Best Bridge Houston 2000 - Dunlavy Street bridge over U.S. 59
Readers' Choice: Dunlavy
Yeah, yeah. We know. The bridges being built over U.S. 59 have caused ridiculously frequent freeway closures. And on the occasion when 59 is open, drivers have to risk life and limb just negotiating the lane merges around heavy machinery. But as our own Mayor Lee Brown so prosaically put it, "This is the price of real progress." The set of four free-span steel arches will allow the expansion of U.S. 59 to ten lanes, plus an HOV lane or two and a pair of shoulders. They'll also increase clearance above the freeway by three feet to accommodate today's taller tractor-trailers. They'll be pretty too, adorned with artistic flourishes by Cotswold 2000 architect Rey de la Reza and will include gold-colored steel globes, brick walkways, torchère lighting, bike lanes and an arc of fiber-optic light that can be programmed to change colors with the seasons. Many, many months after construction began, the 4,000-ton, $1.5 million Dunlavy bridge opened at the end of August.