The Border Wall project involved constructing 1.75 miles of vertical concrete wall with square structural steel bollards at 8″ on center to protect the South bank of the International Boundary Water Commission levee near Progreso, TX. The concrete stem wall construction ranged from 10’ to 18’ in height and fall protection was a concern while we poured the stem walls. We accomplished this using an engineered forming system that had walkways and guardrails on both sides of the forming system.
In order to meet the Department of Homeland Security design requirements, we embedded steel bollards on the entire length of the stem wall. There was a substantial amount of ground water that we encountered while pouring the spread footing. We resolved this by over excavating the footing and putting in a seal slab to give us a stable subgrade to work from. To facilitate the construction of this project, we had to relocate approximately 2,700 lf of irrigation canal temporarily while we installed 2,700 lf of 72” reinforced concrete pipe. This work had to be done in a manner that would not disrupt the operations of Hidalgo County Irrigation District #5. The project also required the movement of 250,000 cy of embankment and compacting it to 95% density.
We completed over 80% of the work on this project with our own personnel and equipment, including all of the dirt work and compaction, installation of 72” RCP irrigation line, and forming/pouring the 1.75 miles of concrete spread footing and stem wall. Rebar placing and tying, land clearing, and installation of a caliche road were subcontracted. Over 50% of the project was located next to a Federal Wildlife Preserve, which required special training for our employees.