Barge hits bridge in Texas, damaging structure and causing oil spill

Houston, Texas — A barge crashed into a bridge abutment in Galveston, Texas, on Wednesday, spilling oil into surrounding waters and closing the only road to a separate, smaller island that is home to a university, officials said. There were no immediate reports of injuries, although authorities said one person on the barge was thrown into the water and quickly rescued.

The bridge leading to Pelican Island, north of Galveston, was struck by the barge around 9:50 a.m. when a tug leaving Texas International Terminals, a fuel storage operator near the bridge, lost control of two barges that pushed. said David Flores, bridge superintendent for the Galveston County Navigation District.

“The current was very strong and the tide was high. He lost control,” Flores said.

One of the barges hit the bridge and two telephone poles, he said.

The accident occurred weeks after a cargo ship collided with a support column on the Francis Key Bridge in Baltimore on March 26, killing six construction workers.

Wednesday’s accident knocked a man off the ship and into the water, but he recovered quickly and was not injured, said Maj. Ray Nolen of the Galveston County Sheriff’s Office.

The tug was pushing fuel barges, which are fuel barges for ships, Flores said. The accident resulted in oil spilling from the barge into the bay and crews were working to clean it up, he said. The barge, owned by Martin Petroleum, has a capacity of 30,000 gallons, but it is unclear how much leaked into the bay, said Galveston County spokesman Spencer Lewis. He said about 10.5 kilometers of the waterway were closed as a result of the spill.

Pelican Island, which is connected to Galveston by bridge, is home to a large shipyard, Texas A&M University of Galveston and Seawolf Park, a former immigration station that now attracts tourists to its iconic fishing pier and decommissioned US Navy ships.

Fire trucks passed over the bridge as workers and police watched the remains of the collapsed railway line. Aerial footage showed a large piece of broken concrete and railroad debris hanging from the side of the bridge and lying on the barge that authorities said crashed into the crossing.

Flores said the railway line only serves to protect the structure and has never been used.

A statement posted on the city of Galveston’s Facebook page said there were no reports of injuries and that the island is currently inaccessible to automobile traffic.

“Engineers from the Texas Department of Transportation are also en route to inspect the roadway and determine if there is any damage,” the statement said. “The bridge will remain closed until it is deemed safe for use.”

One company, Baywatch Dolphin Tours, said it was seeking university approval to transport people off the island and planning how to provide long-term service while bridge repairs are underway.

Opened in 1960, the Pelican Island Causeway Bridge was rated “poor” according to the Federal Highway Administration’s 2023 National Bridge Inventory, released last June.

The overall rating of a bridge is based on whether the condition of any of its individual components – the deck, superstructure, substructure or culvert, if present – ​​is rated as poor or inferior.

In the case of the Pelican Island Causeway Bridge, inspectors classified the deck in “satisfactory condition,” the substructure in “fair condition” and the superstructure – or the component that absorbs the load of active traffic – in “poor condition.”

The bridge has a steel main span that measures 50 meters (164 feet), and federal data shows it was last inspected in December 2021. However, it is unclear from the data whether a state inspection occurred after the Federal Highway Administration compiled the data.

The bridge had an average daily traffic of about 9,100, according to a 2011 estimate.

___

Associated Press reporters Christopher L. Keller in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Valerie Gonzalez in McAllen, Texas; Acacia Coronado in Austin, Texas; and Ken Miller of Oklahoma City contributed to this report.