Location: Houston, Texas

Description: This section of the Harris County Toll Authorities, Westpark Toll road is a recessed section going under 10 main lanes of US 59 in addition to both the North and Southbound frontage roads that are constructed at grade. To accomplish this, soldier piers 60” in diameter up to 70’-0” deep had to be installed along the existing Westpark to protect it from the excavation. These shafts where constructed with as little as 22’-0” of headroom. In addition to the soldier piers the center bent of the elevated US 59 had to be retrofitted with additional piers to help carry the load since there was going to be a loss of skin friction due to the excavation. The retro fit consisted of drilling additional shafts in between the existing shafts and permanent casing being installed to aide in protecting the existing structures. This work was also constructed under 22’-0” of headroom. Due to the depth of the excavation and the surrounding structures there were very stringent tolerances for verticality and location of the soldier piles. The soldier piles and retrofit shafts where excavated using a specialty drilling equipment designed and built by Beck and Bentonite drilling slurry to support the shaft due to a high water table.

General Contractor: Balfour Beatty Construction, Inc. Gerald Horn, Houston Division Mgr and  Jeff Berger, Project Mgr 

Engineer: Turner, Collie and Braden Inc.

Owner: Harris County Toll Authority