A. L. Helmcamp, Inc. construct new State Highway 174 bridge over Brazos River
Bosque/Hill Counties, Texas
Contractor: A. L. Helmcamp, Inc.
Project: State Highway 174 Bridge over Brazos River (Lake Whitney)
Project Award Amount: $23,690,787
Purpose: Bridge Replacement
Year: 2023-2024
Due to deterioration of the concrete decks and steel trusses, the Texas Department of Transportation had limited the 72-year-old State Highway 174 bridge over the Brazos River to one-way traffic only and determined that it needed to be replaced to provide a more reliable and efficient crossing to meet the current traffic demand and heavier vehicles that operate in the area. In addition to increasing the load capacity, the lanes and shoulders needed to be wider to meet updated safety standards. The height of the roadway also needed to be increased to provide greater clearance between the river’s flood stage elevation and the bridge’s superstructure.
Texas-based general contractor A. L. Helmcamp was awarded the $24-million-dollar project to build the new 1,450-foot-long bridge. They mobilized their Flexifloat equipment directly from another inland bridge project that they had recently completed in East Texas to the new site in Central Texas. Using the barge sections they owned and supplementing them with rental equipment, they assembled several different Flexifloat platforms to help complete the project. These were utilized from drilling the pier shafts to erecting the girders.
Series S50 Flexifloat equipment was used for a 60’ x 30’ x 5’ manlift barge and a “U”-shaped drill barge during the substructure phase of the project. During the superstructure phase, this equipment was rearranged and combined with additional rental floats to assemble a 200-foot-long, roll-on/roll-off girder transport barge. A pair of Flexifloat Loading Ramps were attached to both ends of the main hull that allowed a truck and its dolly trailer to easily drive on from the riverbank with a 149-foot girder and was then pushed by a workboat out to location.
Series S70 floats were used to construct two spud barges for supporting a 160-ton Kobelco CK-1600 and 200-ton Link-Belt LS-248 crawler crane. Along with the transport barge, these platforms worked together using a two-crane pick technique to set several of the 146,000-pound concrete girders on the newly built piers.
A. L. Helmcamp took advantage of the Flexifloat equipment’s portability as they trucked it from one project to another and were able to utilize it for several different configurations and purposes on this project. To ensure that safe, stable barge configurations were used throughout all phases, Robishaw Engineering provided free engineering support for both the equipment they previously purchased and the supplemental rentals.
