CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — If you haven't had an opportunity to drive by it, the Harbor Bridge is coming along.
The foundation footing – literally the support structure of the tower that will hold the cables and the bridge deck that people will be driving on – are currently going up.
This important step in the bridge’s construction comes almost six months after work was stopped on the project’s main span because of construction flaws found by a third-party inspector hired by TxDOT.
And since TxDOT and Flatiron Dragados agreed to re-start work in October, overlapping construction has helped the project move forward, said TxDOT District Engineer Valente Olivarez Jr.
"The drill shafts of the foundation that go underneath the footings -- we'll complete those on the north tower this month,” said “And then we'll move over to south tower and work on those. And while we're working on the ones at the south tower, Flatiron Dragados’ team will continue to work on expanding the footing to go and encompass over the drill shafts that have been ports."
Outside of the main-span bridge work, a lot of roadwork and bridge work also has been happening around Interstate 37.
"Hopefully what we're looking at here, as far as Flatiron Dragados and their schedule, is that we may be able to shift traffic sometime in March on Interstate 37 which will open up a lot more areas to work underneath that interchange for the roadway and bridge crews to continue construction in those areas," he said.
He also said TxDOT plans to release information about the specific construction flaws that caused the recent delay after the fifth item is addressed this month.