August 25, 2003

(Dallas, Texas) – The Dallas High Five Interchange is setting records beyond those of its height and scope as a construction project. Texas Department of Transportation’s Northwest Area Engineer for Dallas County Larry Tegtmeyer announced the five-level interchange project at the intersection of U.S. 75 and I-635 is ahead of schedule.

“We officially began the project January 2, 2002,” he said. ”We’re one year into the program, and while that’s 20 percent of the contract time, construction is 28 percent complete.”

Contractor Zachry Construction will be paid an incentive for every day the project is completed in less than five years, up to a maximum of one year early. They will be charged liquidated damages for every day the project completion exceeds five years. Approximately one-third of the five-year construction project takes place at night. It is scheduled for completion by the end of 2006.

Dallas High Five Interchange Project Facts:

• The $261 million Interchange is the largest single highway project ever awarded in Texas. When completed, the five levels will include:
• Level 1 – Four lanes of travel northbound and southbound U.S. 75
• Level 2 – Frontage Road Box (named for the rectangular shape created by the intersection of continuous east-west and north-south frontage roads through the Interchange)
• Level 3 – Five lanes of travel eastbound and westbound I-635 and two lanes each way barrier-separated HOV lanes on I-635
• Level 4 – Direct Connection Ramps from U.S. 75 to I-635
• Level Five – Direct Connection Ramps from I-635 to U.S. 75 and Reversible HOV Lanes to/from I-635 west and U.S. 75 north

First-year accomplishments on the $261 million project include:

• Bridge columns are 45 percent complete with 322 completed out of 710 total
• Bridge Caps – 187 completed or 46 percent of 409 total
• Bridge Beams – 46,862 linear feet or 29 percent have been set out of 163,619 total
• Pre-cast Bridge Segments– 130 erected or 21 percent of 623 total

The project has reached a number of construction milestones and more are scheduled for completion in 2003, which include:

• Westbound LBJ frontage road from TI Boulevard to Cottonwood Creek – complete at the end of March 2003
• Southbound North Central Expressway frontage road from Midpark Road to Coit Road – complete in late March 2003
• TI Access Bridge - complete late summer 2003
• Coit Road Bridge - complete by August 2003
• Direct connector eastbound LBJ to northbound North Central Expressway – complete in November 2003. (This is the completion of the first direct connector)

The big yellow and blue Segment Erector is the first of its kind in the U.S. It was designed and constructed by Deal S.R.L. of Italy.

Deal is a subsidiary of Rizzani de Eccher, an Italian company with whom Zachry Construction has partnered to design and build the segmental portions of the direct connection ramps. The erector weighs 101 tons and measures 97 feet long by 38 feet wide by 37 feet tall and cost approximately $1 million to build.

The Segment Erector is being used to hoist pre-fabricated bridge segments into place on bridges as part of the High Five construction. It is capable of lifting a load of 70 tons from the ground to the top of the pier at the rate of 30 feet per minute. Once the segment is on the top, the erector can travel from end to end of the cantilevered pier at a rate of 0.45 mph. This ability to lift the segments from either end of the cantilever and travel with it to the point of placement is the unique characteristic of this erector. This ability has greatly minimized the impact to the traffic traveling underneath.

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