CLIENT
Harris County Toll Road Authority

AWARDS
2021 APWA TX, Transportation > 75M & Public Works Project of the Year
2011 Texas Society of Architects Design Award

PROJECT DESCRIPTION
The Main Lane Plaza structure is purposefully iconic to announce at a distance, by day or night, the toll monitoring gateway. Although identifiable, it is visually open and transparent so as not to suggest that drivers need to stop or slow down at its crossing. Sculptural concrete buttresses support an arched weave of thin tension and compression steel members to clear span the wide roadway section. Suspended from the arched section is a floating horizontal plane, that suggests an outdoor room, comprised of a grid support system for the monitoring cameras and E-Z Tag readers.

The structure uses recycled content steel in an efficient load transfer structure that conserves material use. Fluorescent and LED lights are used in lieu of HID sources to conserve energy use and significantly increase lamp life. The graceful complementary structures at the Exit Toll Plazas complete the toll road architectural experience.

With sensitive equipment, structure vibration is a major concern. The structure is designed within equipment vibration tolerances to withstand the strong wind loads resulting from truck traffic and hurricane forces typical along the Gulf Coast.

In lieu of standard prefabricated concrete equipment buildings, the designers created sloping concrete structures to match the buttresses, thus creating a comprehensive image for the tollway.