Pocahontas Parkway Evokes–and Makes–a Bit of History

"It was a 23—minute ride to go 500 ft before," observes Jeff Caldwell, Virginia Dept. of Transportation spokesman. "This splits the river crossing length by a half." With 895, drivers have a direct route between Chesterfield County, eight miles south of Richmond, and Henrico County across the James River.

Parkways version of the James River Bridge. (Photo courtesy of the Virginia Department of Transportation/Tom Saunders)

An innovative effort by VDOT and a joint venture also slashed the time it would have taken to build Route 895, officially dubbed the Pocahontas Parkway, by some 15 years under a normal budget process. While VDOT has faced criticism, shrinking budgets and now new leadership, its conception of the state's Public—Private Transportation Act has resulted in the successful completion of a crucial capital city connector.

Most of the parkway will be open on schedule May 20, with some of the eastbound bridges due to open a month late and the westbound bridges due to open about six months behind last month's original completion date. Some of the liquidated damages of $25,500 a day will end up being assessed. But "even late, it's less than 50 months, where if VDOT had done it traditionally, it would be 72 to 84 months," says Herb Morgan, president of FD/MK LLC, a firm created by Fluor Daniel and Morrison Knudsen (now Washington Group), which is the private—sector owner/partner with VDOT.

The large constructors previously had teamed up on Denver's E—470 toll road, and brought that experience east, where Fluor Daniel took the lead. "We're our own entity," says Morgan. "We have our own books, and our own bills." Once the Virginia legislature passed the PPTA in 1995, FD/MK promptly put in a proposal for Route 895. Three years of financial and contractual negotiations passed before the first concrete was poured. FD/MK took care of all environmental permits, rights of way and utility issues. "The state had one guy," notes Morgan. "Its only investment is $9 million for environmental impact study and an $18 million State Infrastructure Bank loan, which was paid back."

In all, $27 million of the $324 million project cost came from public funds and FD/MK sold bonds for the rest. It has 28 years to pay back the bonds and the contractor also is providing a five—year warranty on the road.

FD/MK reduced environmental impact from 40 to 32 acres, built 70 new acres of wetlands and preserved another 181 acres.

The contracting team is led by a joint venture of Miami—based Recchi America Inc. and Glen Burnie, Md.—based McClean Contracting Co. for bridges and Lynchburg, Va—based W.C. English Construction for highway work. They must navigate a maze of utility work including dealing with power lines and petroleum pipelines, plus a plume of contaminated groundwater. They also are rebuilding three utility towers and lowering them by 20 ft to remove them from airspace for the nearby airport. In all, utility issues cost approximately $9.5 million, says Morgan.

Among the 8.8—mile connector's 15 new bridges, the queen is a 4,765—ft—long, balanced cantilever river crossing that boasts North America's third—longest cast—in—place structure–a 673—ft clear span. This $110—million section of the parkway was a design—build contract, says Fred Parkinson, project manager for designer Parsons Brinckerhoff, New York City. The high clearance of 150 ft was due to Port of Richmond marine traffic.

The precast dual box girders weigh 35 tons each, with pier segments up to 60 tons. The hollow trapezoidal girders, at 41—ft depths, rest on 20—ft—dia caissons socketed 5 m into rock. Some 1,600 precast approach spans are tapered to match the curving ramps. Curves can reach up to 350 ft in radii. A new mass concrete mix was devised for the pours, reaching 4,350 psi. It may be used on other projects.

There are 8,000 cu yd of concrete in each of the two foundations, plus 2,500 tons of rebar, says Dave Wesson, VDOT project manager. Adds Parkinson, "They could hold up an aircraft carrier."

A smaller bridge, named after local Civil War hero Powhatan Beaty, required a 33—ft cut on a job that is mostly fill, says Wesson. Since that took it below a water table about 20 ft deep, crews built an underdrain system there.

The new four—lane highway, which will sport 240,000 tons of asphalt paving, is expected to carry 24,000 daily vehicles initially, with an eventual ramp—up to 50,000. Drivers will pass through a shiny new toll plaza equipped with Smart Tag technology that will automatically send speeding fines to any vehicle passing through at more than 55 mph. FD/MK helped push the idea of a $1.50 tolled connector, with a public awareness campaign explaining that savings will occur in distance as well as time–up to 8 miles. As for public—private financing, VDOT's Wesson notes that, ideally, "we'd never go back to a conventional type of project."

Interstate 95's James River Bridge Boasts Big Concrete Units

Archer Western Contractors Ltd., Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., had a simple, but Herculean, task: replace a bridge span a night. This meant positioning two cranes on the existing bridge to hold old sections in place while cutting the span away. Then the cranes lifted a precast concrete unit (PCU) averaging 88 ft long, 23 ft wide and 120 tons into place with a 2—in. tolerance.

Precast concrete units come in big packages. (Photo courtesy of the Virginia Department of Transportation/Tom Saunders)

The crew had 11 hours each night to get the PCU installed or face a minimum fine of $5,000 for every 15 minutes past 6 a.m., notes Michael Schwartz, VDOT project engineer. The delays happened twice. "One time they were there after 6:30," he says. But crews hit the learning curve in a hurry; by the end of the job they trimmed the process down to seven hours. Early completion bonuses for the June deadline could make up for the fines, Schwartz adds.

There are always some complications that weren't expected," says Bob Lofling, project manager for Archer Western. For example, in an old truss section, bolts unexpectedly threaded into concrete made the old bridge sections harder to lift.

VDOT could not afford a total replacement of the 1950s—era bridge, which was designed to carry 45,000 vehicles daily but now carries triple that amount. Designer URS Corp., San Francisco, determined the most economical option was to repair the substructure and replace the 102 spans.

Archer Western won the A+B contract by bidding for a 179—night schedule rather than 208. The contractor had worked with Pasadena, Calif.—based Parsons Corp.'s bridge division on modification of new bridge segments. "The original contract plan was to come in and set things down in form, and cast—in—place the longitudinal joints," says Jim Bergeron, Parsons regional bridge engineer. "We designed a match—cast option....They can post—tension laterally with no cast—in—place work." The team also saved time by increasing the size of the PCUs, reducing the number of installations.

Archer Western began precasting the spans in 2000 just south of the site, matched them longitudinally and erected them side by side to make up the full width of the span. "We were casting two segments a week in a 24—hour operation," says Schwartz. Around 7 p.m., a segment was taken to the site. Then, two or three old bridge segments were cut out. By 3 a.m. to 5 a.m., the crew could drop in the new pieces with no pouring needed.

     Schwartz says VDOT has 11 other bridges that might undergo the match—cast PCU method.

A Warrantied Highway Unfolds Swiftly in Richmond

Route 383 piers grow fast under design—build. (Photo courtesy of the Virginia Department of Transportation)

"The easiest way to tell if we're on schedule is that if you call this number next summer and someone besides me answers the phone, we're not doing so good," jokes Jim Ewart, project manager for the joint venture of Koch Performance Roads, Wichita, and APAC—VA, Richmond. But so far all looks well: The $236—million design—build project to build a 17.5—mile extension of Route 288 extending west and north on the outskirts of downtown Richmond is more than half—done with less than half the 29—month schedule passed and zero injuries to boot. That's good news for a team with $25,000 a day in potential late completion fines.

Koch/APAC's team is leading 69 contractors on the job, which includes 25 bridges, $40 million in storm drainage and 116 wetland sites. Koch is providing a 20—year warranty to the Virginia Dept. of Transportation for road maintenance and APAC assumes responsibility for the wetland permits. The team originally submitted a proposal in 1999, with the contractual risks resting on VDOT. "We opened our arms and said, ‘Give us the risk,'" says Ewart.

Highway crosses virgin land. (Photo courtesy of the Virginia Department of Transportation)

The third contract to be let under the Public—Private Transportation Act, this portion of Route 288 completes a highway belt circling Richmond and dissected at the north and south edges by I—95. It would not otherwise have been done until 2006, says Kent Heppe, project manager for CH2M Hill Cos., Denver, subcontractor to APAC. "This will save $47 million and three years," he adds. CH2M Hill leads a design team including Earth Tech, HDR Inc., Triplett—King and Reid Structures, among others, and provides quality control.

There are seven interchanges, one sporting an 80—ft—high, mechanically stabilized wall abutment to shorten ramps over I—64, says Heppe. The crown jewel is a bridge over the James River being built by Traylor Bros. Inc., Evansville, Ind., in a subcontract to Chester, S.C.—based United Contractors. The bridge sits on shafts drilled to 40 ft deep and stretches 3,500 ft long and 50 ft high over the 200—ft—wide river. The $31—million structure, a combination of prestressed concrete and steel girders, is months ahead of schedule, says Ewart.

The north bank of the site is abutted by railroad tracks and an overhead platform protects an historic granite arch culvert from cranes. On the other side of the river lies an archeological dig. Further south, graves are being exhumed to make way for the route, says Heppe. Extreme variance in soil conditions and "more stormwater ponds than on any other job in my life," added to the challenges, says Ewart.