If you drive along the 3.5-mile stretch of the Loop 375 Transmountain West Road that Sundt is reconstructing outside of El Paso, Texas, you may notice something beautiful. The artwork on the concrete columns that will eventually support the heavy civil project’s six new bridges is intricately textured and detailed. What you might not consider are the many months of skilled work and precision that went into implementing that artistic vision.
Thirty full-time Sundt concrete craft workers and four superintendents spent approximately five months making the 108 cast-in-place bridge columns. A significant portion of their time was dedicated to getting the columns’ textured design, or “rustication pattern,” just right.
That’s because there is a mere 1/8-inch tolerance on the detailed design, meaning that an exceptionally high level of precision was required while setting the concrete forms. To complicate matters, the Transmountain area is hilly, which means that the columns vary dramatically in height as dictated by the undulating terrain. Getting near-perfect results on dozens of columns of unique heights essentially meant that each one was a custom job.
“Maintaining quality of the rustication pattern was very tough,” explained Sundt Concrete General Superintendent Kent (Jay) Anderson. “There’s a 16-inch smooth spot between the top of every column and the bottom of the pier cap. That had to be maintained on every column, so every time we had a column of a different height, we had to change the rustication. Essentially, it meant that every column was unique.”
One of the biggest challenges in construction is balancing design expectations with the realities and limitations of actual construction. Sundt is able to achieve a high degree of success in both areas because of its vast concrete construction experience, skilled employees, and ability to control quality through self-perform work.