US 190 Neches River bridges - Jasper County

The TxDOT Beaumont District is proposing to remove two bridges along US 190, which include the Neches River bridge and the Neches River Relief bridge and will replace with one bridge near the Jasper/Tyler County line in Texas.

Existing conditions

The two existing bridges that will be removed include:

The Neches River bridge, listed in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP), is a 1,595-foot-long structure built between 1941 and 1943 as a custom-designed truss bridge. The bridge consists of two through truss spans with a 24-foot-wide roadway and 27 simple approach spans.
The Neches River Relief bridge (west relief bridge), not listed in the NRHP, is a 455-foot-long concrete tee-beam structure built in 1940 and is located west of the historic bridge.

Both bridges include two 11-foot travel lanes and two 1-foot shoulders.

Proposed benefits

The purpose of the proposed project is to provide a modern bridge‐crossing the Neches River at Lake Steinhagen, with a focus on providing a bridge with adequate width and height to safely accommodate transportation needs. Additionally, the two bridges are being combined to one bridge to meet United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) lake requirements.

Proposed improvements

The project area would be approximately 1.11 miles in length along US 190 between the cities of Woodville and Jasper and would replace the two existing US 190 bridges described above. The project would construct one bridge adjacent to the north side of the existing bridges and would remove the two existing bridges and approaches. The approach roadways and new bridge would consist of two 12-foot-wide travel lanes (one in each direction) with 10-foot-wide outside shoulders. Wider shoulders will allow more room for disabled vehicles.

The project would be constructed entirely inside of the existing 200 to 300-foot-wide permanent transportation easement (which is used as right of way and referred to as such for the purposes of the project), and no new ROW would be required. Approximately 8.90 acres of temporary construction easements are proposed outside of the existing ROW, and a 0.25-acre temporary construction easement is proposed inside the existing ROW. The new combined structure will be a prestressed concrete girder (support beams) bridge, approximately 3,580 feet long.

Estimated project costs are $30,000,000.