Texas DOT to Cut Ribbon on New Harbor Bridge in Corpus Christi May 10
After controversies and delays, the $803 million US 181 bridge will be one of the largest cable-stayed spans in the U.S.
machineryasia 
After controversies and delays, the Texas Department of Transportation is set to mark the completion of the new Harbor Bridge in Corpus Christi with a ribbon-cutting May 10 for one of the longest cable-stayed bridges in the U.S.
The new $803 million US 181 Harbor Bridge is 3,295 feet long between the transition piers and has a center span length of 1,661 feet. The structural profile includes 698 precast concrete box girders, 84 delta frames and 76 pairs of permanent stay cables. Drivers will get three lanes in each direction with a median barrier, shoulders, and a bicycle and pedestrian shared-use path. Larger ships will now be able to enter the Port of Corpus Christi with the new bridge’s 205 feet of clearance.
The structure, billed by its developer Flatiron/Dragados as the longest concrete segmental cable-stayed bridge in North America, required a collective 10 million man-hours to complete. The concrete placement for the main span closure happened in February, marking the official completion of the bridge deck.
The final work completed in the previous weeks included installing stay cable fire protection, traffic barriers and rails and pedestrian fencing. The temporary steel towers beneath the bridge’s back spans will be repositioned this summer to stage demolition for the old Harbor Bridge.
According to TxDOT, the decision to replace the old Harbor Bridge, which was built in the 1950s, included many factors, such as the old bridge’s lack of shoulders, steep grade, a high accident rate and an outdated 138 feet of navigational clearance.
Work on the bridge was halted for a time in the summer of 2022, when TxDOT issued a notice of default to Flatiron/Dragados over design flaws including deficiencies in the footing caps that could lead to collapse under certain load conditions. The developer ultimately agreed to make changes at its own expense.
Flatiron/Dragados took over as the bridge’s developer in August 2020, when the former contractor FIGG Design Group was removed after the company was partly blamed for the fatal collapse of a pedestrian bridge being built at Florida International University.
