I-10 at Ralph Fair Road: Closure Number Four

Saturday morning at 4 a.m. Sundt Construction will shut down the main lanes of I-10 at Ralph Fair Road to set bridge support beams to construct the remaining portion of the Ralph Fair Road overpass bridge.

Traffic on I-10 will exit Ralph Fair Road, pass through the intersection, and re-enter the roadway. Sundt will also close Ralph Fair Road at I-10 to facilitate traffic flow of I-10 and to provide a safe staging area for the required work equipment.

This is the fourth closure of this nature in the last six months; project managers say they should only need two more such closures to finish the work.

Traffic will follow the same route it has for the last three closures at this location. North on this map is to the right.

Once the highway is closed - which, again, starts at 4 a.m. Saturday - crews will begin setting the first of 17 beams that will form the backbone of the remaining overpass bridge. At 165 feet long, these are the largest concrete beams used on TxDOT roads, and they do take a while to place. The last beam placement - back in September - went remarkably quick and crews had the road reopened by Saturday evening.

With ideal conditions this weekend, project managers say the highway could reopen as soon as Sunday. However, drivers should expect the highway to remain closed until Monday morning - a timeline buffer to allow for any difficult weather or machinery failures.

Once this weekend's work is finished, Sundt should only need to employ this closure two more times - once to pour the bridge deck and another to form and pour the bridge deck barriers. Overall completion on the project should come by the end of the school year, with major traffic improvements coming along the way.