HCTRA New EZ Tag Store

Project Background

The Harris County Toll Road Authority (HCTRA) manages over 128 miles of roads throughout the Greater Houston area. They recently built a new EZ Tag facility in northeast Houston to provide drivers with more convenient, accessible, and faster in-person customer service. The new facility supports HCTRA's transition to all-electronic tolling, offering a modern space with more counters, self-serve kiosks, and dedicated staff to handle account setup, tag management, violation resolution, and cash payments for the growing eastern side of the county.

The project scope included constructing a new 1-story building with about 15,000 SF and on-grade parking. The project will pursue LEED Silver certification.

HVJ provided construction material testing and inspection services for the building pad, drill piers, foundation, backfilling utilities, welding and structural inspections, concrete pavement, and off-site inspection of the fabrication of structural steel components.

The Challenge

At the beginning of the project, HVJ tested the materials (cement-stabilized backfill sand) provided by the proposed plant contractor. However, due to unavoidable circumstances, the contractor later needed to use a different source for these materials. When we retested these materials in the field, they did not meet the compaction level required by the project specifications. They failed to achieve 95% compaction, which is problematic because it could lead to cracking and reduced stability, affecting the long-term performance of the new facility.

Our Solution

Our team reviewed the contractor's Cement Stabilized Sand submittal submitted during the project kick-off, and the material being used on-site during the second half of the construction phase. We confirmed that the supplier of the material remained the same, but the source (plant) supplying the cement sand had changed. The same material from different plants can have differing characteristics, and no pre-check proctor test was conducted to confirm that the new material met all required standards. A new test is required when the material source changes, as the raw materials (in this case, sand) used to mix with cement can affect the results and impact the maximum density that can be achieved. Thus, we determined that the problem was not the material itself, but the composition variation that affected the established lab result.

The Results

After we verified the maximum density using Proctor tests, all subsequent field tests showed that the materials complied with project requirements and could move forward with being used in construction. To avoid other delays, we also coordinated with the field team to ensure no other materials would encounter this same challenge. The contractor provided our team with materials from other potential sources. We then tested these and had the results ready in the field. This proactive approach saved time and money by avoiding delays caused by waiting for additional lab results.

Harris County Toll Road Authority's New EZ Tag Facility

Project Background

The Challenge

The Goals

Our Solution

HVJ Associates, Inc.

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