Mansfield Dam Road, formerly designated Texas Ranch to Market Road 620, crosses the Colorado River via the Mansfield Dam in Travis County, Texas.
Mansfield Dam Road, formerly designated Texas Ranch to Market Road 620, crosses the Colorado River via the Mansfield Dam in Travis County, Texas.
In 1936, Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) and the United States Bureau of Reclamation chose a site 20 miles upstream from Austin for a primary flood control dam along the Colorado River. 1 A construction contract was awarded to the Brown & Root company, and a groundbreaking ceremony was held on February 19, 1937. The generators went into operation at the dam’s hydroelectric plant in January 1941 and the dam was finished in May 1942.
The Mansfield Dam crossing was bypassed with a four-lane realignment to the south in 1995. All public traffic was restricted from the dam after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.
Information
- State: Texas
- Route:
- Type: Dam
- Status:
- Total Length: 7,089 feet
- Main Span Length: 19 feet
- Spans:
- Total Height: 278 feet
- Above Vertical Clearance: 18.2 feet
- Navigational Clearance:
Sources
- Pipkin, Turk. Born of the river: The Colorado River and the LCRA. N.p.: Softshoe, 1995. Print.