Truck with flatbed trailer becomes latest to hit bridge

No injuries reported, but fix to structure remains more than five years away

A truck carrying a cargo container on a flatbed trailer struck the Houston Avenue bridge on eastbound Interstate 10 on Monday, marking the latest wreck caused by a truck that exceeded the bridge’s height limit.

No injuries were reported in the crash, which temporarily shut down the two right lanes of I-10.

The truck struck the bridge about 9:26 a.m., transportation officials reported. A police officer at the scene said the container fell from the flatbed onto a sedan.

The bridge has a height of 14 feet and 8 inches, leaving little leeway for trucks taller than 14 feet, which fall into the “overheight” category.

Crews on the scene assessed the damage and concluded the bridge was structurally sound.

“At this point, there is not enough damage for repairs to be done,” Texas Department of Transportation spokesperson Emily Black said.

The incident is similar to one that occurred March 3, when a truck hauling a container struck the bridge. The flatbed carrying the container had elevated the height of the load to exceed 14 feet, prompting the crash.

Other incidents include a chain reaction in December of five trucks striking a protective metal plate on the underside of one of the bridge spans, and a truck transporting a shipping container that struck the bridge last July, causing the container to fall onto a nearby car.

Despite the series of accidents, the Houston Avenue bridge cannot be raised because doing so would put other bridges at risk for being struck, TxDOT officials have said.

For instance, the Hogan Street bridge, which also runs over eastbound Interstate 10, has a height clearance even lower than that of Houston Avenue, at 14 feet and 3 inches.

One solution is a complete redesign of all the low-span bridges in the area, which is part of a planned freeway reconstruction project of Interstate 45 from the central business district to Loop 610 north of downtown.

But that project is still at least five years away, and until then, truck drivers will have to be mindful of the heights of their loads.

Yi-Chin Lee / Houston Chronicle HPD officers and crew members work on Interstate 10, where a truck struck the Houston Avenue bridge and its container fell onto a nearby sedan, snarling eastbound traffic.