After nearly a decade of construction, design reviews and delays, the new Harbor Bridge in Corpus Christi is finally ready to open, providing improved safety and expanded port access capabilities.

The $1.2 billion project, which broke ground in 2016, was designed to replace the aging original Harbor Bridge that had higher-than-average accident rates and limited navigational clearance.

In November 2019, TxDOT suspended all design work after safety concerns emerged related to the engineering firm FIGG Group, which had worked on parts of the Harbor Bridge design.

This decision came after FIGG Group was implicated in the 2018 collapse of a pedestrian bridge at Florida International University that killed 6 people and injured 10 others. The National Transportation Safety Board determined the firm had not properly estimated the bridge's strength.

TxDOT later reviewed the already-constructed portions of the Harbor Bridge and determined they were safe, but the project timeline was pushed back multiple times due to weather, permitting issues, and construction delays.

The final cost ballooned to approximately $1.2 billion, about $300 million over the original estimate.