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Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner and Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Houston) celebrated a ribbon-cutting ceremony on July 14 that's been three years in the making for the new Southmore Bridge in Houston.
Turner and Jackson Lee joined representatives from several different offices that were involved in the project.
"Did someone say it was infrastructure week?" Jackson Lee said in a July 14 tweet. "Today we opened the new Southmore Bridge in Houston! I’m excited for all of the new projects underway in our district!"
The original Southmore Bridge was demolished almost half a decade ago, KHOU reported.
Construction on the bridge was only scheduled to last a year to 18 months but workers were faced with several roadblocks.
"While the regular portion of the bridge was completed late last year, we want to celebrate the completion of the bridge together with the pedestrian bridges," CEO of Blue Ridge Transportation, the developer of the SH 288 Express Toll lanes, Enrique Martin said. "As you can see these bridges are different than the other bridges in the community."
Southmore Boulevard, which carries the bridge, serves both vehicular and pedestrian traffic headed east and west, KHOU reported.
"[It's] about building and creating a more livable city," Turner said, reported by KHOU. "And what that means is recognizing that people are not just in their cars or trucks any longer, people are also riding their bikes or they're walking. And we want to create that more livable space."
The bridge connects the neighborhoods of Third Ward and the Museum District, KHOU reported.
Tolls resumed on the southbound lanes of the SH 288 Express Toll.
Project organizers say that the two left lanes of Highway 288 southbound are now reopened from IH-610 to Bellfort Street.
The right lane and Bellfort Street exit will still be closed.