CORPUS CHRISTI, Tex. — It’s been nearly five months since TxDOT removed the FIGG Engineering Group from working on the main section of the new Harbor Bridge.
A federal investigation found FIGG liable for a deadly pedestrian bridge collapse in Florida back in March 2019. Shortly afterwards, TxDOT announced it was looking for a new designer for the main span.
Meanwhile, work continues on the new Harbor Bridge, and unlike most industries, this project has been relatively unaffected by the pandemic. As an essential public works project, work never stopped, and the job site has been virus-free.
“With about 500 employees and subcontractors on top of that, we are still COVID-free on this project,” said Lynn Allison, Public Information Manager for Flatiron Drgados, the firm building the new bridge.
According to Allison, crews are putting finishing touches on the north side of the bridge.
“We will finish that up in June and we disassemble that crane to bring to start working on the south approach beyond I-37,” said Allison.
To the south, the new Comanche St. bridge and exit from Crosstown Expressway are open, with more progress on the way.
“You’ll be able to see a tremendous amount of the south approach starting to take place, just like you see what looks like a runway running up to the north approach,” said Allison.
FIGG is still engineer of record for the approaches, despite being from design work on the main span. Flatiron Dragados and TXDOT hope to have a new EOR hired soon, before the lack of one forces further delays.
“We have a tremendous amount of work right now underway, and when the new EOR comes in and is ready to start working on the main span, we’ll hopefully be at a good place with all of this other construction going on,” said Allison.
Project officials say there is no new timeline for finishing the bridge, and there won’t be until a new engineer of record is brought on board.
