What Really Happened at the New Harbor Bridge Project?

-An overview of the drama unfolding over the ship channel in Corpus Christi, Texas.

Errata:
At 3:08, the old Harbor Bridge actually does have narrow pedestrian walkways, but they lack connectivity with pedestrian infrastructure on either side of the bridge.
At 3:21, a clarification: The ships can't enter the port empty (because they would have too much air draft). That means they can't be fully loaded in the inner harbor because they are already carrying some weight when they enter.
At 12:40, I meant to say "20% above their capacity"

In July of 2022, the Texas Department of Transportation issued an emergency suspension of work on the half-finished Harbor Bridge project in Corpus Christi, citing serious design flaws that could cause the main span to collapse if construction continues. Since then, they have continued a very public feud with the contractor that is far from resolved. This video explores some of the alleged design flaws and discusses potential next steps on the bridge project.

Practical Engineering is a YouTube channel about infrastructure and the human-made world around us. It is hosted, written, and produced by Grady Hillhouse. We have new videos posted regularly, so please subscribe for updates. If you enjoyed the video, hit that ‘like’ button, give us a comment, or watch another of our videos!

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This is not engineering advice. Everything here is for informational and entertainment purposes only. Contact an engineer licensed to practice in your area if you need professional advice or services. All non-licensed clips used for fair use commentary, criticism, and educational purposes.

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Producer/Writer/Host: Grady Hillhouse
Editor/Production Assistant: Wesley Crump
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Background Painting: Josh Welker

[jonathan]

My sympathies to the unseen unheard people at FIGG who knew exactly what their company was doing and tried to fix things from the inside but were shouted down by varying levels of leadership. I see you.

[troodon]

Reminds me of an old saying: "Whenever hiring an engineer for a project, always hire the one that says it will cost the most and take the longest: they are clearly the expert."

[imprssd]

We have a single tower cable stay bridge here in Toledo, Ohio and Figg Bridge Group was the engineering company on our project. 4 Iron workers were killed and 4 others injured in 2004 when the 2 million pound truss crane collapsed. I pray all the workers on the Texas project go home safe to their families when all is said and done. I love your videos, even though I usually only understand about half of what your talking about, thanks and good luck on book sales.

[frankherbert]

My dad was a Professional Engineer-probably in the top 10 of his time in Texas-and worked for a construction materials testing company right off the bridge from 1980 to the early/mid-nineties. He was a true straight shooter, and his name was respected or despised, depending on which end of his P.E. stamp you were on. We lived in Aransas Pass, so I know the old bridge and port area well. I can still see all those ships coming in (and feel that oppressive humidity!) I remember going on many a slab pour and doing load tests on various sites and remember Dad walking girders looking at bolts. He took his job very seriously, not just from a character POV, but as you said, because civilians depended on him. Sadly, the engineering gene didn't pass on to me, but the work done is till awe-inspiring to me.

[DudokX]

Everyone is "confident in the safety and durability of the bridge as designed" until they get featured on Plainly Difficult channel because the bridge fails due to some preventable problem that was not fixed because someone wanted to save money.

[randomations]

Grady is so good at explaining things adequately to the laypeople like me, while also not sounding condescending or as if he's assuming that we're idiots. THIS is how you get people interested in engineering. Thanks for another great video. 🖤

[fredvincent]

“Stepping into a dead man’s shoes” - really hits home. I was a superintendent for a 3rd party GC on a big new home development and the developer wanted to cut costs. Fired all of us and brought his own guys on. Job went bankrupt 6 months later. Drove by it the other day and saw all the half built homes boarded up. Sort of feels like an “I told you so” moment but also sad to see. Oh well. I make more money for someone else now.

[movin]

Did everyone also notice how Grady its trying so hard to contain his excitement as he talks about his new book. The book looks amazing!!

[rickcarey]

As a South Texan in the construction industry, thank you for this excellent explanation of the engineering issues at hand. The media, in calling this a safety issue, is making it sound like a simple case of people not wearing their steel toe boots or hi-viz vests, and not a very serious life safety issue.

[toluun]

As a bridge engineer I had been following this story and it amazes me that the EOR is still openly fighting some of these claims, specifically the rigid footing assumption. Every structure of this size goes through extensive review and throughout the design process there are many of these "battles" over design methodology, especially around footings. However to assume the footing as rigid seems ridiculous. This rigid assumption is usually used on standard highway structure to the simplify design of footings. It is usually a good assumption because the size of the footing as compared to the design loads are low(i.e. not enough force to make the cap deform). However, this method is losing favor as better software comes into play making it easier to better model distribution of forces in pile caps. As stated in the video the footings are 18ft deep. When designing footings this deep the code recommends the strut-and-tie method which if done correctly provides a conservative (sometimes overly conservative) design. The reviewer stated they looked into STM and found the decencies even worse, which would be expected. Based on the depth vs width ratio of the footing I think the reviewers design methodology to be best. Using computer modeling that takes into consideration the cap stiffness, the pile stiffness, and the soil stiffness should give a robust economical design.

[Orlando_dlc]

Currently working on a joint venture myself, Engineer on the contractor side, and seeing videos like these make me feel great about what I do. Just pre ordered my book! Grady, I wish I could make engineering as fun as you do!

[Thisisahandle]

I think this might be my favorite youtube channel of all time. I may take breaks of months, but I've been coming back here for years now and it always feels like home.

[jimmybonse]

As a construction management professional, I absolutely love this kind of content. I haven’t found it anywhere else on YouTube

[AlipashaSadri]

Civil Engineer here: the most mind boggling issue (to me) among the ones you mentioned is the shear transfer between the delta frame and the box girder section. I mean, that's statics + basic RC design. Big projects are both scary and fascinating. So simple of a mistake can be made when no one is *actually* checking the work without leaving their mental lane they are stuck in.

[beanznriceboi]

Thats crazy they didn't account for the shear on those tendons. That's almost hard to believe on a project this size that a mistake that major would make it that far.

[Mtlmshr]

Congratulations on your book! In a very small way I helped a engineer friend of mine write a book about a Famous Race Car team that we both worked on and when it was completed, he took immense pride in that book and has sold well over 1000 copies and now is on his way to writing the companion / follow up book to that one. They are both books on mechanical/electrical engineering so they are not exactly light reading!

[robertlevine]

Grady,

Your description of the assumption that the column base is rigid reminds me of an incident with a king post (mast) and boom on a tanker. The tanker was fitted with two king post and booms, located just aft of the center of the ship, and outboard so the king posts landed on deck supported by a longitudinal bulkhead and a transverse frame. The king post was not stayed, so there were no other supports. The boom was designed to pickup 15 long tons, at about a 60 foot radius.

The issue remained unknown until a mate decided to expedite the rigging of the boom by leaving the boom resting in it's cradle and leaving the block hooked to a deck staple. By paying out the block while topping (lifting) the boom, the boom could be rigged faster than doing the work in two separate operations. Unfortunately, the mate got his hands confused and he topped the boom while he pulled in on the block. The ship's main deck started bending at the base of the king post. The boom started bending at the cradle. Luckily, no one was hurt.

In reviewing the failure with the shipyard engineers it was determined that the engineers had assumed the deck was rigid and that all loading was from the load being lifted. Ships are large beams subject to both shear force and bending moments both when the ship is still and when it is motion. Ships both hog when the the load is concentrated more at the ends and sag when the load is concentrated in the middle. Like with the bridge, it was wrong to consider the deck as being ridgid.

Ultimately the deck and underdeck structure was strengthend and pipe stays were added to better transfer load.

Bob

[justinv]

As a Corpus native and fellow engineer, I'm very glad TXDOT is being as transparent as they are. I just a wish a solution comes soon as the current Harbor Bridge is beyond its life cycle by numerous years...will miss the view it gives to Whataburger Field when it's eventually gone though

[ddelv]

You should do a series on an interesting project from each state.

Most states don't have the budgets of a CA, TX, NY, or FL, but I have to imagine there is still some interesting work being undertaken in all of them.

[jacobmoney]

it’s amazing to see how much progress has been made since this video was posted. i drive across the old harbor bridge anywhere between 2 and 7 times a week for my work and i admire how the bridge is starting to take shape