Harris County to spend $300M more to fix Ship Channel Bridge project, starting with demolition of work already completed

Resuming work on the Ship Channel Bridge along the Sam Houston Tollway will cost Harris County nearly $300 million more, including $50 million to rip out what had been built under what county officials say was a faulty design. Harris County Commissioners Court, acting as the board of the county toll road authority that builds and operates most local toll roads, unanimously approved the plan at its regular meeting Tuesday. “I do not want to be in my grave, turning over, that we didn’t do something to address the safety when we could have and not move forward to deliver,” Precinct 2 Commissioner Adrian Garcia said Monday. Work on the massive new bridge stopped 23 months ago after a flood of concerns and developments made moving ahead impractical.

“The previous design was flawed,” said Roberto Trevino, executive director of the Harris County Toll Road Authority. “It would have led to failure of the bridge.” The changes approved Tuesday will add three years to the completion time. Commissioners said they will closely monitor the project’s progress, calling it vital to restoring trust in the project. “These changes are huge,” Precinct 3 Commissioner Tom Ramsey said, crediting toll officials for addressing and then redesigning the bridge. The new plan resolves design flaws, demolition of some parts of the incomplete bridge towers, changes to the construction and breach of contract claims against the county — at an additional cost estimated at $291.5 million. That is more than half the original cost of the span, estimated at $567 million as part of a $1 billion project to widen the tollway to four lanes in each direction north and south of the Houston Ship Channel and then replace the existing 40-year-old bridge. The project remains the county’s costliest single public works project, now topping $1.3 billion. Without the changes, however, Harris County and drivers would get virtually nothing for all the time and effort spent so far, said Trevino, an engineer selected to lead HCTRA in January.