The Sylvan Avenue Bridge is a humble thing, an unlovable, low-lying stretch of concrete over the Trinity that tends to flood a handful of times per year. That's why the city and TxDOT have been planning, what seems like forever planning a newer, wider, taller, $42.3 million replacement.
Work on the new, six-lane span (complete with sidewalks but sans bike lanes) actually began earlier this year, with crews beginning to install bridge columns in late March, but the bridge has remained in operation, even if the associated boat ramp and Trammell Crow Park have not. Now, though, the inevitable day has come: TxDOT will close Sylvan Avenue between Irving Boulevard and Morris Street tomorrow.
There will be detour signs and electronic billboards alerting drivers of the change, but it will probably be best to steer clear of that general area while people figure things out, which they will have plenty of time to do. Construction is expected to last a year-and-a-half, with a planned reopening in the spring of 2014.
Then, rather than strangely haunting images of asphalt disappearing beneath flood waters in a vaguely post-apocalyptic landscape, we'll have something more like this:
