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More than two decades has passed since Bryan voters approved the concept of a transportation project at Villa Maria and Wellborn roads. More than $11 million was spent. Roughly 115 million liters of dirt was excavated over a 100-day period. Twenty-one subcontractors and at least 100 people worked on the job.
And it was all for an underpass, a massive concrete slab, also known as a grade separation, that takes Finfeather Road and the Union Pacific Railroad tracks over Villa Maria Road to more efficiently move the 26,000 vehicles that drive through the intersection each day.
Officials even held a celebration Tuesday morning to celebrate the end of a long project and the beginning of a user-friendly road that now is officially open to traffic.
In an unconventional ribbon-cutting ceremony, Bryan City Councilman Ben Hardeman drove his 1929 Model A Ford Phaeton down the newly paved road to mark the opening of the underpass.
The ceremony marked "a significant moment in Bryan's history as we symbolically connect the east with the west without concern for train traffic," Deputy City Manager Hugh Walker said.
Tuesday's ribbon-cutting ceremony was a long time coming, Hardeman added.
"What a glorious project it has turned out to be," he told a crowd that included a quorum of council members along with Mayor Mark Conlee and former Mayors Ron Blatchley, Jay Don Watson and Ernie Wentrcek. "I have never seen a more beautiful transportation project anywhere in the state of Texas."
The underpass features 20 glass tile mosaic murals based on photographs snapped by Maury Jacob, a landscape architect employed by the Texas Department of Transportation.
The mosaics depict traditional Texas scenes such as livestock, cotton, flowers and the crown from the top of the Queen Theater in downtown Bryan. Jacob took about 100 photos that were reviewed by a committee of residents and officials from the Arts Council of Brazos Valley.
The photos then were sent off to an international company in Mexico called Dal-Tile, which assembled the mosaics.
"There's no painting," Jacob explained after Tuesday's ceremony. "I don't know how they do it. I imagine they've got a photo that's been printed out full size that they lay down next to what they're working on. Then they start picking out colors that match the image they're working on."
Building an underpass
Although Bryan voters approved a $2.9 million bond issue for the underpass in 1984, construction was delayed for a variety of reasons, officials said Tuesday.
"You may be dying to ask the question, 'What took you so long?'" Hardeman said.
But when the bond issue was approved, the councilman explained, Villa Maria was a city street, and TxDOT took over the road as F.M. 1179 in the late 1980s.
"Governmental entities began discussion of moving the railroad tracks or lowering the railroad tracks," Hardeman said. "The consideration of that project had to be resolved before we knew if a grade separation was needed."
And once the decision was made, funding had to be identified and plans had to be designed.
TxDOT officials broke ground on the project Aug. 9, 2004.
Construction of the underpass, contracted to Allco LTD, was split into five phases, said TxDOT engineer Ryan Jackson.
The first phase consisted of building a bypass route that would handle traffic for phases 2 through 4. Contractors also built railroad "shoofly tracks," which are temporary, pre-assembled tracks of minimum standards that can be used as a detour around a work site.
The project's second phase moved traffic to the new bypass road and narrowed Finfeather to two lanes. Contractors began construction on half of the new Finfeather bridge and began work on the new Union Pacific Railroad bridge.
During Phase 3, traffic was moved onto the newly constructed half of the Finfeather bridge while crews began construction on the remaining half. The contractor also finished the railroad bridge and constructed permanent railroad tracks during Phase 3, Jackson said. Aesthetic elements like the mosaic tiles were installed as part of the bridge construction.
As the project came to an end, traffic remained on the bypass but Finfeather was opened to its full four-lane width. Train traffic moved onto the newly constructed tracks, and crews began excavating nearly 115,000 liters of dirt to drop Villa Maria under the train tracks. The digging alone took more than three months, Jackson said.
The final phase involved paving Villa Maria and Wellborn roads and finishing the concrete-block retaining walls and center medians, Jackson said.
Jackson said it was difficult to pinpoint the most challenging part of the project.
"It's hard to narrow it down to one thing because the entire project was challenging due to the constricted work area," he said. "Construction of both the Finfeather and Union Pacific Railroad bridges [was] also challenging because of the aesthetic elements built into the bridges."
Looking ahead
The new structure will last for at least 30 years, TxDOT officials said Tuesday.
It's a safer option for motorists now that the train tracks are separated from the roadway, TxDOT District Engineer Bryan Wood explained
"It's not just an important project to the city, but it's an important project to TxDOT," Wood said during Tuesday's ceremony. "A railroad-vehicular accident is a very somber event. A train can do a lot of damage to a car.
"I'd like to see more partnerships like this with the city," he said. "I hope it's turned out beyond your expectations."
Bob Appleton, TxDOT's director of planning and development, said projects like the underpass help advance the state's goals of reducing congestion, enhancing safety and expanding economic opportunities.
Tuesday's ribbon-cutting was a long-awaited celebration for many, but it was also unique because a section of Villa Maria was closed so the ceremony could be held -- complete with folding chairs and refreshments -- underneath the new train tracks.
"It's not often you get to stand in the middle of a paved road and not have to worry about getting run over," Appleton said.
View more photos from the overpass opening by clicking here.
• April Avison's e-mail address is april.avison@theeagle.com.
