Took a spin into the Hill Country this past Sunday to check out a couple of bridges that were knocked out during the Memorial Day flooding. Plenty of you folks have ridden on these roads and I figured you might like an update before you choose your route to the Hill Country Ride In.
First up was a ride out FM 165 from Henly towards Blanco. If you remember, the road was closed when I tried to get to Blanco May 24th…
Well, TxDoT still has signs up saying that the bridge is out and no through traffic is allowed, but I kept going until I got to the Blanco River bridge…
Looks like cleanup has been going well and they re-opened the original low water crossing. The crossing is one lane and traffic is controlled by a temporary stop light…
So, getting into the town of Blanco by this route is good even though the signs try to keep you away and it looks like construction on the new bridge is gonna start real soon.
From here I headed back down FM 165 to FM 2325 to head toward Wimberley and then over to Fischer. Back on May 24th I had heard that the Fischer Store Road bridge had been washed out, but I couldn't get close due to roads still being flooded everywhere.
Here's a pic of the Blanco River bridge on Fischer Store Road from May 24th (not my pic)…
And here's my view from almost the same spot on Sunday…
As you can see clean up has not even started. Supposedly a contractor has been chosen which means clean up and subsequent bridge construction will begin any day now.
So, FM 165 from Henly to Blanco is passable, but Fischer Store Road between FM 2325 and RR 32 will be closed for a while. (The RR 12 bridge near Wimberley was re-opened shortly after the flooding. It was damaged, but deemed safe by the TxDoT engineers.)
Ride safe y'all!
