Residents fuming over bridge repairs

GALVESTON — Nine West End families, including several elderly and infirm members, are outraged they have been cut off from the outside world for more than three months since city crews caused the collapse of a bridge leading to their cul-de-sac homes.

They are fed up with waiting for the city and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to rebuild the bridge, even though a temporary gravel road has been constructed through fields to connect them with the main road more than a mile away.

The city is blaming FEMA, but the federal agency’s officials said it’s not their fault the residents of Camino Real have been waiting for the bridge to be replaced since the March 2 incident.

The problem, apparently, lies at Congress’ door.

Whoever’s responsible, the residents have an impossible choice when collecting their mail from their boxes about 500 yards south of their homes.

They have to decide whether to walk and risk falling into the water from the bridge’s remaining sliver of obstacle-ridden and uneven walkway or to drive the long way around and risk damage to their vehicles along the quarter-mile temporary road.

The one-lane earthen road connects the northern end of their street with Jenkins Lane to the east, and that road leads into 10 Mile Road and finally into Stewart Road a half-mile or so from its junction with the southern entrance to Camino Real.

The residents dislike using the temporary field road because traffic cannot pass on it and any driver rash enough to take to the grass on either side risks an almost certain flat tire.

Resident George Morton, a retired former principal of Galveston’s Ball High School, said he’s had more than one flat while driving through the fields and, on one occasion, got four holes in a tire.

He and his neighbors are not alone in avoiding the temporary road. Even the city, which built it, has banned its waste-disposal trucks from using it and their crews have to run the gauntlet of the broken bridge while manhandling the residents’ garbage cans.

In a statement to The Daily News, the city said the work done March 2 had taken place according to two FEMA project worksheets issued after Hurricane Ike, one for temporary road repairs and the other for permanent repairs.

The statement said decisions about the project are made by officials in FEMA’s Region 6 office in Denton.

It continued: “After the culverts collapsed, the city decided to be proactive. Rather than continue with the request to replace the culverts, the city decided to request a bridge. ...

“The city is waiting to receive official written approval from FEMA ... We have received verbal approval, but no funding has been allocated.”

Earl Armstrong, head of FEMA’s Region 6 media relations office, said: “The city actually claims the money from the state, and we reimburse the state.

“The money will be supplied to the state once Congress has approved supplemental funding for the Disaster Relief Fund.

“Because we reimburse rather than pay upfront, we can’t tell the city to start repairing or rebuilding the bridge.”

Nor can the state, Texas Division of Emergency Management’s assistant public information officer Rachel Jordan Shuss said.

She said: “Mr. Armstrong is right. We are waiting on Congress to approve the Disaster Relief Fund money.

“The procedure is for the project manager to move forward, submit paperwork and claim reimbursement. When FEMA sends us the funds, we will be able to move forward with the process.”

Morton said: “This just shows why the city isn’t talking to us about progress on the job. I hope someone reading this at city hall will decide it’s time they stopped dragging their feet.”