Consultants say bridge designs meet federal modeling standards; Laredo committee asks council for geomorphology and environmental studies on wall and buoy risks

Consultants from LJA Engineering and SEA briefed a City committee on international bridge expansions and hydraulic design criteria, telling members that the World Trade Bridge HEC‑RAS study is complete and that a hydraulic analysis for the Colombia Solidarity Bridge is scheduled. Committee members repeatedly pressed the presenters to incorporate the potential effects of a recently built state border wall and a proposed federal buoy system into the river modeling and agreed to ask City Council to initiate geomorphology and environmental studies.

"We're your prime engineering firm on the Columbia Solidarity International Bridge Expansion," said Melissa Monttoayor of LJA Engineering, who described the proposed Colombian expansion as a doubling of capacity from eight lanes to 16 by adding two new spans and separating commercial from passenger traffic. Sid Milky of SEA, the project's senior project manager for World Trade, outlined the firms' hydraulic approach and the regulatory review steps with the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC). "We believe we've adequately designed the bridges to account for any flood elevation that the HEC‑RAS model tells…