CR 418 replacement bridge nears completion
Foundation Rises
By SHANNON CRABTREE scrabtree@leader-news.com

Wakefield Bridge crew workers put the finishing touches on one of the bank walls of a new CR 418 bridge Monday. The 120-foot span will cross CR 418 near the intersection of CR 411 at the site where an old creosote post bridge was destroyed in a deliberately set fire. L-N Photo by Shannon Crabtree

A dirt road shortcut destroyed in an October 2007 arson attack could reopen before the end of the month as construction of a new bridge nears completion.

Wakefield Bridge of Wharton anticipates two to three weeks more work is needed on the replacement CR 418 bridge.

"This week we should finish up the foundations," Mark Wakefield told the Leader-News Monday. "We've had some delays with weather and rising water at the location."

Wharton County Commissioners Court awarded the emergency bridge replacement contract to Wakefield Oct. 8 for $176,000.

The span over the Tres Palacios has been impassable since Sept. 25, 2007.

Although not a highly traveled road, CR 418 is used as a link between FM 1162 and Hwy. 71.

"They are coming along with it," Precinct 4 Commissioner Jimmy Kainer said Monday, adding he anticipated completion soon.

The former bridge on CR 418 about two miles southeast of Hwy. 71 and just west of the intersection with CR 411 was destroyed in a deliberately set blaze Sept. 25.

Despite the best efforts of Danevang and El Campo firefighters over a three day period, the old creosote post bridge burned to a pile of ash.

Danevang Volunteer Fire Chief Ben Rivera was first to arrive on scene.

"It was fully involved. There were flames everywhere, rolling over the top of the bridge," Rivera said that night.

Before it was finally and fully doused, volunteers had to return three additional times.

By then little was left.

Built in 1960, the 86-foot span bridge had been repaired about nine years ago, Kainer said at the time, and was in good shape.

The new bridge will be 20 feet wide and span 120 feet when complete.

"The new bridge will be bigger for safety and flood control purposes," Kainer told the commissioners court as he requested funding.

State fire marshals joined in the investigation of the incident and determined that it was an arson.

But thus far, no one has been caught.

The state of Texas offers a reward for information leading to the arrest and grand jury indictment of whoever is responsible for the fire.

Arson is a felony level crime.

Anyone who may know who is responsible for the fire is urged to call Crime Stoppers at 543-TIPS.

Prior to the September 2007 blaze, the last major bridge fire in Wharton County was Feb. 14, 1998 when vandals torched a creosote timber bridge on CR 366 over Mustang Creek.

That 89-foot span bridge had been built in 1987 and cost $150,000 to replace. No one was ever caught.