The 2005 excellence in concrete pavement awards: careful planning and attention to detail are common threads in this year's American Concrete Pavement Association winning projects

Concrete Construction, Dec, 2005

Overlays

Interstate Highway 40 McIntosh County

Eufaula, Oklahoma

This project involved the construction of 51.3 lane miles of 10 1/2-inch-thick concrete overlay on 9 existing inches of asphalt. The Interstate freeway was originally a full-depth asphalt construction, and due to heavy truck traffic it rutted considerably over time. Duit Construction, Edmond, Okla., won the contract to perform the overlay work. Because of the heavy traffic volume, more than 48,000 feet of precast median barrier was placed to separate head-to-head traffic. Shortly into the project, Duit discovered that an existing 10-foot-wide shoulder used as a traffic diversion pavement wasn't holding up, so Duit recommended the installation of a 6-inch-thick concrete shoulder. Because concrete turned out to be less expensive than an asphalt repair, it saved time and responded well to the traffic.

Using the existing asphalt roadway as the base, Duit milled the surface to flatten the roadway and in some cases added new asphalt to control concrete yield and provide a flat surface. The project was well received by the Oklahoma Department of Transportation, and Duit received the maximum money incentive for smoothness of ride.

Urban Arterials & Collectors

East Washington Ave. Reconstruction Project

Madison, Wisconsin

Washington Avenue is considered to be the gateway street to the Wisconsin State Capitol. It's a six-lane median-divided roadway that carries 56,000 vehicles per day. The asphalt pavement was installed in the 1950s and was rutted and severely cracked.

Trierweiler Construction, Marshfield, Wis., won the contract to completely remove and replace 4.6 miles of the street. At the same time, a completely new infrastructure was planned, including the replacement of all water mains, sanitary sewers, storm sewers, pavement, curbs and gutters, crosswalks, medians, and lighting. Starting on March 15, 2004, with a December 1 completion date, the construction timetable was short. In May and June there were substantial rainfalls--the worst being 6.2 inches of rain during one week of May just when crews were installing the new 5x10-foot storm drain. Added to the difficulty was the city requirement that two lanes for traffic be open in each direction at all times.

Trierweiler installed 50,311 square yards of 10-inch-thick concrete pavement over a total of 22 inches of aggregate subgrade. Elevations and pitches were critical, and the owner also required a smooth ride of 20 inches per mile on a 0.2-inch blanking band, which Trierweiler exceeded. An unusual feature of the project involved colored crosswalks. Trierweiler accomplished this by paving the crosswalk areas with the street pavement, then masking the street pavement on either side, broadcasting dust-on color hardeners and finishing them. They applied the same surface texture to both the streets and sidewalks. They also installed colored, patterned concrete hardscape in the medians.

Municipal Streets & Intersections <30k SY

Commercial Street

City of Neenah, Wisconsin

Scheduling this project presented many challenges for the contractor, Ptaschinski Construction, Beaver Dam, Wis. Besides removing and replacing the 12,100 square yards, 1.5 lane miles, the project also included the installation of 3000 feet of storm sewer (much of it tunneled under existing utilities), colored and stamped concrete sidewalks and crosswalks, the installation of decorative lighting and a stop signal at one intersection, the removal and replacement of pavement around a railroad dual track crossing as well as storm sewer under the tracks, and proper handling and removal of petroleum-contaminated soils encountered in sewer trench excavations. Because the work was in the midst of a downtown business area, the contractor had to provide access to businesses, and crosswalks at all times. Another contractor hired by the city of Neenah had to relocate underground utilities that were in conflict with this project. The utility work had to be completed first and caused a three-week time delay for Ptaschinski's start. The schedule was very tight also. Construction was to start on May 17 and be completed by August 20 to coincide with the completion of a bridge construction at one end of the street, which was under contract to another contractor.

To facilitate traffic movement, Ptaschinski used a concrete mix with 846 pounds of portland cement (9-bag) so that the work could be open to traffic on the day after placement. They cast and broke cylinders each day to ensure the earliest opening time for traffic. And because the city liked the decorative concrete work, it increased both the number of colored concrete crosswalks and the amount of stamped concrete work, adding to the complexity of the job.

Ptaschinski completed the contract to the satisfaction of the city, meeting the basic time requirements.

State Roads

U.S.-93, Ashley Creek

Kalispell, Montana

U.S. Highway 93 stretches from Idaho to the Canadian border in Western Montana. It's a major tourist route between Yellowstone and Glacier National Park, going through both Kalispell and Missoula. The project extended from Kalispell to Ashley Creek, a 3-mile stretch of highway with average daily traffic of 17,400 vehicles--15% of it either trucks or RV campers.