Materials meant for bridge-building stacked up in rows and piles along with the construction site. The pylons along the water's edge remain unfinished to this day. In January 2020, construction was paused on the bridge.

It was horrible,' said County Commissioner Adrian Garcia, who was not in office when the bridge project began.Īfter he was elected, Garcia became a vocal critic of the bridge design HCTRA brought in outside engineers to re-evaluate everything. 'I remember the news during my campaign in 2018 that the bridge in Miami collapsed.

The Dallas branch of FIGG was contracted for Harris County's bridge. That bridge's designer was FIGG, a national design firm very prominent in the building of bridges around the country. Around the same time, the actual Ship Channel Bridge construction began in 2018, a pedestrian bridge in Miami collapsed, killing six people. The residents have good reasons to be skeptical. 'I won't be driving over the new one until they change it,' said Katherine Smith, who told ABC13 she didn't use the current bridge for several years until it opened because she was worried about safety. Even after construction started in 2018, some of his neighbors still weren't sold. Gonzales wasn't so impressed when the Harris County Toll Road Authority (HCTRA) unveiled its plans for a new bridge a few years back.

'And (they should have) looked into it more before they went ahead.' 'I think they should have studied it more,' said Gonzales, who admits to being skeptical. These days, the talk turns often to the new Ship Channel Bridge and everything that's gone wrong. Yes, the chicken fried steak is delicious, but the chatter isn't bad either.

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) - Among the 60,000 vehicles that use the current Ship Channel Bridge daily, Rocky Gonzales often steers his car to the nearby Mom's Kountry Café. Plans for a new one are underway, but it's going to cost a lot more. If you've driven across the Houston Ship Channel, you know it's a busy stretch.

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