ROUND ROCK, TX — The Texas Department of Transportation’s (TxDOT) El Paso District received the We Build Texas award for the Fabens Bridge Replacement project in the construction category for small/medium projects at the 2025 TxDOT Construction, Materials, and Alternative Delivery Conference in Round Rock, Texas. The Fabens Bridge project replaced the two-lane bridge (FM 793), originally constructed in 1960, and approaches at IH-10 and Fabens Road. Project construction was accelerated to minimize the impact of the 13-mile detour.
Improvements on the new structure included the addition of four columns instead of two per bent to assist with structural redundancy if the bridge is ever hit; an additional 2 feet of vertical clearance to allow larger oversize loads to pass underneath without an issue; shoulders on both sides; and concrete rail instead of metal.
“We worked collaboratively with our contractor Dan Williams Company to minimize the impacts of the project to the Fabens/Clint community, surrounding businesses, and interstate travelers,” TxDOT El Paso District Engineer Tomas Trevino said. “The lengthy detour was especially challenging for first responders.”
The accelerated construction schedule meant project activities like demolition and beam setting would result in full weekend closures of IH-10 rather than week-long nightly closures. This required extensive advance notice for the public and additional coordination with region first responders. Scheduling crews for the demolition, drill shaft pours, and bridge concrete work was a challenge, as multiple crews were assigned to the project to meet the proposed timeline. The round-the-clock work also made coordination with suppliers challenging to ensure all materials were approved prior to installation. The project team used rapid high early strength concrete on most of the bridge elements to expedite construction.
The project was completed ahead of schedule, which was particularly impactful to travelers needing a stop or fuel, as Fabens is the first/last fuel and facility stop for 90 miles. That portion of IH-10 has an estimated average daily traffic of 22,041, 40 percent being commercial trucks.
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Demolition of the bridge happened on January 20, 2024, the beams were placed February 16, the bridge deck was poured February 29, and it was opened to traffic on March 8. With the accelerated construction, the bridge closure was reduced by two and a half months, resulting in work zone road user cost savings of approximately of $4.7 million.
