CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — According to the Director of Engineering for the city, Jeff Edmonds, the city of Corpus Christi has been busy at work adding scouring protection to the Gypsy and Whitecap bridges beginning in early July.
"Well, the problem is that the bridges weren't really designed to withstand fast moving water and it has really shallow foundation," he said.
Edmonds said that the project should come to a wrap in the next couple of weeks. Residents on the other hand, who have witnessed the boats unloading large rocks into the channel have raised their concerns on whether it's safe to navigate boats over them.
"Friends of mine came through the other day and I asked them to check on their depth finder what it looked like underneath and a buddy went to turn around right here at the bridge and got caught in sand on the side," said David Carr who lives right next to the Gypsy Bridge.
We asked Edmonds, what boaters should expect when navigating through these island bridges.
"The stone that we are placing is going to come out about 10 feet from the bulkheads, so it's going to be shallower up against the bulkheads," said Edmonds.
Edmonds, said those on a boat should stay in the center of the channel which has a depth that varies depending on the tide.
"So, at high tide you'll have more, at lower tide you will have less but on average you should have about 5 feet of draft there," said Edmonds.
Carr believes the city was swift when it came to addressing the compromised bridges on North Padre but hopes this information gets out to everyone for safety reasons.
"Because everybody has been boating through here for years but there's people here part-time and they have no idea what's going on," said Carr.
Edmonds said if you have questions when it comes to navigating these new bridges, he would encourage you to go around the long way to the Packery Channel.
Proceed with caution when navigating under the bridges, Edmonds said. He would also like to discourage people from jumping off these bridges because the bottom is now hard due to the rocks.
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