o The SRT/DNT interchange will be about as tall as a seven-story building. By comparison, the High Five in Dallas is about as tall as a 12-story building.

o The SRT/DNT will feature more than 18 million pounds of steel beams.

This amount of steel:
o Is equal to the steel used to build about 10,000 automobiles.
o Weighs more than the steel in the Eiffel Tower.
o Is more than the state of Texas bid out in steel beams on transportation projects in 2010.

The steel beams are placed in sections that are about 300 feet long, which is as long as a football field. If stood on its end, the longest beam section would be:
o Slightly taller than the new Cowboys Stadium (which has a peak height of 292 feet)
o About as tall as a 20-story building.
o More than 50 feet taller than the tallest water tower in the City of Frisco.
o Barely shorter than the Statue of Liberty monument, from the pedestal foundation base to the tip of the torch (which is 305 feet, 6 inches tall).

A total of 30,000 linear feet of steel beams is being used in the interchange. This amount:
o If placed end to end, would reach the cruising altitude of many jetliners.
o Equals about 5.7 miles — a length that would wrap around the nearby IKEA building more than 15 times.

Crews are hoisting and setting two steel beams at a time, and the typical beam weighs between 500 pounds and 600 pounds per foot.
o The heaviest section weighs close to 200 tons, a weight comparable to lifting five typical backyard swimming pools full of water.
o On a typical weekend beam placement operation, crews have to line up and tighten into place nearly 2,500 bolts.
o Project-wide, nearly 150,000 bolts and miles of welds will be used to fabricate and secure all the steel beams in place.

This article was contributed by the North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA)