The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is taking steps to address anticipated highway congestion in rapidly growing Collin County in Texas by widening Spur 399/State Highway 5 from four to six lanes.
The $168 million project includes the construction of eight new bridges and the widening of two others.
The approximately 2-mi. stretch of roadway between Stewart Road and Eldorado Parkway is nearly 40 mi. north of Dallas.
The road widening is intended to make the highway "easier and safer for the traveling public," said Carlos Arocha, a senior project manager with Webber, a Ferrovial company, the project contractor.
As the spur reaches its northern endpoint, it will taper back to four lanes.
Arocha said there are anywhere from 40 to 60 workers on the site. Two crews are installing drainage, using excavators and rollers. Another two crews are setting up temporary detours to reroute traffic, using bulldozers, a motor grader, rollers and a water truck.
Another crew is setting up temporary barriers at night with excavators. And there ais a traffic control crew that directs traffic so the work can continue.
Concurrently, work has begun on the first new bridge out of the project's 10. The two bridges now on the road will be widened.
During the first week of August, the contractor started drilling shafts on one of the 10 bridges. For the work, which will continue for all the new bridges, the crew is using a drill rig, a 12k forklift and a skid steer loader. Another two crews are working on the substructure of the first bridge and its retaining walls. For this work, Webber is using forklifts, manlifts and rough-terrain cranes.
This task requires a drill rig, which drills a hole in the ground. With the same rig, a crew sets up the reinforcing steel and pours concrete into the hole. After the shafts are drilled, crews will begin working on the bridge columns.
The diameter of the drilled shafts for the project varies from 18 in. to 108 in. On the first bridge, they vary from 18 in. to 42 in. The length of the shafts varies from 20 to 70 ft. For the first bridge, the lengths vary from 25 to 40 ft.
Webber is using a CZM EK200 drilling rig.
The largest scope of work on the project is the retaining walls that will be constructed, followed by the concrete paving. Work on these walls has started by the new Stewart Road bridges. There are more than 40 retaining walls in this project, which will be built throughout the job. Work is projected to start on the retaining walls in late August.
The project calls for the installation of 33 streetlights. These will be put in place throughout the project.
Fernandez said that as much as possible, the company is recycling the concrete that is being demolished and incorporating it into the subgrade of the pavement.
Arocha estimated that at the project's peak, with work being done on paving, structures, roadway and drainage simultaneously, there will be more than 100 people working on the site.
"The volume of traffic is pretty high. We have some big challenges with lane closures and coordination of trucking and so on," Arocha said.
TxDOT awarded the project in December. According to TxDOT, the segment is expected to take about 3 1/2 years to complete, with a projected finish date in early 2029.
Officials broke ground on the project in June.
Subcontractors include Choctaw Erectors, which is furnishing and installing steel girders for a flyover bridge; CND Contracting, which is demolishing existing bridges; FGA Construction, which is managing the flatworks; and Mica Corp., which is overseeing the electrical work.
"We're really excited because this is the first of many projects for the Spur 399 extension," said Madison Schein of TxDOT Dallas. "This is something that's really important to the Collin County area, as there's so much growth in this area. And the purpose of this project is to really help improve mobility in the eastern part of the county."
Over the coming years, TxDOT will invest $8 billion into projects along Spur 399 and U.S. 380 in Collin County, said Robert Vaughn, Texas Department of Transportation commissioner.
