TXDOT: Bridges over I-10 need to be replaced

Less than two years after crews installed streetcar rails on downtown bridges, causing traffic snarls for months, the area may have to bear more construction headaches.

Officials of El Paso’s Texas Department of Transportation office told City Council Monday that the Stanton and Oregon bridges over Interstate 10 need to be replaced.

Those bridges were shut down in 2016 to make way for the streetcar track. Drivers were forced to find alternate routes until they were reopened several months later.

TXDOT told city representatives that the bridges are more than 50 years old and traffic on them has increased in weight since they were designed.

“Some of these bridges are better than 50 years old,” El Paso TXDOT District Engineer Bob Bielek said. “They were designed for a 75-year design life. They were designed for trucks that weighed 72,000 pounds and we have trucks out there now that are over 80,000 pounds.”

Even as TXDOT is looking at alternative routes for the streetcar, the department didn’t present a timeline for the project.