The Texas Department of Transportation's (TxDOT) $47 million U.S. 90A at State Highway 99 project, which began in September 2023, features SER Construction Partners LLC building a 546-ft.-long, four-lane bridge directly beneath the S.H. 99 bridge in Sugar Land to relieve congestion in a heavily traveled area.
The project's anticipated delivery date is June 2026.
SER Construction Partners photo
This project was financed with Category 2 funding — Metropolitan and Urban Area Corridor Projects. Category 2 addresses mobility and added capacity projects on urban corridors to mitigate traffic congestion, as well as traffic safety and roadway maintenance or rehabilitation.
The project includes the construction of 0.98 mi. of frontage roads to serve travelers who prefer not to use the main lanes or bridge, upgrades to drainage infrastructure and the building of retaining walls and sidewalks.
The new five-span structure spans the southbound and northbound S.H. 99 frontage roads and is expected to improve traffic flow across the U.S. 90A/S.H. 99 intersection, according to TxDOT.
"Eastbound or westbound through traffic along U.S. 90A will flow free, while turning traffic would be required to use the intersection to access S.H. 99," Costas Georghiou, a principal with Houston-based engineering firm PGAL Inc., told Construction Equipment Guide. "Currently, there are significant congestion issues due to the significant turning traffic.
Approximately 27,000 vehicles use the current intersection daily, with a significant portion turning to and from S.H. 99.
"The project has been in planning since before 2010, with the schematic approved in January 2013," Georghiou said. "This intersection is very important to the local and regional traffic as, until this project is completed, significant congestion impacts both the turning and thru traffic along U.S. 90A. A direct connector further relieving turning issues is currently in the planning stages."
"A major issue was designing storage and mitigation for the depressed area and designing drilled shaft retaining walls along the UPRR to support current and future tracks," he said. "The frontage road pavement was designed for a 30-year lifespan. The proposed bridge design was chosen for economy and speed of installation."
SER Construction Partners photo
Status Report
SER Construction has completed the eastbound and westbound U.S. 90A frontage roads; all the bridge substructures; and the MSE retaining wall structures on each side of the bridge. That allows for the necessary embankment to raise the roadway approaching the bridge to the overpass elevations.
"In the next six months, we will be working on completing the bridge deck and railing," Ben Cross, an SER senior project manager, told Construction Equipment Guide, "as well as the main lanes of U.S. 90A on each side of the bridge. Additionally, we will be placing signs, completing the permanent striping and activating the signals at the intersections."
SER officials said construction challenges are being overcome as they arise.
"Hurricane Beryl had strong winds and rain and damaged numerous traffic control devices [barrels, signs, message boards]and required substantial clean-up/water pumping to mitigate," Cross said. "Work has been progressing steadily; however, we have had several third-party utility conflicts with critical parts of the project, which required partnering with TxDOT and the design engineers to redesign the traffic control plan and phasing. There were some delays, but they were substantially mitigated by the rephasing of the project. Underground fiber optic conduits and overhead power were conflicting with critical work.
"The majority of the work was able to be completed during normal business hours," he added, "however, because this intersection (U.S. 90A at S.H. 99) is a heavily traveled area, TxDOT stipulated lane closure restrictions. Any obstructions of travel lanes were to be done during off-peak hours. When we set beams, pour bridge decks and do large roadway pours, we scheduled those at night to avoid major disruption to the traveling public."
SER Construction Partners photo
Bridging a Bridge
The new U.S. 90A overpass is being constructed beneath the existing S.H. 99 overpass, which created overhead clearance issues and constraints.
Crews are making strides on the new bridge's construction.
"The overhead clearance constraints limit the size of the cranes/booms that are necessary to set beams, panels, forms, steel, etc.," Cross said. "We checked the elevation of the bottom of the existing structure and used the maximum allowable crane that could fit under the bridge; however, during the beam-setting operations, this required two cranes lifting the beam.
"Ready-mix concrete is being used for the roadway, bridge deck and bridge substructure. We are using precast concrete for the storm sewer system (pipe, boxes, manholes/inlets) as well as the bridge deck panels which serve as the bottom form of the deck, as well as a portion of the deck thickness. Also, the retaining wall panels were prefabricated.
"Both the bridge deck and portions of the retaining walls have used drill shaft foundations," he added. "We utilized two drilling crews simultaneously to expedite the bridge foundations."
Drainage is located on both sides of the bridge.
SER Construction Partners photo
"The bridge has a vertical crown in the middle, and the drainage system was installed on each side of the bridge," said Cross, who noted that continuous concrete rails are installed on each side of both bridges to prevent debris from falling below.
Equipment used for the bridge work includes a SANY SCC8100 110-ton crane, a Manitowoc 11000-1 110-ton crane, a Cat 349 excavator, a Cat 926 loader, a GOMACO 2600 slip form paving machine (roadway), a GOMACO 450 bridge deck paving machine and a Cat 420 backhoe, in addition to numerous excavators of various sizes depending on the size/weight of the underground utilities.
The construction of the retaining and sound walls is separate from the bridge work. The walls varied from 2-ft. tall to approximately 28-ft. tall at the height of the retaining walls.
"We used precast panels with steel reinforcing straps that were embedded in cement-stabilized sand to support the walls," Cross said,
For this work, mid- to large-sized excavators, typically Cat 320s, were employed.
The frontage roads were constructed first to put traffic on them while SER initiated the bridge and main lanes work in the middle of the right-of-way.
Cross is assisted by Project Manager Joseph Fishback, Superintendent Jamie Jones, General Foreman Nestor Balltieres and Project Engineer Vanessa Daily.
Busy days have three to five SER crews on site at any given time, with five to 10 workers per crew.
The project subcontractors are HB Farmer for drill shaft foundations, Creacom Inc. for signals, Willow City for signs and Stripe Lines for striping and traffic control.
Approximately 75,000 cu. yds. of material were excavated.
"We were able to reuse approximately 25,000 cu. yds. during the embankment at the retaining walls," Cross said.
SER has many ongoing projects in Texas and Arizona, which require a well-maintained fleet.
"We're experiencing normal wear and tear," Cross said. "Our equipment is fully utilized. We have a staff of mechanics that travel to each project as needed — daily for lube/fuel and every few months for scheduled maintenance."
Much of the equipment SER uses for general underground, earthwork and roadwork is by Caterpillar, which is represented and serviced by the Houston area's Mustang CAT. CEG
(All photos courtesy of SER Construction Partners.)
