Industrial History: 2025

Friday, July 11, 2025

1954,1970,1987 Lake Houston Dam and UP Bridge on San Jacinto River in Houston, TX

Bridge: (Archived Bridge Hunter; Bridge Hunter; no Historic Bridges; Satellite)

twdb
The spillway is 3,160 (963m) long, and the two earth embankments have a total length of 8,600 (2.6km). Between the spillway and the eastern embankment there is two Tainter gates.

n, Jul 2017

They plan to improve the spillway between 2028 and 2030 with a budget of $160m. [EngageHouston]

stantec
"Built in 1954, Lake Houston Dam is the only source of surface drinking water for over two million Houston, Texas residents."
[I could not find a date for the "elegant engineering solution."]

ReduceFlooding
"CWA is planning to add eleven new tainter gates to the dam for an additional 79,000 cubic feet per second of controlled discharge capacity."

The additional gates will allow them to draw down the lake level faster in anticipation of a major storm. They are also working on long term plans to replace the dam. [ReduceFlooding_Apr_2025]

CommunityImpact
The plan is "to add 11 gates to the spillway dam's existing four-gate structure." [However, only two of the holes in the existing structure actually have gates.]

This is the post that motivated these notes.

Union Pacific Railroad posted

This month’s calendar photo features UP 8393 leading a manifest train across Lake Houston, Texas.

📸 Photo by Stephen Foyt.

Patrick Feller Flickr, License: Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY)

Railroad Bridge over Lake Houston, Texas 1104091512BW

I had to be on the other side of the lake to check a project. A friend on that side has kayaks and we went out on the lake and headed toward the railroad bridge.

1937,1985,2026 IN-46 over Whitewater River

(Archived Bridge Hunter; Bridge Hunter; no Historic Bridges; Satellite)

Street View, Oct 2024

Indiana Department of Transportation: Southeast posted two photos with the comment:

How about a Monday afternoon project update? 🙌
📍 S.R. 46 over Whitewater River - Dearborn Co.
🔄 UPDATE: Crews have successfully removed the aged bridge deck on two of the five truss bridge spans and will soon begin rehabilitating steel members of the bridge (includes repairs, sandblasting and painting), constructing the new bridge deck surface, as well as complete joint replacement work.
Initial project information is here: https://bit.ly/4kb4qku

Four of the five spans are over flood plains.

Satellite

The five spans do make an impressive barrel view.

Street View, Mar 2019

2010 photo by Anthony Dillon via BridgeHunter

It sounds like they plan on saving the trusses by rehabilitating them.

in
The I-70 bridge is nearby. More of the $10.6m project will be done in 2026.

Thursday, July 10, 2025

1980 North San Gabriel Dam and Lake Georgetown upstream of Georgetown, TX

(Satellite)

usace, p2

"The North San Gabriel Dam is approximately 6,650 feet (2,027 m) long, 162 feet (49 m) high....The reservoir has a normal storage capacity of 37,100 acre-ft (45,762 Ml) and maximum capacity of 236,500 acre-ft (291,718 Ml). The surface area of the reservoir is 1,310 acres (530 ha) and the total catchment area is 246 square miles (637 square kilometres). The dam has a 1000 feet (305 m) wide uncontrolled spillway with a maximum discharge capacity of 342000 cubic feet per second (9684 cubic metres per second)." [DamsOfTheWorld]

Conservation pool is 791', and flood pool (spillway elevation) is 834'. Maximum design water surface is 856.2', and the top is 861'. [twdb]

July 4, 2025, Flood

A bunch of thunderstorms trained over Central Texas on the morning of July 4, 2025, causing flash floods that killed at over 100 people. The San Gabriel River also got lots of water.

I've learned that "full" is considered conservation pool. So, the dam can hold 236,500/37,100 = 637%. And the lake fills slower as the elevation goes up because there is more land to spread out on.

Facebook Reel

Slab Road on Llano River at Kingsland, TX

(Satellite)

Note the preposition "on" instead of "over" in the title. They got tired of rebuilding the bridge so they now they just allow the river to go over the road.

July 4, 2025, Flood

A bunch of thunderstorms trained over Central Texas on the morning of July 4, 2025, causing flash floods that killed at over 100 people. The Llano River also got lots of water. This water will dump into the Colorado River and then LBJ Lake. See Roy B. Inks Bridge for another view of the impact of this flood on the Llano River.

The timestamp in the upper-left corner indicates that just a half-hour elapsed from the beginning to the cars leaving the scene. Another posting of this video indicated that the speedup was 100x.

Meteorologist Noah Bergren posted 0:30 video

Horrible... Timelapse video of the Llano River in Texas from the deadly flash flood... is located about 75 miles northeast of Kerrville where 30+ lives were lost from the Friday floods. WATCH how fast it changes...

📸: Robert Ivey

I think this is at the same bridge.

Leandro Guevara posted 2:24 video

Neither video bothered to give location information. I encountered an "after" photo for Slab Road. And this comment allowed me to determine the location of the crossing.

Llano County News Wire posted

Kingsland Slab, Cr 307

July 8

This post had some informative comments.

Llano County News Wire posted
Kingsland Slab 7/9

Katy Richards: Wow...half the road has washed away!

Kelli Baugh Tudyk: Katy Richards that is not true. The road is still there. That’s just debris and dirt that was washed on it. The reason they have it shut down is there is still water running over the road.

Lora Strang: I think they need to make a little overpass and leave the slab for fun goers in the summer.

Jennifer McKague: Lora Strang my understanding there used to be a road over it that washed away a couple of times so they decided to just leave it a low water crossing like this.

[Lots of debate in the comments if the road needs some repairs.]

As I write this on Jul 10, 2025, the road is still closed.

Satellite

There is at least one culvert.

Satellite

I looked at all five available street views, and the road was dry in all of them.

Street View, May 2024

I looked at several Global Earth images, and this was about the wettest I found.

Google Earth, Feb 2008

Wednesday, July 9, 2025

Second I-75+I-71 Brent Spence Bridge over Ohio River at Cincinnati, OH

(Satellite, the new bridge will be just downstream of the old bridge.)

The Walsh Group posted two photos with the comment:

The design of the companion bridge for the Brent Spence Bridge Corridor Project has been unveiled, marking a major milestone in the 8-mile infrastructure transformation that will enhance safety, reduce congestion, and reconnect communities across Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky!
The cable-stayed design, selected for its function, aesthetics, and cost efficiency, will create a new regional landmark while easing one of the nation’s most critical freight bottlenecks.
With federal approval of the bridge type now in place, the Walsh Construction - Kokosing Construction design-build team will advance the project into final engineering and construction. The new companion bridge will carry I-71 and I-75 traffic, while the existing Brent Spence Bridge will be reconfigured for local use, delivering long-anticipated improvements to mobility, safety, and economic growth throughout the corridor. https://brentspencebridgecorridor.com/governors-dewine.../

Mike Hilgendorf: Breaking ground 2050!!

Mike Tierney: Mike Hilgendorf I heard that last night.

I believe the current bridge will collapse by then.

I did hear the current bridge is in better condition than the public realizes.

Got that Intel from a reliable source.

Mark Schauer: I don’t hate it. Just wish they’d demo the ugly old one afterwards. [This is the first time I've seen someone call a truss bridge ugly.]

BrentSpenceBridgeCorridor

BrentSpenceBridgeCorridor_media

3 ACL Bridges over Cape Fear River in Fayetteville, NC

From North to South:

SCL: (Bridge Hunter; Satellite)

CSX: (Bridge Hunter; Satellite)

East: (Bridge Hunter; Satellite)

Ken Riley posted two photos with the comment: "RailPictures.Net Photo: CSXT 5533 CSX Transportation (CSXT) GE B30-7 at Fayetteville, North Carolina by Douglas G. Walker."

Dre Ballard: This shot is just north of Fayetteville at “North Milan” Cape Fear River milepost A206

[The bridge on the left was abandoned by Seaboard Coast Line, but it is still maintained because it carries sewer and water lines.]

Tom Kadesch: South Branch Valley RR in WV.

[I made the photo small since it is not of the Fayetteville Bridge.]

This captures the water and sewer pipelines that are now carried by the SCL bridge.

BridgeHunter_SCL, 2009 photo by Bob Morgan

The CSX bridge is in the foreground and the SCL abandoned bridge is in the background. It appears that some of the truss spans in the CSX bridge got replaced by steel girders.

BridgeHunter_CSX, 2009 photo by Bob Morgan

This view allows us to see the mixed spans in the CSX bridge and the pipelines in the SCL bridge.

BridgeHunter_CSX, 2016 photo by Royce and Bobette Haley

East Bridge:

Street View, Apr 2023

The river was higher when this photo was taken.

BridgeHunter_East, 2016 photo by Royce and Bobette Haley

Every other pier is skinny and made with concrete instead of cut stone, so evidently this bridge replaced some trusses with steel girders.

BridgeHunter_East, 2016 photo by Royce and Bobette Haley

1957/60 Vander and Fayetteville Quads @ 24,000

Tuesday, July 8, 2025

1964 6mw Canyon Lake Dam on Guadalupe River in Canyon Lake, TX

(Satellite)

Street View, Jun 2023

USACE, Fort Worth District

July 4, 2025, Flood

This is the first reservoir on the Guadalupe River that the deluge of the catastrophic July 4, 2025, flash flood first encounters. It was so empty because of a drought that it easily absorbed all of the water. But here is an example of social media sensationalism. Fortunately, several comments called them out on it.

Economic Hell posted 0:46 video
Canyon Lake water level increased by 10 feet as torrential rains flood the Guadalupe River. With just 66 feet left before spillage, residents are urged to evacuate die tobthe floodings. Six dead so far — and more rain is coming. Stay alert, Texas.

Robbin Homan: This is not true.

I own a house on lake Dunlap, Canyon lake was about 30’ below normal. It took in all of the flood water and only rose about 10’. It could handle three times what it got. This is exactly what the lake was built for.

[Another comment indicates that the water level still hasn't reached some of the boat ramps.]

They had to use an old photo to make the lake look nearly full. A comment provided this photo.

Diana Holcomb Coffey commented on the above video

USACE

"The Texas Water Development Board reported that Canyon Lake, as of noon on Monday, was up nearly 11 feet from a week ago and stood at nearly 889 feet or nearly 62% full. Its full conservation pool sits at 909 feet. It was 46% full before the rains over the Fourth of July weekend." [tpr]

I dug deeper to find the flood pool elevation: 943'.

gbra

The dam is 224 feet high and 6,830 feet long.

At Conservation Pool elevation of 909 feet mean sea level (msl), the Reservoir covers approximately 8,200 surface acres and impounds 378,852 acre-feet of water to a depth of 140 feet.

At maximum Flood Control Pool elevation of 943 feet msl, the Reservoir impounds a total of 732,600 acre-feet of water.

The Emergency Spillway is at 943 msl.

Even if the lake had been at conservation pool (the desired level), it would have handled the flood waters. The water can rise 34' above the conservation pool before it would go over the spillway. And the 10' rise would have been less at the higher level because the lake rises slower as the lake goes up because it spreads out over more land. When the lake reaches the conservation pool, the USACE releases 12kcfs until the level is back down to the conservation pool.

When they talk about the lake being 62% full, I believe the conservation level is considered full. The dam can hold 732,600/378,852 or 193% full.

gbra
The 6mw powerhouse began generating electricity in 1989.
The lowest level of the reservoir was 877.49' on May 13, 2025, and the spillway has been topped only once, in 2002.

It will be a while yet before the lake can be used for recreation because it is now full of debris. And it is still well below its normal level.