GALVESTON — A barge crashed into a bridge pillar in Galveston on Wednesday, spilling oil into surrounding waters and closing the only road to a small university island, authorities said. There were no immediate reports of injuries, but one person on the barge was knocked overboard and quickly rescued, authorities said.
The bridge leading to Pelican Island north of Galveston was struck about 9:50 a.m. when a tugboat backing up from Texas International Terminal, which operates a fuel storage facility next to the bridge, lost control of two barges it was pushing and was struck by the barges, said David Flores, bridge superintendent for the Galveston County Navigation District.
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“The current was really bad and the tide was coming in. He drowned,” Flores said.
He said one of the barges collided with a bridge and two utility poles.
The accident came just weeks after a cargo ship collided with a support pillar of the Francis Key Bridge in Baltimore on March 26, killing six construction workers.
According to Maj. Ray Nolen with the Galveston County Sheriff’s Office, one man fell overboard from a boat and into the water during Wednesday’s incident, but was quickly rescued and uninjured.
The tugboat was pushing a bunker barge, a vessel used to carry fuel for ships, Flores said. The incident caused the barge to spill crude oil into a channel off Galveston Bay, where crews are working to clean up. The barge, owned by Martin Petroleum, can hold 30,000 gallons of crude oil, but it’s unclear how much spilled into the bay, Galveston County spokesman Spencer Lewis said. The spill has closed about 6.5 miles (10.5 kilometers) of the channel, he said.
Galveston County Judge Mark Henry said the temporary closure of the waterway will not have a significant impact on water-based commerce in the area.
“This area is somewhat isolated,” Henry told KTRK. “It’s not part of the Intracoastal Waterway, it’s not part of the Houston Ship Channel, so there are other options in this area.”
Pelican Island, connected to Galveston by bridge, is home to a large shipyard, Texas A&M University at Galveston and Seawolf Park, a former immigration station that now draws tourists with its iconic fishing port and retired U.S. Navy ships. The university campus currently has about 180 students, faculty and staff, a spokesman said.
Fire engines raced over the bridge while workers and police inspected the remains of the collapsed track, and aerial footage showed large chunks of broken concrete and remnants of the track hanging over the side of the bridge and lying on top of a barge that authorities said had crashed into the walkway.
Flores said the tracks were only used to protect the building and have never been used before.
According to a statement posted on the City of Galveston’s Facebook page, no injuries have been reported and the island is currently closed to vehicle traffic.
“Texas Department of Transportation engineers are also on the way to inspect the roadway for any damage,” the statement said. “The bridge will remain closed until it is deemed safe for use.”
Transportation officials allowed vehicles to leave Pelican Island on Wednesday afternoon, but the bridge remained closed to all other vehicular traffic.
Texas A&M University told all non-essential employees at its Galveston campus to leave as soon as possible and said it would remain closed through at least Friday. Students who live on campus were allowed to remain on campus, but university officials warned that students who live on campus and leave “should be prepared to remain off campus for any length of time.”
The Pelican Island Causeway Bridge, which opened in 1960, was rated “poor” in the Federal Highway Administration’s 2023 Nationwide Bridge Inventory, released last June.
A bridge’s overall rating is determined based on whether the individual components of the bridge (deck, superstructure, substructure, or culvert (if present)) are in poor or worse condition.
In the case of the Pelican Island Causeway Bridge, inspectors rated the bridge deck in “good condition,” the substructure in “good condition” and the superstructure, or the part that absorbs the actual traffic loads, in “poor condition.”
The Texas Department of Transportation had planned to begin work on replacing the bridge with a new one in the summer of 2025. The project was estimated to cost $194 million. In documents presented at a virtual public meeting last year, the department said “the bridge is reaching the end of its design life and is in need of replacement.” The department said it has spent more than $12 million on maintenance and repairs on the bridge over the past decade.
The bridge has a single 164-foot (50-meter) long steel main span and was last inspected in December 2021, according to federal data, but it’s unclear from the data whether a state inspection occurred after the Federal Highway Administration compiled the data.
In 2011, average daily traffic on the bridge was about 9,100 cars and trucks, according to estimates.
Lekan Oyekanmi And Juan Lozano, The Associated Press
Lozano reported from Houston. Associated Press writers Christopher L. Keller in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Valerie Gonzalez in McAllen, Texas, Acacia Coronado in Austin, Texas, and Ken Miller in Oklahoma City contributed to this report.
