CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — An inspection report of the Yorktown Mud Bridge from the last few years revealed there's been erosion issues with the bridge for years.
On Monday, the Yorktown Mud Bridge developed a sinkhole, which caused a halt to traffic on the 8600 block of Yorktown Boulevard.
In a report from 2019 obtained by KRIS 6 News, a Texas Department of Transportation engineer wrote about the urgency of making repairs to the bridge.
The report includes removing parts of the pavement that had failed, re-shaping and re-enforcing the bridge embankments and adding new counter erosion measures.
The mud bridge — originally built in 1985 — is owned by the city. However, TxDOT does the inspections for it.
Assistant city manager Neiman Young said there should have been maintenance, but the city has an inventory of 68 bridges and trying to address all of the neglect has been difficult with their lack of resources.
"The report that is generated by TxDOT then is turned over to our engineering department and that's when conversations and planning is made between the engineering department and public works," Young said.
The mud bridge is inspected every two years and many of the same issues were in previous reports, Young added.
He said t's about prioritizing what need to be fixed first and the city has been playing catch up on bridge and road maintenance.
Three months ago, the city and TxDOT agreed on a $33.7 million project, which includes rebuilding and expanding the Yorktown mud bridge to four lanes.
Work that won't begin until at least 2026.
Young said there will be talks with TxDOT about possibly moving the date up.
District 4 City Councilman Greg Smith agreed and said the date should be moved up.
"We need to accelerate that. We know the bridge has issues on there and we need to replace that bridge," Smith said. "And the other thing is, it isn’t wide enough. We’re going to widen Yorktown.”
Smith added when it comes to maintenance, he doesn't know who, but somebody dropped the ball.
In the meantime, a structural engineer did look at the temporary fix of the pothole that was put in place at the bridge, and was concerned that it would not hold. They are going to contract a team that will reinforce the repair with a steel plate.
However, the bridge will remain closed for the next 3-5 days.
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