The days of fishing in the console for stray quarters when crossing the San Luis Pass bridge are numbered. Galveston County commissioners voted Monday to phase out the required $2 toll over the bridge, the Galveston County Daily News reported.
The motion passed 5-0 after Commissioner Joe Giusti, who put it on the agenda, reportedly said the toll’s purpose of paying for the bridge had been fulfilled years ago. He added that the county could absorb the roughly $500,000 collected yearly from the tolls, more than half of which goes toward staffing the booth.
Furthermore, the booth taking only cash created a different set of problems, Giusti noted.
“There’s been several occasions when 45 is screwed up and people have to go that way to get out of town,” he told the Daily News. “When that happens, traffic gets really backed up because it’s a cash business.”
Notwithstanding the Bolivar ferry—of little use when heading back to Houston or Austin—the San Luis Pass bridge is the only land route off the island besides the I-45 causeway. Linking Galveston Island and Brazoria County, it draws extra attention from time to time when construction around the causeway causes horrific backups, like the one in February that had fuming drivers reportedly waiting up to five hours to get back on the mainland.
Giusti told the Daily News that he had been talking to the county’s human resources department to find jobs for the toll collectors whose jobs would be eliminated. At least some of them were eligible for retirement, he said.
Built in the 1960s after Hurricane Carla destroyed the previous one, the bridge may not be long for this world either way, according to the Daily News. In 2023, the Texas Department of Transportation rated it in poor condition, noting its deteriorating beams and cracked concrete.
The county is in the embryonic stages of raising the money necessary for a new bridge. Commissioners in February authorized Galveston County Judge Mark Henry to apply for federal grants that would cover most of the cost, the Daily News reported.
It’s far too soon for any timetable for the new bridge, but if everything goes according to plan (no guarantee in these days of DOGE), that money will cover more than $83 million. That leaves around $20 million to be made up by the county, which voters will decide whether to approve as part of a $186 million bond package on the ballot in May.
The county has not announced an exact date when the San Luis Pass tolls will be lifted.
