Harbor Bridge Replacement – Corpus Christi, TX

The project involves the replacement of the current US 181 Harbor Bridge in Corpus Christi, Texas, along with a change in the alignment to interchange between US 181 and Interstate 37. The new Harbor Bridge accommodates larger ships and will be the longest cable-stay bridge in the U.S. and Canada when completed. Its main span length is 1,661 feet and the base of each bridge tower is roughly the size of a basketball court. The length of the main span of the bridge is equivalent to the length of five and a half football fields and the bridge itself has more than 862 miles of strand in the cable-stays. Along with the bridge, the project also involves reconstruction of portions of US 181, I-37, and a nearby expressway. Overall, nearly 6.5 miles of bridge and connecting roadway will be designed and constructed. The Texas DOT awarded this contract to a joint venture of Flatiron Construction Corporation and Dragados USA. Sauls Seismic was chosen by Flatiron to conduct preconstruction inspections and perform vibration monitoring to establish the existing ambient levels prior to construction. Sauls also performed vibration monitoring of construction activities at 41 different seismograph locations over the course of the project. The Sauls Seismic NOW Access℠ website was utilized throughout the project to notify management of vibration alerts.  A combination text/email alert system was set up to send notifications for both alert and action levels of vibration.