1 minute
New Bridge Opens Over Colorado River
-
After years of construction, the new Business Highway 71 Bridge in La Grange was opened Monday. It sits next to the old one, right, which will be rehabbed and put back in use for one-way traffic.
The Texas Department of Transportation opened the new Colorado River bridge on Travis St. Monday morning, March 27. They also closed the old truss bridge for repairs.
TxDOT spokesperson Lucea’n Kuykendall said workers will remain on site for about a month or two as they put the finishing touches on the existing roadway approaches. Kuykendall said a separate project to rehabilitate the old bridge will be put out for bids in September of this year with construction to follow a few months later.
“For the time being, both east and west bound traffic will continue to travel on the new bridge,” Kuykendall said. “Once the existing truss is rehabilitated, one lane of traffic will travel westbound over the truss bridge and one lane of traffic will travel eastbound over the new bridge.”
Kuykendall said the total project cost will be slightly under $14 million. Approximately 50,000 man-hours of labor have been expended so far on the job.