The project entailed the construction of twin 8,592-foot, six-lane bridges (four traveling lanes and two full-width shoulder lanes) over the Intercoastal Canal between the Texas mainland and Galveston Island.
Each bridge consists of a three-span cast-in-place twin cell segmental main span bridge (740 feet in total length) over the navigational channel. Approaching the main span bridges are 35 spans (135 feet each) of Type VI girders to the south and an additional 24 spans (135 feet each) to the north. Approach foundations include 960 drilled shafts from 36 to 78 inches in diameter up to 113 feet deep, while each of the two main span piers are founded on 308 24-inch-diameter steel pipe piles 115 feet long.
The bridge contains more than 180,000 cubic yards of concrete, 750,000 pounds of post tensioning, and 32,000,000 pounds of reinforcing steel. Four overhead form traveler systems were used to construct the segmental main span superstructures. Due to environmental concerns and shallow water conditions, approximately 2,000 linear feet of the bridge was constructed off temporary steel work trestle. An overhead truss system that was moved from span to span was utilized to set the girders and precast panels in shallow water sections of the job. Traylor cast all concrete beams (126,692 linear feet) and four-inch deck panels (750,000 square feet) at our Houston precast facility. Two portable concrete batch plants were set up to handle the project, one of which was mounted on a barge.