Better Roads Digital Magazine
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/85927
they know this is the first median ac- cess ramp off a temporary bridge. A Bonus Bridge As a bonus, most of that temporary bridge was made of material Lane had available and doing nothing at the time. Innovation in planning and de- sign was made to work by innovative engineering on the ground. Safety was a huge factor because the median was placed behind con- crete barrier walls and no one and no equipment was exposed to unimpeded passing traffic. No cones or flagmen and no "trucks entering highway" problems were created. Clearly time lost to normal access methods was stripped from the delivery time. Imagine the savings in time, mon- ey, insurance and so on. And that's to both contractor and NCDOT. The new road built on the median will eventually take traffic while the current lanes are redone. Then, with concrete barriers from the median work still in place, the old outer lanes will be redone. In this project old asphalt roads are being replaced with concrete. "One of the important aspects of this is that Lane had to set up their own concrete plant," says Diggs. "Once the plant was set up concrete trucks would have had to use a road that crosses I-85, a road already over capacity and being worked on to be made into a Superstreet, then go down Interstate on-ramps, run the down that busy Interstate and then access the median. And vice versa. With the temporary bridge and ramps that doesn't happen." The company says that it decided an innovative approach was critical to the success of their bid. "It became very apparent that an in- novative approach was critical to the success of the bid and, ultimately, the project," says the company spokes- person. "Contract time restrictions on I-85 and all roads crossing the interstate mandated the development of an approach that had never been used before. Building on a concept that had proven to be highly success- ful on other projects, Lane staff took a revolutionary innovation to the next level with the median access bridge and ramps. This concept provides un- impeded access to the median of I-85 and also Lane's offices and staging ar- eas on both sides of the Interstate." "It became very apparent that an innovative approach was critical to the success of the bid, and,ultimately the project." - Lane Construction Lane had, in the past, used existing, working bridges to create median access ramps. This was a first stand- alone it had considered. There had been the I-95 widening project in Woodbridge, Va., the I-77 widening design-build project in Mecklenburg County, N.C., and the I-385 widen- ing design-build project in Greenville County, S.C. In all of these cases the median access ramps ran down from existing overpass bridges. The job is actually several projects including installing the first diverging diamond interchanges in the state. A new bridge has been built and the old own is being demolished. Work on Charlotte's outer loop is involved and there is an "Originally the projects weren't scheduled to start construction un- til 2015," says NCDOT. "Using the design-build finance method, NC- DOT was able to accelerate all three projects." Write 173 on Reader Service Card or visit www.betterroads.com/info Reef_BR0212pg39.indd 1 Better Roads August 2012 29 1/21/12 10:50 PM