The Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT), via a $26.1 million construction project, is rehabilitating a 17-mi. stretch of I-675 by repairing sections of pavement and resurfacing three lanes of highway in each direction.
(John R. Jurgensen Company photo)
The Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT), via a $26.1 million construction project, is rehabilitating a 17-mi. stretch of I-675 by repairing sections of pavement and resurfacing three lanes of highway in each direction. The work takes place between Wilmington Pike at the Montgomery/Greene County Line and the Col. Glenn Highway interchange.
John R. Jurgensen Company and the Complete General Construction Company (JRJ and CGC) also are rehabilitating 40 bridges along the mainline and seven overpasses between the Montgomery County line and the Clark County line. Additional elements include bridge painting and deck sealing.
The scoping and development process for the I-675 rehabilitation began in the summer of 2016, and construction started in January 2020. Funded with state and federal monies, the entire project is scheduled to be completed in summer 2022, although the final surface course of asphalt and permanent striping is expected to be completed by fall 2021.
"With one of the nation's largest interstate systems and bridge inventories, Ohio has one of the state's most valuable physical assets — its transportation network — and preservation of our infrastructure is necessary to support this network both regionally and globally," said Kathleen Fuller, public information officer, ODOT District 8. "Projects such as this serve to preserve the existing system of roads and bridges and in turn, improve safety, thereby fulfilling the department's mission of providing safe and easy movement of people and goods from place to place."
This section of I-675 was originally constructed in 1987 and carries approximately 50,000 vehicles daily. There have been several projects over the years that have ranged from pavement overlays to bridge work at various locations.
The current project was designed by Carpenter Marty Transportation and ODOT.
John R. Jurgensen Company and subcontractor crews have made considerable progress.
"We have completed bridge rehabilitation on various overhead bridges, including Indian Ripple, Wagner, Feedwire and Kemp roads," said Josh Nichols, project manager of JRJC. "We also have completed bridge rehabilitation on various on-grade bridges including NB and SB 675 over Vineland Trail and Swigert Road, as well as the SB side of 675 over Little Beaver Creek, Patterson Road and Research Boulevard; minor bridge deck repairs on all the on-grade bridges from Colonel Glenn interchange to the Clark County line; and bridge painting on the 35 over 675 Mainline and Ramp bridges.
"In 2021 we plan on finishing the remaining bridge rehabilitation work and asphalt mill and fill work from Wilmington Pike to Fairfield Road. There is some painting work that will occur at the Dayton-Xenia bridge. Other than that, there will be some final work activities, including HMWM resin; permanent striping; raised pavement markers; and removing any remaining maintenance of traffic material."
Staging preparations for the project were completed in early April.
"This year has been very abnormal with the COVID regulations," said Nichols. "It has been a challenge to get people to and from work safely and to perform critical tasks in close spaces while abiding to all state COVID regulations. That being said, our safety department has made this one of our top priorities by implementing procedures and purchasing PPE and sanitation equipment that will keep our workers safe and follow state and local health guidelines. We also have the challenge of maintaining a very large work area. The work spans over 17 miles of interstate and requires immense amount of traffic control work. Almost all of our traffic control work is required to be at night, along with any other work that may require a lane closure [bridge overlays, asphalt paving, bridge painting, and parapet wall construction].
"We will not be performing any permanent repair activities in the winter, but will be performing winter maintenance such as pothole repairs," he added. "We also will have a workzone traffic supervisor driving the job each day to identify any potential traffic hazards, such as potholes, striping deficiencies, correct signage and any damage that may be caused by traffic accidents."
JRJ had plenty of time for planning and scheduling.
"We perform yearly planning meetings with JRJ personnel and subcontractors to develop our goals and target completion dates," said Nichols. "We also perform weekly work plan meetings to schedule work activities for the following two weeks. This also gives us a chance to review our goals and target completion dates from the planning session and track our performance against that schedule. Finally, we perform monthly progress meetings with ODOT to go over all project critical issues and make sure we, the contractor, and ODOT are on the same page.
"When working on a major interstate like I-675, the work areas are always compressed in order to give the traveling lanes as much room as possible while being able to complete the repair work in an efficient manner," he added. "During the construction season, there are many work areas protected by portable concrete barrier wall where the adjacent traffic lane widths and shoulder widths are reduced."
JRJ and ODOT are dealing with issues rapidly.
"We have maintained a great working relationship with ODOT over the years and it has only gotten better with the implementation of project partnering," said Nichols. "This process was established by ODOT and the OCA [Ohio Contractors Association] where the project leaders meet at various times during the life of the project to establish and review partnering goals between ODOT and all associated contractors. Some of the goals created by this meeting include safety, communication, schedule, financials and delay mitigation."
The resurfacing has not begun yet.
"We have performed some longitudinal joint repairs that must be completed prior to the resurfacing," said Nichols. "Resurfacing operations should begin in the spring of 2021, and will focus on paving one lane at a time due to the required longitudinal joints and the length of the work zone. The asphalt paving extends from the Wilmington Pike Bridge to the Fairfield Road interchange. There is approximately 80,000 tons of asphalt to be laid and it should take about four months to complete. Most of the project is available to pave anytime, except for the area NB and SB from MM 12 to 14. This area will not be available until the bridge rehabilitation in this area is complete in the late summer. At that point, we can finish the remainder of the asphalt paving.
"We are performing longitudinal joint repairs at two feet wide and four inches thick," he added. "Per ODOT direction, we are replacing any of the existing asphalt joints that look to be deteriorating. We're also performing some various partial depth patching at any areas that show major pavement failures."
There is a 2-mi. area from MM 7 to 9 where there is a two-lift replacement. This includes a 2.25-in. asphalt concrete intermediate course and a 1.5 in. of asphalt concrete surface course. The pavement planning in this area is 3.75 in.
The remainder of the project is a single lift replacement that includes 1.5 in. of asphalt surface course.
"There are some minor areas that are a little bit thicker due to the elevation change of the bridge decks from the overlay repair work," said Nichols. "In these areas the thickness varies in order to create a smooth transition to the new bridge deck elevations — in the range of 0 to 1.5 inches extra thickness."
The road work equipment include Wirtgen W250I and W210I milling machines; a Roadtec SB2500E material transfer machine; a Cat AP1055F paving machine; rollers — a Bomag BW190AD-5, a Bomag BW 161AD-5, a Cat CB54XW and a Cat CB54B; road wideners — a Barber Greene BG730 and a Midland SPD8; an Elgin Pelican NB street sweeper; an Etntyre Centennial black-topper distributor truck; a Cimline 230DH AC buggy truck; a Kenworth T370 water truck; and a John Deere 4052R boom with a Smith Challenger SCM 100 sweeper."
The bridge operations are focusing on deck overlays, deck sealing, bridge railing replacement and various minor bridge maintenance items.
"Complete General Construction has been aggressively working on as many bridges as possible," said Nichols. "That includes five overhead bridges and six on-grade bridges in reference to I-675.There are only [three bridges that will be repaired in 2021] due to construction phasing. Jurgensen and A&A Safety traffic crews have been extremely busy with work zone setups and phase changes to allow this bridge work to happen.
"For the 11 bridges that have been worked on, there have been a total of 27 traffic configurations implemented," he added. "The amount of bridge work that has been completed in 2020 has far exceeded expectations, especially while working through a pandemic. I am very pleased with the hard work and collaboration that all contractors have shown to produce such a successful year."
Nichols' management team also includes Rob Green, superintendent.
"Our project team is very diverse in regards to their perspective and background," said Nichols. "Everyone's opinion is heard and given significant thought. All of our processes involve getting us together, whether that be a phone call, face-to-face interaction or virtual meeting.
"Our crew members work extremely hard every single day," he added, "They put in numerous hours of overtime on a weekly basis. They work out in the elements daily and sometimes even well into the winter months. With the added element of working next to live traffic, safety is priority number one. We have daily ‘toolbox talks' to keep safety at the forefront of our daily operations. Thank you to all the men and women who have helped make this project a successful one, and thank you to all who build this great infrastructure of America."
Peak days have had up to 30 or 40 Jurgensen and subcontractor workers on-site. The subcontractors include: Complete General Construction for bridge work; Lake Erie Construction Company for guardrail and cable rail; Bansal Construction Inc. for electrical and highway lighting; A&A Safety for striping and traffic control; Twin Rivers Construction Company for epoxy sealing and gravity fed resin work; 360 Construction Company for bridge painting; Boca Construction for rumble strips; and Russell Tree Experts for clearing and grubbing.
Earth work, excavation and demolition should generate 4,000 tons of concrete and 80,000 tons of asphalt.
"Recycling is a very large part of our asphalt business for Valley Asphalt, an affiliate company of John R. Jurgensen," said Nichols. "All of the asphalt millings are taken back to one of our plant locations where we process and reuse that material on different asphalt mixes per ODOT specification. We also recycle by taking demolition to aggregate plants and crushing/processing it for use in various aggregate mixes. Being able to reuse the materials we demo is one of the most important aspects to our asphalt and aggregate material companies. It provides a huge cost savings measure, as well reducing the impact to the environment by reducing the amount of new materials needed to create new products."
Materials brought in are expected to tally: 4,000 tons of concrete; 80,000 tons of asphalt; and 75,000 lbs. of steel.
Additional equipment being used includes: a Komatsu PW220-7 RT and a PC228USLC-10 excavator; a John Deere 30G compact excavator; a Cat D6N dozer; a John Deere 550K dozer; and a John Deere 544L loader.
"We did not have any wear and tear issues related to this project — just typical machine maintenance such as changing oils, broom cores, hydraulic hoses, mill teeth, etc.," said Nichols. "Repairs were typically made when the project was not in production and could typically be done in a shift or less. All of our mechanics are dispatched out of our main shop and affiliate companies to help with repairs as necessary. We try to keep our preventative maintenance up-to-date on all our equipment so that we have as little job down time as possible."
JRJC purchases and rents equipment in the Cincinnati Tristate Area from A&A Safety, Arts Rental, Bobcat Enterprises, Ohio CAT, Sunbelt Rental, United Rentals and Vandalia Rental.
"The rental dealerships are always very helpful to us," said Nichols. "We rent a lot of equipment that we either do not have or do not have available at the time. There is numerous small equipment needs like jack hammers, compressors, light plants, arrow boards, message boards and even things like drill bits or safety equipment. We are very happy working with all of these rental companies and they have treated us with much respect over the years." CEG
Irwin Rapoport
A journalist who started his career at a weekly community newspaper, Irwin Rapoport has written about construction and architecture for more than 15 years, as well as a variety of other subjects, such as recycling, environmental issues, business supply chains, property development, pulp and paper, agriculture, solar power and energy, and education. Getting the story right and illustrating the hard work and professionalism that goes into completing road, bridge, and building projects is important to him. A key element of his construction articles is to provide readers with an opportunity to see how general contractors and departments of transportation complete their projects and address challenges so that lessons learned can be shared with a wider audience.
Rapoport has a BA in History and a Minor in Political Science from Concordia University. His hobbies include hiking, birding, cycling, reading, going to concerts and plays, hanging out with friends and family, and architecture. He is keen to one day write an MA thesis on military and economic planning by the Great Powers prior to the start of the First World War.
Read more from Irwin Rapoport here.
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