An Ear for the Details

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SUCCESS STORY

An Ear for the Details

In July of 2006, the Texas Transportation Commission gave approval for a 4-year, $153 million project to ease Texarkana's traffic congestion along Interstate Highway 30 and intersecting highways.

The IH30 project consists of new construction and reconstruction of frontage roads. Austin Bridge and Road was given the contract to build 22 bridges, consisting of main lane crossovers, turnarounds and flyovers. The project also includes reconstruction of State Highway 59 at the IH30 interchange and the installation of 25 retaining walls. The bridge and road work is the both the biggest construction project Texarkana has ever had, and the largest contract that Austin Bridge and Road has ever signed.

Like many bridge construction project designs, there are many repetitive elements, such as stems and pier caps. Austin talked to Symons^® about forming them as productively as possible. They knew that even small ways to simplify construction add up to big savings over the duration of the project.

Symons also proposed using a combination of Max-A-Form^® for the large areas on the pier caps and Steel-Ply^® on the “ear wall” details. Most contractors use wood forms or come back later in a separate operation and Austin Bridge and Road knew that those methods slowed them down. They immediately recognized the value of this simplified plan.