A joint venture built for interstate jobs
Lone Star Constructors is a joint venture of Fluor Heavy Civil and Austin Bridge & Road. TxDOT selected it as the design-build contractor for Phase 2 of the I-35E project, which rebuilds and widens the interstate from I-635 in Dallas to the Denton County line in Carrollton. Fluor has also announced that a Fluor-led joint venture under the same name won the I-35 Northeast Expansion South contract in San Antonio, which includes about four miles of elevated lanes and the interchanges at each end.
We did not find a separate website for the joint venture, so the TxDOT project page is the best public description of its Dallas work.
Where the cranes are on a highway rebuild
Widening an interstate under traffic is mostly a sequence of heavy, repetitive picks made in tight work zones:
- Setting precast girders and steel beams for new bridges and direct connectors.
- Placing drilled-shaft cages, column forms and bent caps.
- Handling retaining wall panels, drainage structures and sign structures.
- Moving sheet pile, mats and materials around a staging yard.
Elevated lanes like the San Antonio project add long reaches and tandem lifts, which is classic lattice crawler work. Telescopic cranes fill in everywhere a quick setup matters more than capacity. And on almost every pick there is a rigger choosing slings and a signal person talking to an operator who cannot see the landing point past the pier.
Work zones next to live traffic leave little room for a crane to set up, so outrigger and track placement, swing radius barricades and the path of each load over the lanes all get planned in advance. Night closures add another layer: lighting, radios and signal procedures have to work when the operator sees less.
Courses that line up with heavy civil roles
| Role on the job | Where to start |
|---|---|
| Crawler operator with seat time, needs NCCCO lattice certification | Lattice 20-hour or 40-hour course |
| Hydraulic crane operator new to the trade | Fixed/swing cab 120-hour course |
| Ironworker, carpenter or laborer who rigs girders and gives signals | Rigger/Signal Person Certification Level I (28 hours) |
The lattice courses run on the crawler in our Seagoville yard, the same crane used for the NCCCO lattice practical exam given on site. Classroom time covers load chart reading with boom and jib combinations, and the deductions for hook blocks and rigging that people forget.
The 28-hour rigging course prepares people for the NCCCO Rigger Level I and Signalperson exams, which suits the crews who build the rigging for beam picks.
Carpenters building bent cap forms and laborers moving material in the staging yard also hook loads every day. Even when they will never sit in the cab, a short course in hitches, sling angles and hand signals makes them safer partners for the operator.
Close to the Dallas end of I-35E
Our yard at 304 Tunnell St in Seagoville is southeast of downtown Dallas off US-175, so people working the I-35E corridor can commute in daily. Crews based on the San Antonio project face a long drive; for them, the premium course options with optional room and board can make more sense than daily travel. We do not train on job sites, so everyone comes to Seagoville.
For crews in the Carrollton and Farmers Branch area, the drive runs south on I-35E, then east on I-20 or through downtown to US-175. Leave extra time on the first morning; class starts on time.
Booking several people at once
Use the company classes page or call (214) 763-0513 with a list of names, roles and the crane types each person runs. We will match people to courses and give you start dates from the training schedule. Superintendents often stagger enrollment so a work zone never loses all its riggers in the same week. For paperwork questions, send a note through contact us.