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After visiting with Tab Thompson, County Judge, on
Tuesday, 11/1/05, and talking to several individuals in the past two
weeks, Jerry Martin, County Commissioner; Mark McEndree, Area Engineer
for Texas DOT (Department of Transportation), Stephenville office; John Young,
Heritage Hills Development partner; Melvin Hammit, Developer for
new subdivision to our North; Jay Wilson, Heritage Hills resident;
and a phone message from James Synatzske, Heritage Hills Developer,
I thought the Heritage Hills residents might be interested in my
findings, especially with all the rumors and stories about who is
responsible and why is no work being done on the bridge.
Our bridge was built over fifteen years ago using two
flat bed railroad cars with wood flooring placed side-by-side on concrete
foundations. The wood flooring was paved over with asphalt and gravel
and has served our community well over the years. But, as we all know,
wood “decomposes” over time – this is what led to our current bridge issue.
The bridge maintenance is the responsibility of the county.
Jerry Martin placed a temporary, steel plate, patch over a hole in the
wood flooring this past Spring. He contacted the local TX-DOT and got
verbal approval to replace the wood flooring with a reinforced concrete
floor and then tore out the wood flooring on the section with the patch.
After removing the wood flooring and exposing the bridge
structure, there were some questions concerning the condition and integrity
of the rail car structure. Since bridges over twenty feet in length fall
under federal regulation, it was decided to get the Fort worth office of the
Texas DOT involved as they are responsible for inspection of all bridges in
our area to insure compliance with federal regulations.
The Fort Worth TX-DOT engineers would not approve the
county’s plan to replace the wood flooring with concrete on the existing
rail car structure. This resulted in filing an application for federal
funding to replace the bridge. This plan is normally prepared every two
years but due to the urgency of our bridge being the only access to our
community, the application is being expedited by both the Fort Worth and
Austin offices of the DOT. Jerry Martin received word on 11/1/05 that our
application was on “fast track” for approval (Don’t read too much into
this as there are several levels of bureaucracy involved)
The second issue for our community is access to our homes
and jobs while we are waiting on the bridge to be replaced. The county just
this past week placed a steel plate patch on the remaining bridge section.
The Fort Worth TX-DOT has been inspecting the remaining bridge section
periodically and on 10/31/05, they placed a load limit of 6,000 lbs. on
the bridge because of recently identified structural damage. This will
help in preserving the existing bridge section until an alternate access
can be provided. (Note: a fully loaded concrete truck weighs over
68,000 lbs.)
The current county plan is to build a “low water”
crossing just below the bridge. This will provide a temporary access
for the heavier vehicles and equipment and could end up being our only
access if the existing bridge section is “condemned” by TX-DOT. This is
urgent - as of now, emergency equipment, fire trucks and ambulances, don’t
have access to our community due to the load restrictions placed on the
bridge. Even my pickup truck is over the load limit. There are some
concerns with the low water crossing – let’s hope we don’t get any heavy
rains for a while.
Another access road is being considered that will extend
from Phase 7, currently under development in Heritage Hills, through the
proposed development by Melvin Hammit, just North of us, and would exit on
highway 914. Jerry Martin, Melvin Hammit, and the local and Fort Worth
TX-DOT representatives, met with the Stephenville city officials Wednesday,
11/2/05, to discuss this option (note: City code would apply to this road).
All the folks I have spoken with appear to be in favor of this option.
At this time, every thing that can be done - is being
done, and no one knows for sure when the new bridge will be approved and
there is no schedule for it being built, but the ones in the know say it
could be soon, hopefully. Jerry Martin has been in contact with the
Fort Worth TX-DOT on an almost daily basis and has agreed to keep me
up-to-date on the new bridge progress and access issues.
Our-Town Internet Service has agreed to post the bridge
updates from Jerry as a community service to the residents of Heritage Hills.
If anyone has any concerns or suggestions, please feel
free to contact either myself or Jerry Martin.
If any one is interested in keeping up with the bridge
progress, please log on to www.our-town.com or you can contact me at 965-6990
or email me at
bgordon61@our-town.com .
I hope this helps in clearing up some of the confusion.
Sincerely,
Bill Gordon
A Concerned Neighbor
102 Saint James Court
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