CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Officials with the Harbor Bridge Project told 3NEWS that crews ended 2023 with some significant changes to traffic flow around the new Harbor Bridge's south interchange, changes residents will be seeing soon.
Public Information Coordinator with the Harbor Bridge Project, Lynn Allison, shared what is left to do before completion in spring 2025.
"Of twenty complete roadworks, bridges and structures, we have two remaining to finish and that will be complete this spring of 2024," Allison said. "We'll open up new connectivity by the summer of 2024, making it a lot smoother for commuters in that area."
The developers also recently finished installing the second set of permanent cable stays for the bridge's south pylon.
"So each cycle involves lifting segments, 16 segments, two delta frames, pouring median slabs and completing that cycle by running those stay cables," she said.
Allison said the north pylon has also made significant progress.
"Cycle four is completed with the fourth set of permanent stays," Allison said. "That's real significant."
Each one of those permanent stays consists of 296 pieces of epoxy-coated strands, each individually fed through the white pipe and stressed at the anchor of the bridge.
"As we get into the new year, we'll be running about one set of stays a month on each the north and south pylon," she said.
When it comes to casting bridge segments, Allison said of the thousands of segments needed to build the bridge, very few are left to cast.
"Our precast yard in Robstown is where we cast all of these segments that are truly cast with such precision, as if it were erecting Lego sets," said Allision. "So only eight out of 2,651 remain. Those remaining segments are kind of the specialty segments that make up the final segments in the middle of the bridge and the belvedere look out area that will be at the top of the bridge."
Another big change residents will notice in 2025 is the large gantry crane on bridge's south approach. Allison said that will be removed sometime this year. In fact, the project will begin to decommission the nearly 1,600 tons of equipment this month.
"It'll come down over the next couple of months, and it'll be shipped off in about 100 shipping containers," Allison said.
Of course, the question on most peoples' minds when will the bridge be finished.
Allison said that things are still on track for the bridge to be completed by the spring of 2025.
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