City clears up concerns about strange structure near busy Austin bridge

AUSTIN (KXAN) – As he plays music in his south Travis County home, it’s clear Jeff Farris has a passion.

“Always loved pianos,” he said.

That passion extends beyond the music and into the mechanics. Not only can he tickle the ivories, but he also just as easily tweaks the strings.

It’s all part of the job.

“I’ve been tuning pianos in Austin since the late 80s,” he said. “A lot of studios, churches, people’s homes, you know.”

The career nurtures Farris’ love of music, as well as his penchant for precision.

“It’s very much like a circle of refinement,” Farris said of his process.

But there was nothing refined about something Farris noticed on his daily drives, giant, Jenga-like blocks forming walls on all four corners of the Slaughter Lane Bridge in south Austin.

Farris thought the blocks looked haphazardly placed.  

“I couldn’t imagine a reason why they were there,” he said. “It feels like they’re trying to support the bridge in case it falls down.”

“That’s why I contacted KXAN to see if they knew what is going on,” Farris added.

KXAN Investigator Mike Rush spoke with Binaya Sharma, a supervising engineer with the city of Austin.

And his message is simple. “There is nothing wrong with the bridge,” Sharma said.

Sharma said the bridge is structurally sound. The city, he said, installed the limestone blocks, weighing about 3,000 pounds each, as a preventative measure after noticing some movement.

The Slaughter Lane Bridge was built more than 30 years ago, and Sharma said, over time, the existing, retaining walls along the four sides of the bridge, called mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) walls, have shifted a bit.  

The block walls, he said, stop the shifting.

“This wall is not supporting any of the bridge’s structures,” he said, referring to the block walls.

The city thinks the shifting in the retaining walls was caused by either a design or construction issue when the Slaughter Lane Bridge was built in the early 1990s.

The big blocks have been in place for three years and Sharma said they’re only meant as a temporary fix while the city comes up with a plan, and the estimated $15 million it will take, for a permanent solution.

There’s no timetable on when the permanent fix will happen.

The William Cannon Bridge with more severe shifting, he said, had the blocks as well, until the city recently completed a permanent repair on it.

KXAN Investigates checked with the Texas Department of Transportation, which inspects the state’s bridges, and records show the Slaughter Lane Bridge scored a 74.9 in its most recent inspection in March 2024, which, according to a TxDOT spokesman, puts the bridge in the category of ‘good’ condition. 

It’s worth noting, whatever the score, TxDOT considers any bridge open to traffic to be safe.

“I drive that every, almost every other day on this one,” Sharma said, referring to the Slaughter Lane Bridge, “There is no risk of driving over that bridge”.

That’s music to Farris’ ears. “I feel like it’s probably safe,” he said.