- Company: E&B Paving Inc.
- Industry: Transportation
- Location: Bloomfield, Indiana
- Expected Completion Date: November 25, 2015
- Project Website
E&B Paving Inc. is the Prime Contractor on the I-69 Corridor Section 4/ Segments 6&7/ from Carmichael Rd. to Harmony Rd. Bridge including the SR-445 connector. This $96.8 million dollar contract includes 8.2 miles of new road construction on I-69, a new connector to SR-445, and 14 new bridge structures. This section of new highway construction is part of I-69 connector between Evansville and Indianapolis. With 4 of the sections complete and the 5th currently under construction, I-69 will be ultimately be included as one of six “Corridors of the Future” connecting Mexico to Canada, making it a primary north south artery for the movement of goods and services in the US.
What impact does this project have on America?
I-69 Section 4 completes the Evansville, IN to Bloomington, IN section of the corridor. This connection reduces travel time from Indianapolis to Evansville by over 45 mins. In addition it connects Bloomington to Crane, IN, home of Navel Support Activity Crane (NSA). If you have ever traveled from Crane, IN to Bloomington then you have experienced the large amount of traffic on these 2 lane roads. The volume of large semi traffic combined with school buses and weather conditions makes for a very dangerous commute. The NSA Crane facility, and the commissions housed within, are visited by thousands of trucks each year, both delivering and pick-up of material. The facility has 3,300 government employees and 1,400 contract employees that come through the gates each day. One-third of those employees live in Bloomington and I-69 will reduce their commute and significantly increase their quality of life.
What interesting obstacles or unusual circumstances did you overcome to complete the project?
I-69 Section 4 Segments 6&7 stretched through two counties (Green and Monroe) which has some of the toughest terrain for road construction in the State of Indiana. Several months of blasting and ripping with large equipment were required to move the 6.3 million cys. of earth. Earthwork would consist of cuts and fills greater then 50′ in elevation and required working double shifts both wasting and filling material. It was necessary to work 7 days a week to meet contract schedules when the weather allowed. Bridge Construction was required to be completed during the cold months of February and March in order to pour bridge decks as soon as weather would allow. There were several bridge footer re-designs that were stretching the schedule as well, but E&B Paving completed the project on time in order to be ready to Indiana Department of Transportation ribbon cutting hosted by Indiana Governor Mike Pence of December 9, 2015
What dangers and risks did you encounter, and describe any extraordinary methods used to keep workers safe?
E&B Paving strives to create a culture of effective work zone safety and traffic control plans on every project we complete. This project was a little different since it was from inception to completed product. However, there is still a need to general worker safety and traffic control on locally impacted access road, haul road crossing, and detour routes. In our efforts to help our project neighbors, we implemented an effective work zone safety plan largely by completing certain areas of the corridor first so they could be used as haul roads. This would minimize the impact to local county roads that were previously in use. E&B paving also used extensive community outreach efforts to inform the public of upcoming changes, delays, or closures in order to keep the public and workers safe.
How did you leverage new technologies to work faster and reduce waste?
This project included an extensive value engineering element. INDOT allowed us to utilize a recently adopted Cost Reduction Incentive (CRI). We were able to propose and ultimately get approved a cost reduction ultimately valued at $568,000 net savings to the project. The CRI changed the grade of the and the single span bridge carrying SR 445 over Carter Rd, allowing a Concrete Arch Structure to be utilized instead of the expensive bridge construction. The change allowed 333,000 CYS of material to not be moved, eliminating drainage structures, and ultimately requiring less maintenance on the concrete arch vs. the bridge design.
Additionally, as a result of the scope and size of the project, E&B Paving utilized real time data collection through field tablets. At the peak of the construction on the project there were over 160 tradespeople on-site working double shifts. Without the use of HCSS Heavy Job, there would be not way to track timecards. During the same period of time, we had over 70 tri-axle trucks delivering various aggregate materials, and without real time data entry, we would not have been able to track those deliveries. Finally with over 500+ pay items, our management team would not have been able to manage the large amount of data they receive on a daily basis.