The Race to Save Texas’ Failed Megabridge

they say everything's bigger in Texas and that's definitely the case for the state's latest Mega projects the new Harbor Bridge stretching 506 meters across Corpus Christi's ship canal this will be one of the largest cable State bridges in America replacing the Aging structure that stands there today that is if it ever gets finished halfway through the projects investigators halted construction after they found a number of safety concerns that if left untreated could cause the bridge to collapse now the project is over budget and way past its original 2020 deadline and officials are racing to engineer their way out of this nearly billion dollar problem with tens of thousands of people relying on the old hover Bridge every day the pressure is on to fix the new one before it's too late [Music] Corpus Christi Texas home to one of the largest U.S ports this mid-size city has served as an important Gateway into the country for over a century and over the years it's been engineered to adapt as the world changed around it to accommodate the rapidly growing oil and gas Industries following World War II the port needed to build a wider passage and a larger bridge for ships to pass through and so the state to con one of its biggest construction challenges yet the original Harbor Bridge it was an incredible feat of engineering built without the use of modern computers and when it opened in 1959 the bridge is massive through ART structure was so tall that super tankers could enter the port for the first time igniting further economic growth it went on to serve Texas for more than half a century but was only designed with a 50-year lifespan and as the decades have rolled by the structure has yet again become outdated compared to the size of bridges in today's ports so now the state is building another new bridge to accommodate larger ships meet updated safety measures and lower maintenance costs not only will the old bridge be demolished but over 10 kilometers of new bridge and roadways are also being designed and developed the new design will be a cable stayed bridge where the road deck is supported by cables connected directly to pylons or Towers now that's different from a suspension bridge where the cables spread out across the suspender between the towers on the new Harbor Bridge cables will stretch from the towers to the road deck to carry six Lanes of traffic and a shared bike and pedestrian path the deck will sit an incredible 62 meters above the surface of the water high enough to clear the massive new Ships coming in construction started back in 2016 and was due to finish by 2020 but here we are in 2023 with a half-built structure so what happens well to be perfectly Frank a lot has gone wrong here firstly work on the bridge has been suspended not once but twice construction first paused in 2019 following the shocking collapse of a pedestrian bridge in Florida that resulted in several deaths and injuries I'd be wondering what a bridge all the way over in Florida has to do with this one in Texas well the collapse over there was due to an error in its initial design by fig Bridge group the same engineers then working on the new Harbor Bridge investigators looked into the Texas Bridge designs and ultimately removed fig from the projects replacing it with new firms construction then finally restarted in 2021 but not long after the bridge began taking shape an independent study conducted by a third-party Group found there were still five key safety concerns that could lead to a collapse construction on the mainspan was halted again in 2022 and the product's budget Grew From around 800 million dollars to nearly a billion now the Harbor Bridge isn't alone in its problems developers everywhere are facing new levels of risk Allstate and State Farm have stopped ensuring properties in California while some experts think commercial real estate is the next shoe to drop that would send shock waves through the economy and the effects could trickle down to Real Estate Investors so the ultra wealthy are changing their strategy looking to other Safe Haven Investments Beyond real estate including Collectibles and arts some of the b1m subscribers are employing a similar strategy with today's video sponsor Masterworks it's a platform for investing in contemporary art from Legends like Banksy and Picasso without having to be ultra Rich Masterworks has sold over 45 million dollars worth of artwork distribution and net proceeds to investors every single one of their sales to date has delivered a positive net return over 730 000 users have signed up so far but the b1m subscribers can skip the wait list add the link in the description now let's get back to that big bridge here's what exactly went wrong and how it's being fixed the first issue is with the foundation system the North and South towers of the bridge sit on top of a giant concrete slab the size of two basketball courts underneath each of them is a series of 64 meter drilled shafts filled with concrete and steel to transfer the weight of the bridge above down onto Solid Ground but the investigation found that under certain conditions like high winds the shafts might not support the weight of the pylons and could sink into the ground to address this the team is extending the foundations and adding more drilled shafts below each Tower enabling them to hold more weights without sinking the second issue has to do with the foundation caps on each of the towers these sit on top of a group of piles in order to equally distribute the weight to all the elements underneath think of it like a handful of straws when you grip them close together the investigation found that the demand on the piles greatly exceeded their loading capacity which ultimately could have led to the Bridge's collapse the fix here is to create more space underground so the piles don't bend and slip out of place above the concrete the piles will be moved deeper underground which will be supported by the newly drilled shafts from the first solution the third problem has to do with the Delta frame design a critical element in a cable State Bridge this part bears and transfers the weight of the structure onto the cables a bit like a mast on a ship building code requires this product to use non-compressed steel throughout the Delta frame in order to strengthen it but the investigation found that the heart bridge design didn't have the necessary reinforcements putting the structure at risk of cracking to strengthen the connections Engineers are roughing the concrete surfaces and adding rebar that crosses the interface the fourth problem was something called uplift occurring at two of the piers this means that instead of the weight transferring down into the cables near the towers it was causing the structure to rise up and with the Bridge's current design the bearings aren't capable of controlling this movement if uplift occurs this could ultimately loosen the connections and cause other Mason's issues so Engineers have added rebar to the last two segments on both ends of the bridge they also made modifications to some of these external bearings to prevent decompression the fifth and 5 final issue was caused by placement of the cranes during construction of the main span the way the equipment was set up during construction exposed it to high winds which could cause parts of the incomplete bridge deck to twist now workers are adding counterweights to balance out any potential movement from the weather then in April of 2023 yet another issue emerged from one of these cranes caught fire injuring two workers as debris fell below the cause of the Flames is currently being investigated we reached out to the companies involved but they declined to comments the work to fix the new Harbor bridge is only just beginning to start but as the original structure continues to age it's important to get this one right and quickly construction projects like this are a high wire racks and the race to fix the Texas Harbor Bridge is a powerful reminder of the trust we put in this industry infrastructure has the power to shape millions of people's lives for the better but only if it's built right this video was sponsored by Masterworks you can skip their wait list at the link below don't forget that we're inspiring the next generation of Builders through our investment into brick borrow a fantastic Lego subscription service you can learn more and get started today over at brickborrow.com and as always guys if you enjoyed this video and you want to get more from the definitive video channel for construction make sure you're subscribe to the b1m [Music] [Music] thank you

Channel: The B1M

Views: 1,565,457

Keywords: B1M, TheB1M, Construction, architecture, engineering, The B1M, Fred Mills, building, texas, bridge, harbor bridge, corpus christi, megabridge, cable–stayed bridge, Figg Bridge Group, texas department of transporation, texas bridge, texas harbor bridge, pylons, delta frame design, crane

Id: j9ODgfIaxc4

Length: 9min 26sec (566 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 05 2023