Equipment World

November 2017

Equipment World Digital Magazine

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November 2017 | EquipmentWorld.com 64 J oe Harper had just hit the road to work September 7 when his mobile phone went off at 6:30 a.m. The Harris County Toll Road Authority (HCTRA) wanted to know if he could immediately mobilize enough workers and equipment to fix a giant sinkhole at the Sam Houston Tollway in Houston. Tropical Storm Harvey's rains had sent the nearby Buf- falo Bayou to record flood levels, leaving the tollway and the Beltway 8 frontage road at Boheme Drive underwater for almost two weeks. Flooding from the storm had covered much of the country's fourth-most-populous city, rendering major highways and roads impassable and stranding thousands of residents. Repairing the flooded section of the tollway and filling the sinkhole at the frontage road that led to and from nearby flooded neighborhoods were the top priorities for the tollway authority and the Texas Depart- ment of Transportation's Houston District. After seeing the damage, the agencies immediately got on the phone with their contractors. That's why Harper, president and chief financial officer for Harper Brothers Construction, got the call at 6:30 a.m. "We've really got a big problem," the HCTRA of- ficial said. "OK, we'll be there," Harper responded. 'The water had so much pressure' HCTRA and TxDOT engineers were aware that the long- term flooding at the tollway and the frontage road had caused damage and a sinkhole, but the extent of that damage was still unknown because the water was so high – as much as 14 feet in some sections. TxDOT engineers even tried to hitch a boat ride with a team of Oklahoma fire and rescue workers in the first few days of the flooding. The rescue workers were driv- ing their boats over the flooded Beltway 8 to help resi- dents, but it was still too dangerous to get the engineers close enough to assess the damage. So they had to wait for the water to recede enough into the bayou to get a good look. highway contractor | by Don McLoud | DonMcLoud@randallreilly.com CONTRACTORS TO THE RESCUE Road crews, agencies move fast to repair Houston sinkhole, tollway after Harvey

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