Old bridge taken for long ride

If you've driven down County Road 143 lately, you've probably noticed that the old Oak Forest Bridge has been removed from the crossing at the Guadalupe River.

Although the bridge eventually will be installed across Kerr Creek in East Avenue, it's not there yet. So where is it?

The Oak Forest Bridge has been transported to a warehouse in Odessa in West Texas. While it's out there, it will be sandblasted, painted and then returned to Gonzales for reassembly across the creek.

Gerald Freytag, bridge inspection engineer at the Yoakum district office of the Texas Department of Transportation, explained how the bridge came to be taken to Odessa.

TxDOT in July awarded the contract for removal and reassembly of the Oak Forest Bridge to A/P Resources Inc. of San Antonio, the successful bidder with a proposal totaling $416,528.80. Initially, plans called for sandblasting and painting the bridge near the site where it will be reassembled across the creek.

"We couldn't allow any airborne paint particles," Freytag said. This meant the sandblasting and painting would have to be done in an enclosure such as a large tent.

As an alternative, A/P Resources proposed taking it to Odessa where the company has a 44,000-square-foot warehouse.

"We couldn't see any reason to turn him down," Freytag said, adding that having the work done indoors in a controlled environment could turn out to be preferable to the results from working outdoors. "A shop paint job could be better than outside."

Freytag said the work in Odessa would be overseen by inspectors from the TxDOT district office in San Angelo.

He said the bridge probably would be hauled back to Gonzales within three or four weeks. Meanwhile, a subcontractor will be starting work on the concrete drilled shafts to support the bridge.