Emergency Departure Slab Repair at DFW Airport

The Challenge

10 inch high pressure water line broken.

Administrators at the Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) International Airport called Groundworks at 7 pm on the Friday night of New Year’s weekend with an emergency. A ten-inch, high pressure water line running alongside the airport’s Hyatt Hotel had broken. The line break was causing massive damage, flooding the basement level of the Hyatt with three feet of water. Additionally, the flow of water was washing out the soils supporting the hotel’s vehicular departure ramp that fed into the main airport thoroughfare. An immediate three to four inch settlement of the hotel’s departure ramp resulted in lane closures and redirected traffic, which in turn resulted in severe delays for passengers arriving at and departing from the airport.

Key Facts

The Solution

Used a Polyurethane injection to lift the slab, stabilized soils, and filled voids.

Because of the holiday weekend, Groundworks knew their team needed to respond immediately. The goal was to stabilize the ramp, lift it back to grade, and make it safe for travel – all by 7 am Saturday morning. The job would require restoration of the normal flow of traffic before the Saturday morning rush of travelers to avoid additional delays at the airport.

Groundworks called in local crew members on holiday as well as supporting staff from its headquarters in Tomball, TX, and by 12:30 am the crew was on site and assessing the situation. After agreeing upon a polyurethane injection plan, the crew began injections at 1 am. By 7 am Saturday morning – just 12 hours after the initial call – the Groundworks crew was packing up and leaving the work zone.

The Impact

Avoided delays on a busy holiday weekend.

Utilizing Polyurethane injection, Groundworks lifted the hotel’s departure slab back to its original grade, stabilized the remaining soils, and filled voids under the slab making it safe for traffic by the 7am deadline. In addition, Groundworks also stabilized and filled the utility trench where the ten-inch water line was located to eliminate any future settlement of the pavement above. Groundworks’ expertise and emergency response allowed the DFW Airport to not only avoid delays on a busy holiday weekend, but to ensure the safety and stability of the traffic ramp for years to come.