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The city of Houston, Texas is host to more than 300 events per year -- so it’s really no surprise that the city decided to build a brand new exhibition center in the heart of the Astrodomain Complex, southwest of the bustling downtown district. Just a couple hundred yards northwest of the Astrodome, construction is under way on the Harris County New Exposition Center. The new structure will enclose more than one million square feet, and it will be three times the size of the Astrodome. But a project this size comes with its hefty share of challenges.

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Typically, utility pipes, like water and sewage lines, run beneath parking lots and roadways so that they can be easily accessed. Because the New Exposition Center is being built on a preexisting parking lot, engineers were faced with a dilemma before they began construction: the ground beneath the construction site was tangled with utility lines. So before construction even began, engineers had to redirect all of the major utility pipes away from the construction site to neighboring roadways. This was no easy task. After months of digging, the pipes were carefully moved, and construction crews poured the foundation for the New Exposition Center in June of 2000. The structure is slated for completion in 2002.