COMMISSIONERS DECLARE OPI BRIDGE REPAIR AN EMERGENCY

(Ed.'s Note: On August 15 we ran a post about the bridge on Old Port Isabel Road having been closed for repairs but that the job was put on the back burner because of budget considerations. That changed during the August 27th meeting when County Administrator Pete Sepulveda came before the commissioners requesting that they declare the repairs an emergency. The court complied and authorized Sepulveda to start the repairs. Our original post is reprinted below.)

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

You're traveling west on FM 802 (Ruben Torres) and decide t skip the traffic lights coming up ahead as you head toward the US 77/83 (I-69) by taking a shortcut on Robindale Road that will take you to
Old Port Isabel Rd. and then eventually on to Alton Gloor and points west.

You pat yourself on the back fro having though of this angle and skipping the traffic snarls up ahead on Ruben Torres when it hits Old Port Isabel, Paredes Line Road and then the expressway.

You connect with Old Port Isabel as it intersects with Robindale just past Martin Arambula's  Brownsville Independent School District Records Building, angles off north past the Rose Lawn Memorial Gardens and then for another mile or so until you come to the weight-load sign of the bridge ahead. By driving these two miles from 802 to Alton Gloor (Dr. Hugh Emerson now), you have spared yourself dealing with the traffic congestion, school buses, etc.

Past the bridge weight-load sign you travel another quarter mile and come to the bridge.

But wait! there are signs and barricades right at the bridge informing motorists that the bridge is closed. What! Instead of saving time and reducing distance, you now have to back up and find the nearest lateral road that will take you to tour destination. That would be to go back to the Robindale-Old Port Isabel juncture at the tip of  Rose Lawn and turning right to head north.

Now, when they closed the bridge - which from workers I understand has been going on for nearly a month after it was discovered that the center guardrail (and the others on the approaches to the bridge) were damaged and could conceivably cause cars to fall into resaca. The condition they're in leads one to think it will be months before the repairs will be completed.

But the question remains, why weren't any signs notifying the public that regularly use this road to get to their homes nearby or those who use it to avoid traffic on the largest thoroughfares.

New Pct. 2 commissioner Joey Lopez has been on the job since January and he should have known of this work. And the Public Works Dept. should have know that without warning signs informing the public, no one would know the bridge was out.

We don't know how many drivers have been inconvenienced by this obvious oversight on the part of our transportation gurus at the county, but in our view, if it happens to be you, one is too many.