Barge hits Texas bridge, spilling oil and trapping people on island

GALVESTON, Texas (KIAH) – A barge slammed into a bridge pillar in Galveston, Texas, on Wednesday, spilling oil into surrounding waters and closing the only road to a smaller and separate island that is home to a university, officials said.

The bridge that leads to Pelican Island, north of Galveston, was struck by the barge around 9:50 a.m. when a tugboat backing out of Texas International Terminals, a fuel storage operator located next to the bridge, lost control of two barges it was pushing, said David Flores, a bridge superintendent with the Galveston County Navigation District.

“The current was very bad, and the tide was high. He lost it,” Flores said.

One of the barges hit the bridge and two telephone poles, he said.

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There were no immediate reports of injuries, although officials said one person on the barge was knocked into the water and quickly rescued.

The tugboat was pushing what are called bunker barges, which are fuel barges for ships, Flores said. The collision sent oil spilling into the surrounding waters. The barge, which is owned by Martin Petroleum, has a 30,000-gallon capacity, but it’s not clear how much leaked into the bay, said Galveston County spokesperson Spencer Lewis. Lewis said about 6.5 miles of the waterway were shut down because of the spill.

The U.S. Coast Guard was determining the extent of the spill. They will also initiate the containment and cleanup process.

The bridge, which is the only way on and off Pelican Island, was closed off to all vehicular travel after the collision.

“The bridge will remain closed until it is deemed safe to use,” a statement posted on the City of Galveston’s Facebook page said.

Transportation officials started allowing vehicles to exit Pelican Island on Wednesday afternoon, but the bridge remained closed to all other vehicular traffic.

Texas A&M directed all non-essential employees at its Galveston campus to leave as soon as possible and said it plans to remain closed until at least Friday. Students who live on campus were allowed to remain there, but university officials warned those who live on campus and leave “should be prepared to remain off campus for an unknown period of time.”

One business, Baywatch Dolphin Tours, said they were seeking the university’s approval to shuttle people off the island and were planning how to provide a long-term service while bridge repairs are underway.

Aerial video showed portions of a rail line that runs parallel to the bridge on top of the barge. Flores said the rail line only serves as protection for the structure and has never been used.

Pelican Island, which is connected to Galveston by the bridge, is home to a large shipyard, Texas A&M University of Galveston, and Seawolf Park, a former immigration station that now attracts tourists to its iconic fishing pier and decommissioned U.S. Navy vessels.

Opened in 1960, the Pelican Island Causeway Bridge was rated as “Poor” according to the Federal Highway Administration’s 2023 National Bridge Inventory released last June.

The overall rating of a bridge is based on whether the condition of any of its individual components — the deck, superstructure, substructure or culvert, if present — is deemed to be poor or below.

In the case of the Pelican Island Causeway Bridge, inspectors rated the deck in “Satisfactory Condition,” the substructure in “Fair Condition” and the superstructure — or the component that absorbs the live traffic load — in “Poor Condition.”

The bridge has one main steel span that measures 164 feet (50 meters), and federal data shows it was last inspected in December 2021. However, it’s unclear from the data if a state inspection took place after the Federal Highway Administration compiled the data.

The bridge had an average daily traffic figure of about 9,100, according to a 2011 estimate.

The accident came weeks after a cargo ship crashed into a support column of the Francis Key Bridge in Baltimore on March 26, killing six construction workers.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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