Leading Construction Quality Management Efforts for Milestone Projects: From The Baluarte-Bicentennial Bridge to The Otay-Tijuana Cross Border Xpress Bridge - An updated perspective

Abstract

The success of construction projects is sustained by the cooperation and coordination of numerous multidisciplinary teams with supplementary perspectives but aligned in terms what needs to be achieved in perspectives such as safety, quality, scope, schedule, costs or environmental impact. Leading construction quality management efforts for infrastructure projects that includes NDE, due to this multidisciplinary perspective, demands not only profound ethical commitment and comprehensive engineering knowledge, but also established leadership, acute strategic thinking, strong managerial experience and multi-role multi-cultural communication skills. Those personal characteristics and skills are often defied in conventional projects, but they are specially challenged when the project, due to its unprecedent characteristics, constitute a milestone for a sector or a region at the time of its construction. The presentation aims to share practical insights that contribute with the success of quality management efforts in projects with unprecedent characteristics, through a parallel perspective derived from both the internal quality function of the fabricator/contractor and the external perspective of the supervision, through two remarkable projects: 1) The Baluarte-Bicentennial Bridge is a 1,124 m (3,688 ft) cable-stayed bridge located in Mexico. The bridge has a central cable-stayed span of 520 m (1,710 ft) formed by a set of structural steel bridge segments which form the road deck located at 403 m (1,322 ft)[2] above the valley below. The bridge is at the core of the Durango–Mazatlán transversal highway that interconnects the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of Mexico. Due to its location, total length and height the project offered unique challenges to all participants. 2) The Otay-Tijuana Cross Border Xpress Bridge is a 390-foot (120 m) pedestrian bridge located at the United States–Mexico border that connects passenger terminals between two countries. The bridge constitutes the core of the Cross Border Xpress Complex which is a unique binational inititative that seeks to have a positive im-pact in the communities of Tijuana and San Diego. In a parallel to its operation, the construction process in-volved profound cooperation and coordination between professionals, companies and supervising authorities in both countries. We are sharing our experience in both aiming to contribute with companies and NDE practitioners around the world with valuable insights that aim to provide them increased confidence to face the challenge of milestone projects.