Emergency Repair of Departure Slab at DFW Airport

Problem

Administrators at the Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) International Airport called URETEK at 7:00 p.m. on the Friday night of New Year’s weekend with an emergency. A 10-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.

Analysis

Because of the holiday weekend, URETEK 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 7:00 a.m. 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.

Solution

URETEK called in local crew members on holiday as well as supporting staff from its headquarters in Tomball, TX, and by 12:30 a.m the crew was on site and assessing the situation. After agreeing upon a URETEK Deep Injection® (UDI) plan, the crew began injections at 1:00 a.m. By 7:00 a.m. Saturday morning—just 12 hours after the initial call—the URETEK crew was packing up and leaving the work zone.

Result

Utilizing UDI, URETEK 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 7:00 a.m. deadline. In addition, URETEK also stabilized and filled the utility trench where the ten-inch water line was located to eliminate any future settlement of the pavement above. URETEK’s expertise and emergency response allowed the DFW airport not only to avoid delays on a busy holiday weekend, but to ensure the safety and stability of the traffic ramp for years to come.

URETEK Deep Injection® (UDI)

Widely referenced throughout our industry, UDI involves the injection of structural polymer into base and sub-grade soils to increase the load-bearing capacity. This is achieved by injecting the polymer through small holes drilled directly through the pavement structure to depths determined by site-specific analysis. Our URETEK 486 Star® material flows easily into voids and weak zones within the soil mass below. Through a controlled chemical reaction, the expanding polymer compacts surrounding soils and applies a controlled pressure on targeted areas of the affected pavement above. If needed, a multi-injection design plan is utilized to gently return the pavement to its original grade. The composite material quickly cures into a strong, dimensionally stable, and water-resistant geo-material, providing years of reliable service.

URETEK 486 Star®

URETEK 486 Star® polymer is a two-component, high-density, expanding thermoset polyurethane system. It was developed to be the ideal solution for under-sealing, void filling, lifting of settled pavement, stabilization and stiffening of weak soils, and encapsulating and sealing buried infrastructure. URETEK 486 Star® is environmentally inert, non-toxic, and resists underground water erosion or weakening due to its industry-leading hydrophobic properties.