El Paso bridge project recognized for construction collaboration
The Texas Department of Transportation’s (TxDOT) El Paso District received the “We Build Texas” award for the Fabens Bridge Replacement project in the construction category for small/medium projects at the 2025 TxDOT Construction, Materials and Alternative Delivery Conference in Round Rock on Tuesday. The Fabens Bridge project replaced the two-lane bridge (FM 793), originally constructed in 1960, and approaches at IH-10 and Fabens Road. Project construction was accelerated to minimize the impact of the 13-mile detour.
Improvements on the new structure included the addition of four columns instead of two per bent to assist with structural redundancy if the bridge is ever hit; two additional feet of vertical clearance to allow larger oversize loads to pass underneath without an issue; shoulders on both sides, and concrete rail instead of metal.
“We worked collaboratively with our contractor Dan Williams Company to minimize the impacts of the project to the Fabens/Clint community, surrounding businesses, and interstate travelers,” said TxDOT El Paso District Engineer Tomas Trevino. “The lengthy detour was especially challenging for first responders.”
The accelerated construction schedule meant project activities like demolition and beam setting would result in full weekend closures of IH-10 rather than weeklong nightly closures. This required extensive advance notice for the public and additional coordination with region first responders. Scheduling crews for the demolition, drill shaft pours and bridge concrete work was a challenge as multiple crews were assigned to the project to meet the proposed timeline. The round-the-clock work also made coordination with suppliers challenging to ensure all materials were approved prior to installation. The project team used rapid high early strength on most of the bridge elements to expedite construction.
The project was completed ahead of schedule which was particularly impactful to travelers needing a stop or fuel as Fabens is the first/last fuel and facility stop for 90 miles. That portion of IH-10 has an estimated average daily traffic of 22,041, 40% being commercial trucks.
With the accelerated construction (demolition of the bridge happened on Jan. 20, 2024, the beams were placed Feb. 16, the bridge deck was poured Feb. 29, and it was opened to traffic on March 8), the bridge closure was reduced by two and a half months resulting in work zone road user cost savings of approximately of $4.7 million.
Other “We Build Texas” project award recipients in the same category include the Fort Worth and Austin districts. For more on this or other stories, contact Lauren Macias-Cervantes at lauren.maciascervantes@txdot.gov or 915.204.5128.
More about the award
The “Texas Project Award” program was initiated in March of 1987 by Raymond E. Stotzer, Jr., to recognize Texas Department of Transportation and contractor personnel who have cooperated to overcome major construction problems in a non-disruptive manner. Rebranded in 2020, the “We Build Texas” project award program embraces these principles and expands them, emphasizing the We Build Texas initiative launched in March 2017 to foster good partnering techniques, positive contract relationships, and best practices. In addition, this program recognizes individuals responsible for the plans, specifications, and estimates (PS&E) design of projects that resulted in no or only minor construction problems. Like the Texas Project Awards before it, this program also considers small projects and projects completed with a degree of quality far beyond specification requirements.
Construction Award — given to project engineers or chief inspectors and project managers who used a high degree of cooperation in completing a complex or challenging project, solving one or more major problems, or completing work that provides for quality far beyond specification requirements. This award is not designed for the engineer in charge of an area office, but rather the individual with actual overall contract compliance oversight.