HOUSTON – Early Wednesday morning, not just one but five trucks hit the bottom of the same bridge near downtown Houston.
This isn’t the first time a truck hit an overpass at this spot on the freeway.
KHOU 11 Investigates uncovered that trucks hitting the Houston Avenue bridge are such a big problem, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) started keeping a running total of the number of times it happens.
So far this year, the Houston Avenue bridge has been hit 10 times, according to TxDOT.
The bridge’s eastbound clearance is 14 feet, 3 inches – well below TxDOT’s current standard of 16 and a half feet. The bridge, though, was built in 1965, before those standards became the rule.
The fact that it keeps getting hit is something TxDOT says it’s concerned about.
The state plans to replace the bridge as part of the North Houston Highway Improvement Project, a rebuild of North Houston’s highway system. However, plans to revamp the bridge are not expected to happen for at least five more years, and TxDOT says, depending on funding, a replacement could take another decade.
To put those bridge strike numbers into perspective, TxDOT says there have been 20 strikes city wide in Houston this year – half of those involved the Houston Avenue bridge.