TxDOT: Try Again

State officials have instructed a contractor to rebuild portions of Expressway 83 because new pavement failed to pass inspection.

Portions of roadway in Mercedes are being torn up and repaved, said Mario Jorge, the Texas Department of Transportation's engineer for the Pharr District.

The contractor, Williams Brothers Construction Co. of Houston, will absorb the cost to repave the segments of the expressway.

The $75 million project to rebuild Expressway 83 is part of the Rio Grande Valley's biggest public works project to expand Expressway 77/83 from Mission to Brownsville at a cost of $1 billion.

Williams Brothers Construction is rebuilding portions of the main lane and frontage roads near the Mile 1 East Road exit, officials said Wednesday.

Officials also told the contractor to reconstruct other segments along the six miles on which the company was working, Jorge said.

TxDOT officials said they did not have the total length of road that failed the inspection and needed to be rebuilt.

"Those segments did not meet our quality standards," Jorge said.

Tests found the stretches of roadway weren't "smooth," Jorge said.

"Usually contractors will (follow specifications)," Jorge said. "This is one instance where they didn't."

Williams Brothers referred questions to TxDOT officials.

The state inspection that identified problems was part of a standard review conducted after projects are completed, Jorge said.

"Once construction finishes we check the ride to make sure we have a smooth ride or we have the contractor redo the area," Jorge said.

"We're just making sure the taxpayers get what they pay for."

Officials found more problems than usual near the Mile 1 East Road exit, Jorge said.

"Usually it's nothing as large as what we have on the expressway," Jorge said.

Officials requested the contractor reconstruct other shorter stretches of roadway along the project's six miles, Jorge said.

"We're doing various locations. There's other areas not meeting specs," he said.

Inexperience may have been a factor behind the construction problems, said Valente Olivarez, the TxDOT engineer who oversees the project.

"You have to have guys with experience to lay that asphalt down so it doesn't have any bumps," Olivarez said.

State crews began construction in 2004 on the six-mile project that was originally set for completion in July. Officials later announced a September competition date.

Officials plan to open the main lanes from the Cameron-Hidalgo county line to Mile 2½ West Road within two weeks, Ramiro Flores, a supervisor at TxDOT's Edcouch office, said.