Drawbridge plan moves forward in Galveston

$91M proposal likely means future of a rail line is on hold

The long-awaited replacement of the Pelican Island Bridge has moved one step closer to reality.

Galveston County commissioners voted Friday in a special meeting to approve a resolution supporting the “continued pursuit and development” of a $91million, 75-foot high conventional drawbridge.

The selection of the $91 million proposal effectively puts any plans for a future rail line to Pelican Island on hold. County officials had been considering a $217 million land bridge — which would have created a strip of land extending across the waterway from Galveston Island to Pelican Island — to allow for development of a rail component.

The cost of the land bridge, and significant opposition from local environmentalists who believe a land bridge would endanger the health of Galveston Bay, put those plans on the back burner. But some county officials are holding out hope that a separate land bridge with rail could be developed in the future, possibly with help from the private sector.

“The ($91 million proposal) allows us to come back with a land bridge later,” said County Com-

missioner Ken Clark. “I believe that, and as we move through the design, I’m going to push for that feature.”

But the next immediate step is securing the funding for the $91 million proposal. The Texas Department of Transportation already has committed $45 million to the project — $15 million spread out over three years starting in 2020 — and also is helping pay for repairs to keep the current Pelican Island Bridge functional for the next 10 years.

The remaining funding is a question mark. The city of Galveston is prepared to commit around $5 million to the project, with another $8 million coming from the Houston-Galveston Area Council. The other local participants, Texas A&M University, Galveston County and the Galveston County Navigation District, which owns the bridge, have not yet put forth firm funding commitments.

Members of the navigation district, in particular, have questioned whether they should put money toward a new bridge that won’t require its manpower to operate. The sole purpose of the Galveston navigation district is as owner and operator of the current bridge.

“This is their bridge,” said County Commissioner Darrell Apffel, whose precinct includes Pelican Island. “They have to be the ones that ultimately commit. While we’re pushing it and assisting them, they’ve got to be the ones to sign on the dotted line.”

One option that has been discussed is having TXDOT bring the bridge “on system,” meaning that it would take over the maintenance and ownership duties from the navigation district. A spokesman for TXDOT said that the agency “has no plans on taking over the ownership of this bridge.”

For now, county officials are optimistic that the current bridge proposal could usher in development on Pelican Island, and, in turn, economic prosperity for Galveston County.

“The Port of Houston owns almost 1,100 acres on Pelican Island. We’ve got deep water access, we need to figure out how we can turn those resources into assessed value to reduce the tax burden on our residential taxpayers,” Clark said. “If we could develop Pelican Island and double, triple or quadruple the value of the entire county, that’s what we should do.”