Crumbling Spur 527 bridge to Brazos Street must close
Repairs could take a year, so get ready for delays to downtown
Say goodbye to a key Spur 527 connection to Brazos Street for about a year.
Crews on Monday morning, deeming the roadway condition unsafe, shut down the portion of the spur north of the Louisiana exit, which leads to Brazos and provides access to lower Westheimer.
In a news release, Houston Public Works said the “bridge deck has deteriorated significantly and is being closed immediately to protect the community from falling debris.”
The 50-year-old bridge will take “several months” to repair, likely opening next summer, officials said. Work includes replacing major portions of the roadway, which lately has chipped to the point steel was visible in the pocked pavement.
Traffic from Spur 527 will detour to the Louisiana and Travis exits into downtown, which remain open. Smith and Holman below the bridge remain open, protected by netting to keep large pieces of concrete from falling from the bridge to the street below. Smith and Holman will close for periods as work progresses, Public Works spokeswoman Erin Jones said.
Officials knew the bridge was in need of maintenance, Jones said, and were making plans for upcoming work in September. On Saturday, workers found a cracked area that was dangerous and planned a minor fix. Upon further inspection and a worsening of the area, Jones said the decision was made to shut down the span immediately.
“It got bigger, so (Houston Police) went out there to close it off,” Jones said.
Texas Department of Transportation workers also placed signs warning of the closing along the remainder of Spur 527. Though technically a part of the spur, maintenance of the portion past the Louisiana exit falls to the city of Houston. TxDOT maintains the rest. It was not rebuilt along with the southwestern portion of the spur, which was closed for two years and reopened in March 2006.
In its last official inspection in May 2018, the bridge received mixed results, according to the database maintained by the Federal Highway Administration. It was deemed in need of repairs, but those deficiencies did not rise to the level of a posing a safety issue, unlike the recent damage. The bridge is inspected every 24 months, though city crews often assess it between inspections.
Based on a 2014 traffic count, the latest available for the bridge, about 12,500 vehicles used it daily. Closing access to Brazos shifts much of that traffic to Louisiana — which carries about the same amount of traffic daily — or Travis.