One of the many Texas Engineering Landmarks in celebration of Texas ASCE’s Centennial: 1913-2013 “Engineering a Better Texas.” Visit them all!
NOTE/WARNING: Guarded day and night by the US Coast Guard and the local police force, stopping on or near the bridge will result in a quick response and possible fine, says Texas Explorer online (http://www.texasexplorer.com/hartmanbridge.htm).
“Photographing the bridge can be difficult because of the lack of access roads and the marshy terrain in the area. The only way to really appreciate this bridge and its yellow diamonds is to have someone else drive you over it.” (
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FRED HARTMAN (BAYTOWN) BRIDGE, ASCE TEXAS SECTION OUTSTANDING CIVIL ENGINEERING ACHIEVEMENT AWARD WINNER 1995
Located east of Houston, over the Houston Ship channel, the iconic Fred Hartman Bridge was built to replace the Baytown Tunnel (which, itself replaced the Morgans Point Ferry) and improve capacity and traffic flow as the primary connection between the Baytown and LaPorte refineries.
The call for a bridge came when the Baytown Tunnel (of depth clearance 40 feet (12.2 m)), which had to be removed when the Houston Ship Channel was deepened to 45 feet (13.7 m), with a minimum 530 feet (161.5 m) bottom width, to accommodate larger ships. In addition, the bridge’s capacity of 200,000 vehicles per day trumps the Baytown Tunnel's capacity of 25,000 per day by nearly an order of magnitude.
The high winds experienced in the area were the primary concern of engineers, especially since the Fred Hartman is part of a main route for hurricane evacuations. The aesthetically handsome result, a double-diamond tower configuration, creates “truss-action,” for greater lateral stiffness to resist inevitable hurricane-force winds. The design also includes further support through inward-sloping cable planes which connect the upper tower legs with the deck to torsionally resist unbalanced dynamic loadings. The bridge supports two 78 ft. wide decks, allowing for eight lanes of traffic with shoulders, and runs 10,475 feet in length, including approaches. The actual bridge deck is only 2,475 feet long.
The construction costs of $91.3 million dollars was, at the time, the largest contract ever awarded for a single highway project in Texas. Which is fair; given that, in terms of the surface area embodied in the twin 78-foot-wide decks, this cable-stayed bridge ranked in 1996 as the nation's largest and was surpassed worldwide only by the then still under construction Tatara Bridge in Japan.
A joint venture between Williams and Traylor brothers, formed in 1986, completed the project in 1995, despite nearly show-stopping obstacles, including the bankruptcy of its steel supplier, and complications in work processes. [To be expected when you are innovating.]
The tower and deck configurations had never been tried in real world applications. As noted, technically, they deliver a "truss action" for greater lateral stiffness and work in tandem with the inward-sloping cables to torsionally resist unbalanced dynamic loadings imposed upon the decks.
Another strictly pragmatic goal of the design was to overcome the span’s poor site conditions as well as to maintain strengths necessary in hurricane country. The composite concrete poured into its decks was another unique application at the time of design.
The anchor zones at the top of the towers were too complicated for steel panels and required carpenters to prefabricate wooden forms complete with rebar cages. Technicians had to calculate the weight of every rebar and piece of wood to ensure the crane could safely lift these pieces to the top of the 60 ft. towers.
After all of the effort and money expended, those involved in its creation and those who admire and use it consider the Fred Hartman Bridge to be a tremendous success.
The bridge was named for Fred Hartman (1908-1991), the editor and publisher of the Baytown Sun from 1950 to 1974. It is the longest cable-stayed bridge in Texas, and one of only two such bridges in the state, the other being the Veterans Memorial Bridge in Orange County, Texas. The construction cost of the bridge was $117.5 million.
Homer Smith, Columnist of the Liberty, TX Vindicator in November of 1995, wrote“… [the Fred Hartmaen Bridge has] an aesthetic appeal to match all of the great structures of modern history. To look at it from afar is like looking at a gigantic harp situated on the side of the water-way. The steel supports resemble the golden strings coming together at the highest point above the overpass.”
FAQS:
Built: 1986-1995
Also known as: Texas 146 Bridge, Baytown Bridge
Designed by: District 12 of the Texas Department of Highways and Public Transportation
Owner: Texas Department of Transportation
Original Design: Greiner (URS) and Leonhardt, Andra Und Partner
Subcontractor: Holger S. Svensson, DRC
Consultant: Robert H. Scanlan
Cost: US $117,500,000.00
Maximum Height: 440 feet
Maximum Length: 1,250 feet
Type: Cable-stayed Bridge, fan arrangement
Location: Texas 146 between Baytown and La Porte
Crosses: Houston Ship Channel
Carries: Texas State Road 146
Cables: Polymer-wrapped twisted steel wire bundles.
Pylons: Reinforced Concrete
Deck of Main Bridge: Reinforced Concrete
Deck of Approches: Pre-cast Pre-stressed Concrete
More FAQS (http://www.nwwin.com/baytown.tx/historical.html):
* 2,475 FOOT CABLE-STAYED BRIDGE SPANNING THE HOUSTON SHIP CHANNEL
* Highway 146 connecting Baytown, Texas and La Porte, Texas.
* The Fred Hartman Bridge completed construction on September 27, 1995.
The suspension bridge is the largest of it's kind in the world.
* Capacity of 200,000 vehicles per day compared to the
Baytown Tunnel's capacity of 25,000 per day.
* Over 618 miles of cable strand were used in the construction of the bridge.
* There are 192 cables, the longest ones stretching 650 feet from the bridge to the towers.
* More than three million cubic feet of concrete,
enough to pave 13.86 miles of two-lane highway with full shoulders, was used in the construction.
* More than 40 million pounds of steel was used to construct the bridge,
the weight of over 16,000 automobiles.
* The double diamond towers supporting the bridge stand as tall as a 45-story building.
* Composite steel and concrete decks are 78 feet in width each way with a 15-foot separation between
(total square footage coverage in excess of eight acres).
* The eight-lane, $100 million bridge was constructed by Williams Brothers Construction.
The Fred Hartman Bridge replaces the Baytown-La Porte Tunnel, which was opened in 1953.
INTERESTING!
A $17.5 million plan was put together to have the Baytown-La Porte Tunnel sealed, its tube floated in three sections 30 miles off the coast of Galveston Island to be sunk to form an artificial reef. That plan was cancelled in 1997 due to insurance costs and the inconvenience of closing the Houston Ship Channel during transport. The tunnel was demolished in place
FURTHER READING:
AISC/NSBA 1996 Merit Bridge Award: Long Span The Fred Hartman Bridge (
visit link) -- “Unique appearance with good details” “A beautiful structure”
URS “Fred Hartman Bridge” (
visit link) --“URS developed the unique, award-winning double-diamond towers that stand as tall as a 45 story building yet efficiently resist hurricane winds. The cable-stayed main span unit is 2,475 feet long – the length of eight football fields – and allows eight lanes of traffic to smoothly flow 175 feet over the Houston Ship Channel.”
WDP & Associates: Repair & Restoration: Projects “Fred Hartman Bridge” (
visit link) --“Large amplitude stay-cable vibrations were observed numerous times shortly after opening the Fred Hartman Bridge, usually during a rain storm with relatively low winds. Approximately 100 welds connecting the steel transition pipes to the superstructure eventually cracked or failed from large amplitude, low cycle fatigue caused by the vibrating cables. The large amplitude vibrations, transition pipe weld failures, and concerns regarding the durability of the stay-cable strands and corrosion protection grout prompted TxDOT to initiate an evaluation and repair of the bridge. These concerns regarding the observed large amplitude vibration of stay cables prompted a review of the in-service performance of the bridge.
The evaluation consisted of several components including a comprehensive design/construction document review, literature review, aerodynamic analysis, dynamic response analysis, component analysis, failure analysis, wind tunnel evaluation, continuous field monitoring, field evaluation of stay tension and damping, and the development of various repair options. The evaluation was performed as a team effort among WDP, TxDOT, and several universities with WDP acting as the overall project manager.”
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Wikipedia “Fred Hartman Bridge” (
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Texas Explorer “FRED HARTMAN BRIDGE - Baytown, Texas” Stay-Cable Vibration Monitoring of The Fred Hartman Bridge (Houston, Texas) and The Veterans Memorial Bridge (Port Arthur, Texas) Delong Zuo & Nicholas P. Jones (
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Acoustic Monitoring on the Fred Hartman Bridge Alan Kowalik, P.E. (
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HoustonArchitecture.com “Fred Hartman Bridge” (
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Our Baytown: The Fred Hartman Bridge (
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Texas Handbook Online: Baytown (
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HISTORICAL SITES OF THE BAYTOWN, TEXAS AREA - NEW HOUSTON SHIP CHANNEL "FRED HARTMAN" BRIDGE (
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Leftovers of Baytown: “Fred Hartman Bridge” (
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American City & Country: “Innovative cable-stayed bridge opens in Texas” (
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wikipedia Cable Stayed Bridge (
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Houston’s Voice Fred Hartman Bridge Made of Cables (
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YouTube Fred Hartman Bridge (
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Bridge Inspection (
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