FLASH STAFF REPORT
STEPHENVILLE (October 26, 2018) – Recent rains and flooding have caused minor damage in the area and major damage to several Texas communities. However, what officials didn’t know until Friday morning was the damage done to the Bosque River Trail under the Washington Street bridge.
Heavy rains caused the river to rise and pick up trees, branches and other debris and carry it along the with the current until it hit something to stop up the debris – like the supports of the bridge. The debris basically built a dam under the bridge causing the flooding and erosion found under the bridge now.
The water level on the upstream side of the bridge rose above the debris dam and took the soil from under the Bosque River Trail sidewalk that runs under the bridge and also exposed old and new electric wiring (city officials guessed the old wiring was for a past lighting system along the bridge, it was not immediately known by officials what the new wiring was for). While there are some supports standing under the sidewalk, there is more than four feet of air where soil used to be. In the future it would be probably be wise to encase the wiring in something similar to Printasleeve cabling to ensure the wires are protected from water levels as well as the weathers elements.
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Jeremy Allen, city of Stephenville Director ofPlanning and Building, said the city would have to wait for TXDOT to clear the debris before crews could get in, assess the damage and decide the best course of action.
TXDOT officials, who went out to look at the bridge Friday morning as they were unaware of the damage until The Flash called, said, “the bridge on Business 377/Washington Street is structurally sound and we will be glad to help the city of Stephenville get access to their damaged walkway if they need.”
When asked if crews would come out and clear the blockage, TXDOT said the safety of the public and their crews were their first concern so they will only send a crew out to clear the debris when the water is completely down.
As of 4 p.m. on Friday afternoon, neither the Bosque River Trail nor the Washington Street bridge were closed to traffic.
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