With more than 90 percent of the work complete, general contractor Longview Bridge and Road Ltd. is on track to finish the Texas Department of Transportation's (TxDOT) $63 million U.S. 59 upgrade in Redland by spring 2027.
The project spans 2.45 mi. of U.S. 59 between State Loop 287 and Farm-to-Market Road 2021 in Angelina County. Designed to boost mobility, safety and regional connectivity, the project converts the existing four-lane highway into a controlled-access facility featuring two main lanes in each direction, continuous frontage roads and five new bridges.
Funded through federal and state highway dollars allocated under a revision to TxDOT's 2017 Unified Transportation Program, construction began in summer 2022 following the contract award to Longview in June 2022.
Work includes reconstructing and widening the northbound and southbound main lanes to interstate standards, building two-lane frontage roads on both sides, and constructing entrance and exit ramps, drainage structures, highway lighting and pedestrian sidewalks. Crews are also installing a continuous concrete median barrier and uniform-width shoulders throughout the corridor.
The improvements are engineered to accommodate future traffic growth while preparing the corridor for ultimate incorporation into Interstate 69.
“This will be a controlled-access roadway that adds northbound and southbound frontage roads with access ramps to the main lanes, as well as a U-turn, reducing potential conflict points for traffic entering and exiting U.S. 59,” TxDOT spokesman Tim Monzingo told Construction Equipment Guide. “Sidewalks are also being added to provide safer conditions for pedestrians. A center barrier throughout the project protects against drivers veering into oncoming lanes of traffic.”
Monzingo noted that while routine congestion was not a major issue, the legacy footprint could not handle projected regional growth or heavy hurricane evacuation surges from the Gulf Coast. 2021 traffic counts averaged 29,937 vehicles daily north of the work zone and 30,426 at the southern terminus.
“Mobility is improved by moving local traffic out of the main lanes, reducing potential conflicts with through traffic,” Monzingo said. “Digital messaging signs along the road will play an important role in relaying information to motorists, both during emergencies and on a daily basis. The upgrade also provides future system connectivity to I-69, a 1,600-mile national highway connecting Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansas.”
Design, Heavy Earthwork
TxDOT initiated planning in 2017, earning environmental clearance in January 2019 and schematic concurrence that July. Final engineering, right-of-way acquisition and utility relocations wrapped up in fall 2022.
Lina T. Ramey and Associates served as the lead engineering design firm.
Key alignment challenges involved protecting a historical cemetery adjacent to the corridor and navigating Union Pacific Railroad right-of-way constraints.
“The roadway alignment was designed to avoid the cemetery, and a barrier was incorporated along the southern U-turn to meet railroad requirements,” Monzingo said. “While these issues required careful coordination during design, they are common challenges on projects of this nature.”
To maintain throughput while keeping workers safe, crews relied on low-profile concrete barrier walls to separate travel lanes during sequential traffic switches.
Longview has already completed the northbound and southbound frontage roads, pedestrian sidewalks, drainage structures and several bridges. Current operations center on main-lane concrete paving, remaining bridge structures, overhead sign structures and lighting installations.
Crews have encountered no adverse soil, water or utility delays. Project earthwork called for excavating approximately 260,000 cu. yd. of material. Most of the excavated soil was reconditioned and reused to fulfill the project's requirement for 263,000 cu. yd. of embankment fill across the site's sandy-to-loamy Fuller, Keltys and Lovelady soil profiles.
Heavy Paving Specs
The main-lane pavement structure comprises 13 in. of continuously reinforced concrete pavement (CRCP) over 4 in. of hot-mix asphalt (HMA) base, supported by a 12-in. lime- or cement-stabilized subgrade. Frontage roads share the same base structure but use a 10-in. CRCP surface.
Main lanes and frontage lanes are built 12 ft. wide. Outside shoulders range from 8 to 12 ft. wide depending on terrain, while ramp shoulders taper to 2 ft. Drainage ditches separating the main lanes and frontage roads average 6 ft. wide.
Concrete placements are scheduled around heat and traffic patterns.
“Sometimes that means during day hours; sometimes it means night hours,” Monzingo said. “Concrete pavement curing takes seven days, or three days if it reaches 3,200 psi.”
Subsurface drainage installations include extensive runs of precast concrete box culverts, pipe culverts and engineered outfall structures designed to handle storm runoff across the corridor.
Bridge Structures, Building
The project features five new bridges totaling 2,250 linear ft. Individual bridge lengths range from a three-span, 160-ft. structure to an eight-span, 790-ft. overpass.
All five structures use precast, prestressed concrete Tx-girders supported by cast-in-place concrete bents, caps and abutments, anchored by deep drilled-shaft foundations.
Crews began substructure work by drilling foundation shafts to plan depth, setting heavy rebar cages and placing concrete. Columns, bent caps, abutment caps and wingwalls followed sequentially.
“Once the foundations gained sufficient strength, columns were formed and poured,” Monzingo explained. “After columns cured, bent caps, abutment caps and wingwalls were constructed. Once bents and abutments were ready to support the superstructure, the precast, prestressed concrete Tx-girders were delivered to the site and set in place.”
After setting the girders, crews backfilled the abutments and poured approach slabs. Precast concrete deck panels were set between the Tx-girders to act as stay-in-place forms for the bridge decks. Ironworkers then tied reinforcing steel matrices before crews poured the structural concrete decks. Slipform pavers placed the concrete bridge rails once the decks achieved structural design strength.
Fleet, Construction Partners
Longview Bridge and Road and its subcontractor team have deployed a broad fleet of heavy equipment to execute the project, including excavators, dozers, motor graders, vibratory rollers, mechanical sweepers and slipform concrete pavers. Fleet assets on site feature iron from Caterpillar, Hamm, Roadtec and GOMACO.
Subcontractors and material suppliers include:
• Texas Materials (asphalt/aggregates)
• Moore Brothers Construction Co. (paving/civil)
• Hermanos Steel LLC (rebar/structural steel)
• Ancortex Inc.
• Hodges and Son Construction Co. Inc.
• John Wright Construction
• J.H. Oden Contracting Co.
• Traf-Tex Inc.
• Striping Technology L.P.
• Morris County Contractors LLC
Buyers Barricades Inc. / Buyers Barricades Houston LLC
• A&J Rebar LLC
• American Remediations Options Inc.
• Kiteco Property Solutions Inc.
• Southeast Grinding and Grooving LLC
• Antigo Construction Inc.
• Ashton Sawing and Drilling LLC
• West Texas Rock Resources LLC
• S&S Bridge Painting Inc.
• At Staffing
Longview services its machinery using mobile field mechanics who travel between job sites across Texas. Fleet rentals and equipment purchases are backed by regional equipment distributors and national rental houses, including United Rentals.
“Teeth on mixers, buckets on excavators and hydraulics are the most frequently encountered wear-and-tear issues,” Monzingo said. “Most repairs are completed right in the field within a few hours.”
