TX 174 Brazos River Bridge
Taken from Kimball Bend Park.
Photo taken by Gail Hurley Oct. 2010
BH Photo #192482
Sam,
The bridge was open to traffic when I visited the bridge in 2019. It shows green on Google Maps Traffic which would suggest the bridge remains open as of today.
I also did a Google search for the bridge and found an article indicating that as of 2020 it may be run as a one-lane bridge controlled by signals.
https://www.kxxv.com/one-direction-of-travel-for-sh-174-brid...
I do think this bridge is eventually slated for replacement but I have no idea when, perhaps years from now.
Is the bridge over the Brazos open for traffic? This page says open, but not dated.
Thanks so much.
Sam
The bridge has been converted to a one lane bridge with alternating directional lights
That style of postcard was common in the 1930s-late 1960s
...that postcard really dates to the 50s? (This bridge has a build year of 1950.) Seems like it'd be older than that.
Jesse - I found the signal lights on Google Street View and posted them.
They look like the type that are often used temporarily for one-lane construction areas, connected to one another by radio signals. They appear to be solar powered. Therefore there was no need to run power lines to them or a signal line between them, which greatly reduced the expense. These units are mass produced, so they probably weren't very costly, even in a semi-permanent installation.
This also means that if a decision is made in the future to revert to two-way traffic on the bridge, they can be removed very easily, and reused elsewhere.