Geotechnical Design for Katy Freeway Reconstruction Project (I-10), Houston, Texas

This paper address the geotechnical design issues related to the IH-10 Katy Freeway Reconstruction project in Harris County, Texas. The project is being designed in ten sections by Section Design Consultants (SDCs) under the General Engineering Consultant (GEC). The geotechnical investigation was performed by the GEC in order to provide an early start for the geotechnical work so that this information would be available to the SDC's when they started work. An additional benefit to this approach is consistency of geotechnical design guidance between the various sections. The program design challenges related primarily to incorporation of an existing railroad right-of-way into the freeway corridor, fast track design and construction, and corridor confinement issues within the urban corridor. Technical issues related to the bridge design include differential settlement between pavement on new embankment adjacent to raised embankment and differential settlement due to phased fast track embankment construction. Corridor confinement resulted in the need to place a ramp at one interchange in a 32-foot deep cut/tunnel section, a unique approach to lateral support of the cut section retaining walls, and resulted in relatively deep detention ponds for the project. The need for expedited construction restricted design choices for solution of embankment foundation settlement and stability.