DESOTO – The DeSoto City Council recently gave a unanimous yes to participate in a Federal Highway Association’s Highway Bridge Replacement and Rehabilitation Program. This participation will see the replacement of the Pleasant Run Road bridge at Ten Mile Creek in fiscal year 2026.
Managing Director of DeSoto’s Development Services Department Charles Brewer said, “This is one you are going to be very excited about.”
He explained that back in September 2022, the City of DeSoto was informed by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) that their Dallas office was in the process of selecting bridges for replacement for FY 2027. This replacement is associated with the Federal Highway Association (FHWA) Highway Bridge Program (HBP), which began in 1978.
Initially, the city had been told just 80% would be matched and 20% paid by the city. Brewer said of that 20%, an additional 10% was expected to be matched by the local TxDOT, leaving the city’s expectation to match only 10%.
“Another caveat of that would be we would not have to pay that 10% if we could show we were doing improvement on another bridge structure within our city,” Brewer said. “Coincidentally, since we were proposing to replace Heath Creek Bridge off Hampton Road, we identified we could easily identify the funds for that project as the city’s 10% match. So, we told TxDOT, let’s go.”
In January 2023, TxDOT officially selected DeSoto’s Pleasant Run Road bridge at Ten Mile Creek and began preparing and drafting the Advance Funding Agreement (AFA) for the city’s consideration.
In October, the city was contacted again with even better news that the bridge had been accepted for funding. Still, a different federal program had been found to replace the bridge that would allow 100% funding. The only change to the original plan would be to move the date of the bridge work from the initial scheduling in fiscal year 2027 to fiscal year 2026 instead.
“The key factor is zero cost to the city of Desoto,” Brewer added. “Ten Mile Creek is a monster creek when it fills up, and the city has this opportunity to get one of its bridges replaced free of charge. One of the caveats was possible additional charges if the city had utilities on it. I did a visual inspection, and the utilities appear to be gas. We won’t have any water or sewer relocation. This is a total win-win project.”
The bridge cost is over $10 million, and the city of DeSoto will not be required to pay any matching funds for this project with the new bridge replacement program TxDOT offered the city in October. TxDOT estimates the total cost for the bridge replacement project to be $10,557,000, with $1,557,000 for engineering and contingency and $9,000,000 for construction.
DeSoto Mayor Rachel Proctor asked Brewer how replacing the Ten Mile Creek bridge would impact traffic there. Brewer said they did not know the impact, depending on whether the bridge would be shut down entirely or laned off. He assured that the citizens of DeSoto would be kept informed as the project solidified.
DeSoto Councilmember Place 3 Nicole Raphiel wanted to know who would manage the project. Brewer said it was 100% TxDOT who would be involved in creating the engineering drawing, bidding, and construction management. DeSoto would only have the responsibility of 100% reporting.
