David Smith
A $2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration will be used to study designs for the rehabilitation of certain bridges along Buffalo Bayou.
The administration last week announced the $26.5 million grant initiative to fund 28 bridge restoration projects across the country. In Houston, the grant dollars will be used to go towards repairing and raising eight Buffalo Bayou bridges that span 15 miles from Dairy Ashford Street to West Houston.
Buffalo Bayou Park was submerged during Hurricane Harvey when the Addicks and Barker Reservoirs reached record elevations. The engorged channel gushed water over nearby trails, leaving areas along the bayou inaccessible for weeks. Councilwoman Mary Nan Huffman during a city council meeting on May 29 said the study and subsequent bridge work will help prevent Harvey-level bridge closures during future storms.
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The project, which is set to be complete next year, will determine the preferred alternatives for bridge designs and reconstruction by conducting feasibility and hydrology analyses, project development and stakeholder and community engagement meetings, according to city council documents.
“The planning grants announced today will help states and communities prepare critical bridge projects for restoration or replacement before they fall into a state of disrepair,” Shailen Bhatt, a federal highway administrator said in a statement last week.
Council members on May 29 unanimously approved the grant application. Huffman during that meeting said most of the surveyed bridges are located in District G.
“We know that some of those streets like Kirkwood, Wilcrest, during Hurricane Harvey it was weeks before the people from south of the bayou could get north of the bayou and trying to find a way around,” Huffman said. “This will look at the feasibility of repairing and raising some of these bridges to where it wouldn’t be an issue in another storm,” she said.
The study is set to begin this year.