{"id":433195,"date":"2026-09-11T21:02:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T21:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/433195\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T21:02:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T21:02:10","slug":"texas-tallest-bridge-has-some-very-unexpected-tenants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/433195\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas’ tallest bridge has some very unexpected tenants"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than a year after the massive new Harbor Bridge <\/a>opened in Corpus Christi, crews have discovered something unexpected living beneath it: about 45,000 honey bees.<\/p>\n

The bees were found tucked beneath a drainage utility cover at the bridge project<\/a>, according to FlatironDragados, the construction company working on the project.<\/p>\n

Rather than exterminate the buzzing residents, crews called a local honey farm to move them.<\/p>\n

The approximately 45,000 bees were carefully removed and relocated to a new home, where they’ll be monitored for the next three months before potentially joining other healthy colonies used for honey production.<\/p>\n

“The relocation reflects environmental practices associated with the Texas Department of Transportation, which promotes pollinator-friendly roadside management and habitat preservation,” FlatironDragados said in a statement. “Early coordination with environmental specialists and local organizations can help project teams respond to unexpected ecological conditions while maintaining construction progress.”<\/p>\n

So, yes, Texas’ tallest bridge apparently has a bee problem.\u00a0But it’s one the bees are going to survive.<\/p>\n

A very big bridge\u00a0\"Construction<\/p>\n

Construction crews discovered about 45,000 honey bees beneath the Harbor Bridge in Corpus Christi. (Harbor Bridge Project)<\/p>\n

The new Harbor Bridge isn’t exactly an ordinary bridge.<\/p>\n

The 538-foot-tall structure is the tallest point in South Texas and has the longest concrete segmental cable-stayed main span in North America. Its main span stretches 1,661 feet across the Corpus Christi Ship Channel, allowing much larger ships to pass beneath it.<\/p>\n

The $1.3 billion bridge opened to southbound traffic on June 28, 2025<\/a>, after years of construction and delays. The northbound lanes followed in July.<\/p>\n

Cracks on the bridge?<\/p>\n

The bridge has already had its share of unexpected attention. In July, photos and videos showing cracks<\/a> in portions of the massive structure sparked questions about whether the newly opened bridge was safe. The project team said the cracks were cosmetic surface cracks, not a structural safety concern, and that crews were addressing them as part of routine maintenance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

More News<\/p>\n

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For the latest and best from Chron, sign up for our daily newsletter here.<\/a><\/p>\n

This article originally published at Texas’ tallest bridge has some very unexpected tenants<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than a year after the massive new Harbor Bridge opened in Corpus Christi, crews have discovered something…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":433196,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[150483,155,157,156,16912,137263,135135,150485,150484,27,9237],"class_list":["post-433195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-corpus-christi","tag-bridge-project","tag-corpus-christi","tag-corpus-christi-headlines","tag-corpus-christi-news","tag-harbor-bridge","tag-harbor-bridge-project","tag-honey-bees","tag-ordinary-bridge","tag-tallest-bridge","tag-texas","tag-texas-department-of-transportation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=433195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/433196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}