Information flows at Wirtz Dam Bridge project meeting
Dozens of Highland Lakes residents filed into the Marble Falls Public Library on Aug. 20 to view plans for the Wirtz Dam Bridge over Lake Marble Falls. Staff photo by Dakota Morrissiey
Dozens of people lined up to get into the Marble Falls Public Library on Tuesday, Aug. 20, to learn more about a proposed second bridge across Lake Marble Falls. An open house offered information and insight into the Wirtz Dam Bridge project from local leaders and Texas Department of Transportation officials.
Current plans are to break ground sometime during the summer of 2025. The $35 million project is expected to be completed in 2027.
Along with the 0.33-mile bridge, the project includes improvements to 3.68 miles of Wirtz Dam Road. The bridge would span the Colorado River just below Wirtz Dam, connecting the communities of Cottonwood Shores and Granite Shoals, linking RR 1431 and FM 2147, and increasing mobility.
“As it is, there are not enough crossings on the Colorado River,” KC Engineering President Greg Haley told DailyTrib.com during the open house. “What this is going to do is it’s going to take a substantial amount of traffic off of U.S. 281 in Marble Falls and it’s also going to drastically improve response times for emergency services.”
Currently, the only major north-south crossings on the Colorado and Llano rivers in the Highland Lakes are the RM 2900 bridge in Kingsland and the U.S. 281 bridge in Marble Falls.
A commuter traveling from Granite Shoals to Horseshoe Bay has to drive either 26 minutes and 15.7 miles through Marble Falls, crossing the U.S. 281 bridge, or 32 minutes and 24.8 miles through Kingsland, crossing the RM 2900 bridge.
TxDOT spokesperson Kellen Mohrmann echoed Haley’s assessment.
“Population and economic growth in this region (have) led to increased traffic and reduced mobility along major corridors, including U.S. 281 in Burnet County,” she said. “This plan is to provide improved regional mobility and connectivity and, hopefully, improve safety as well.”
TxDOT will completely fund the $35 million construction costs, while Burnet County is responsible for right-of-way acquisitions, easement purchases, and utilities relocation. The total cost for the county’s portion is still being determined but estimated to be over $3 million.
In 2018, TxDOT agreed to fund bridge construction if the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization paid the $3 million necessary to engineer and design it. CAMPO is a regional transportation planning organization that covers Burnet, Bastrop, Caldwell, Hays, Travis, and Williamson counties.
Burnet County Judge James Oakley, who sits on the CAMPO Executive Committee, pushed for project funding. The committee voted to provide the $3 million in 2019.
Burnet County hired KC Engineering to perform the engineering and design work after funding was acquired and designs were completed in March 2023. TxDOT held up its end of the bargain and included the Wirtz Dam Bridge project in its Unified Transportation Plan in August 2023.
Judge Oakley laid out some of the costs for the county on the project, estimating it would require roughly $2 million to purchase about 40 acres of land and easements and an estimated $750,000 to move utilities for the city of Cottonwood Shores. The Burnet County Commissioners Court approved a $5 million bond on Aug. 13, $1 million of which is slated for easements.
Pedernales Electric Cooperative power lines also would have to be moved, but how much that will cost is still unknown. Oakley is a member of the PEC Board of Directors.
Once the land acquisitions and utility relocations are complete, the entire project will be in TxDOT’s hands, said KC Engineering President Haley.
“Once we’re done, we hand over the reins to TxDOT and they take it from there,” he said.
The project is expected to go out for bid in June 2025. Work should begin by July 2025. Construction should take about two years.