Fred Hartman Bridge

The Fred Hartman Bridge or Baytown Bridge is a cable-stayed bridge in the U.S. state of Texas.^[2] It spans the Houston Ship Channel and carries State Highway 146 between the cities of Baytown, Texas and La Porte, Texas^{[2] [3]} (east of Houston).

The bridge, named for Fred Hartman (1908•1991), the editor and publisher of the Baytown Sun from 1950 to 1974, is the longest cable-stayed bridge in Texas, and one of only two such bridges in the state, the other being the Veterans Memorial Bridge in Orange County, Texas. The construction cost of the bridge was $117.5 million.

The bridge replaced the Baytown Tunnel (of depth clearance 40 feet (12.2 m)),^[4] which had to be removed when the Houston Ship Channel was deepened to 45 feet (13.7 m), with a minimum 530 feet (161.5 m) bottom width, to accommodate larger ships. The last section of the Baytown Tunnel was removed from the Houston Ship Channel on September 14, 1999, with removal of the tunnel being the responsibility of the Texas Department of Transportation.^[4]

The bridge has had trouble in the past when water streaming down the cables in light rain changed the wind profile of the cables, causing unexpected vibrations.^[5]

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h} Fred Hartman Bridge at Structurae
2. ^ ^{a b} "Baytown Bridge" (photo), Flickr, December 2007.
3. ^ "Baytown Bridge (HWY-146)" (angled photo), Rob Benz, 2006, webpage: Mappic-BBridge.
4. ^ ^{a b} "Welcome to the Houston-Galveston Navigation Channel Project Online Resource Center" (description), USACE, December 2005, webpage: USACE-HGNC.
5. ^ Impossible Bridges: The Rion-Antirion Bridge National Geographic Channel. Accessed 12/18/2008.

Categories: Cable-stayed bridges | Bridges in Texas | Bridges completed in 1995 | Crossings of the Houston Ship Channel | Towers in Texas | Greater Houston | Galveston Bay Area | United States bridge (structure) stubs | Texas building and structure stubs | Houston, Texas stubs