Kingsland bridge now complete, southside rejoins rest of town
KINGSLAND, Texas (FOX 7 Austin) - The new RM 2900 bridge in Kingsland is finished.
The old bridge washed away during severe flooding last fall.
A community now whole again. “We were all ecstatic about it. I’m extremely happy about it. We all walked the bridge Friday morning to get over there,” said Jack Garner who lives south of the bridge.
After 7 months and $17.3 million later, there's a new bridge in town over in Kingsland which reconnects Jack Garner and his neighbors with the rest of town. “Without the bridge we felt like we didn't belong to a community we were just a neighborhood, not Kingsland, not Marble Falls, not Sunrise Beach, but now that we got the bridge back we are a part of the community,” said Garner.
After the old bridge washed away during October’s flood, it took Garner and all the homes on the south side of the lake almost an hour if they wanted to into Kingsland, a trip which would normally take a few minutes to do. “They said 7 to 8 months we were all thought probably about a year but they did it in 7 months my hats off to them like I said a hell of a job,” said Garner.
Friday, TxDOT opened up the new RM 2900 bridge to the public, both Senator Cruz and Senator Cornyn attended the ribbon cutting. After the ceremony, Garner wasted no time crossing the new bridge.
If you ever traveled on the old bridge you're going to notice a few changes when you get to the new one. First one being a side walk. TxDOT made the bridge much wider and taller.
TxDOT listed this project as a priority, meaning crews worked around the clock to get it done. It was met with some delays as debris from the old bridge was still in the water and in the way.
“Our team was challenged to do this faster than it has ever been done before and I’m proud of our team for remaining focused and being nimble throughout the project to handle every unexpected situation and to stay on track,” said Terry McCoy the TxDOT Austin district engineer.
One of the reasons why this bridge is so important is it allows first responders to get to Garners neighborhood much quicker.
“That’s a big deal I was in the Austin fire department for 24 years it's important, we've got some good volunteers out here good fire departments good police departments,” said Garner.
If you're worried about this bridge washing away like the last, TxDOT said they made this one strong enough to withstand the flooding we saw back in October.