Saw yesterday afternoon some idiot hailing a backhoe forgot to measure their load height and they ripped the bottom out of all the overpass support beams eastbound. It'll be closed a few months I imagine.

What's the best alt routes around this? We go that way to San Antonio to visit the in-laws on a regular basis. Not going to be fun

I'd say take 99 to I-10 and then boogie your way to SA. Looking at map may even be better to take 359 to brookshire but the actual travel may be slower.

Thanks for the heads up.

Any idea which route the detours take ?

Just go Google maps and put in your destination address and Google shows two other routes that get there... both about 10-12 minutes slower than bastrop route

Based on my drive through last night. The ramps are open. Eastbound 290 was closed and the 21 bridge over 290 was closed. You can exit 21 to 290 then u turn about half a mile down in either direction to get back to 21.

The westbound 21 lanes on the bridge will be closed for a while. Based on the images I saw the eastbound side bridge beams seemed fine. I would guess they put up cones and make it one way each direction on the east side of the bridge until the bridge is repaired.
I think they may be able to open 290 eastbound once they clean it up if the damaged bridge beams are secure enough. Otherwise it will be closed until it is fixed. They are currently routing traffic up the ramp through the light and back down the ramp on the other side. Westbound 290 is fully open. Right now though if you are westbound 290 and want to go west on highway 21 you need to go past 21 and u turn back.

That blows. Need to drive to the AUS airport next week.

Yeah, as long as 290 traffic doesn't back up from the 21 traffic, you can hang a u turn on 290 not far either side of 21 after exiting. If 290 gets busy like Friday afternoon, the extra traffic slowing down and stacking up to make the u-turn could back up the 290 traffic pretty fast. I imagine they do as stated above and set up a temporary 1 lane each way on the intact span of 21 with some temporary lights. That would cause some delay but only during heavier traffic times.

The truck/trailer/backhoe arm smashed through the bottoms of all the cross beams without getting stopped. There was rebar sticking out at all crazy angles and a big groove in each beam. I bet they all have to be replaced.

I couldn't tell if it had hit both ways on 21 but it sounds like it just cleared one side and wrecked the other.

Rather than turning left to Buc'ees, go straight at the light. Cut through downtown, cross the Colorado on the old bridge, get on 290 at the HEB.

oldag76 said:

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71 is not the issue, its 290 and 21, about 15 miles before you get to Buccee's

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Sorry. My bad. In that case cut off on Old Potato Road then back to 290 by Sherwood Forest. Some dirt roads, though.

Was wondering why it was closed this morning when I driving to Austin. Forgot about it on my way back to BCS this afternoon.

Getting on 290 is not the issue. The highway 21 overpass that goes over 290 is closed in both directions. As others have mentioned just exit onto 290 and use the first turnaround. Traveling westbound on 21, I just went a little further up the road to Paige and used Main Street cut through.

australopithecus robustus said:

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I'd say take 99 to I-10 and then boogie your way to SA. Looking at map may even be better to take 359 to brookshire but the actual travel may be slower.

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The term "boogie" does not apply when traveling I10 west from Houston to SA. It is not a possibility with the construction zones.

So, is the company who owned the backhoe on the hook for the bridge repairs, or are we going to get the White House picking up the tab like in Baltimore? Asking for several million tax paying friends….