HOUSTON — A long-awaited meeting to settle the Ardmore Bridge project has some neighbors still frustrated they haven't been heard.
Neighbors living near the bridge say they anticipated this meeting would offer more clarity, but instead they were met with reasons why their suggestions would not work.
Tomaro Bell said the point of Wednesday's meeting at Good Hope Baptist Church was for the Harris County Flood Control District to share details of their traffic study on MacGregor Way.
The presentation then would allow for community members to offer their input, knowing they have an intimate knowledge of how traffic typically flows.
What happened instead, Bell said, was more of a "you take it or leave it" approach from HCFCD, which she considered a waste of time.
Bell said the only reason these meetings have been organized is because the community was originally left out of consideration back in November. HCFCD had shut down the bridge and left signs behind saying construction would begin shortly, much to the confusion of neighbors who say they heard nothing about it prior to.
Scott Elmer is the engineering department manager with HCFCD and said there was a sense of urgency to replace the Ardmore bridge and others along Brays Bayou as part of Project Brays. The project is part of a federal and local partnership with a total estimated cost of $480 million.
All bridges along the bayou are being reconstructed to be higher, longer and wider in hopes of reducing the flood risk. Elmer said in order to limit the effect on traffic, each bridge renovation is on a schedule to never interfere with traffic at the next bridge down the line.
Some have suggested relocating the bridge, but HCFCD said "it will affect the hydraulics of the water and causes impacts upstream."
“Sixteen bridges, 100 percent paid by the federal government and that money does have a deadline on when it has to be spent by," Elmer said. "We have to meet that deadline. What we’re going to do and I’m sure we’ll be meeting with the city of Houston officials immediately to see what can be done on accommodating two way traffic."
To make the changes requested by neighbors like Bell, HCFCD said it could take anywhere from $6 million to $20 million. Ardmore bridge is a city bridge, and HCFCD says it would be up to the city to finance the changes to traffic.
At Wednesday's meeting, a representative of Mayor Sylvester Turner's office said they would not be interested in spending any money although they support the county's efforts to reconstruct the bridge.
Councilmember Dwight Boykins, who was also in attendance made it clear he and Bell will be approaching the city once again to make the case that re-configuring traffic would not require as much money as anticipated.
Elmer said the longer we wait, the more we risk pushing back the project completion date. The Ardmore bridge project will take one year to complete, with the overall deadline being 2021.
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