Barge collision damages bridge between Galveston, Texas, and offshore island

A barge struck a bridge between Galveston, Texas, and Pelican Island in the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday, halting traffic on the span, closing a waterway due to spilled fuel oil and cutting power to the island temporarily.

The collision occurred around 10 a.m. local time. There were no reported injuries, city officials said in a release. The bridge is now closed to all vehicle traffic until the Texas Department of Transportation declares it to be safe.

“I’ve been on the waterfront for 43 years and this is the worst accident I’ve seen. This is a pretty bad one,” David Flores, a bridge operator who was on the Pelican Island bridge when it was struck, told the Houston Chronicle.

Mr. Flores said the accident occurred when the barge got stuck in a current and floated away from a tugboat that had been guiding it. The barge belongs to Martin Petroleum, the Galveston County Office of Emergency Management said on X.

A pair of barge crew members were either thrown from or jumped off the barge, but both were swiftly rescued, Galveston County Judge Mark Henry, the county’s chief executive, told KTRK-TV.

Parts of a defunct rail line next to the bridge fell onto the barge, according to the Associated Press.

The barge was carrying vacuum gas oil, a component in higher-quality fuel products like gasoline and diesel.

The capacity of the barge is 30,000 gallons and there was a fuel spill due to the damage. It is not known exactly how much vacuum gas oil was on the barge, Judge Henry said in a Facebook post, but a seven-mile portion of the Intracoastal Waterway has been closed due to the leak.

Electricity on the island was knocked out for about two hours, per a post from the Texas A&M University Galveston Campus, which is located on Pelican Island.