rest is handled. Also, I don’t know why there aren’t direct connectors from I-69E NB to I-169, and I-169 to I-69E SB.
Still, I see the official signing of I-169 as a win. Thanks Google maps for finally updating the Texas street view.
PS: They’ve also updated I-69W/US 59/Loop 20, US 77 (from FM 665 to I-37), and US 281. They’ve also added updated captures of US 59 in Victoria, South of Cleveland, and at Loop 224 in Nacogdoches.