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South Memorial Parkway Proceeds Ahead of Schedule By Irwin Rapoport
A joint venture between Reed Contracting Services Inc. (road construction) and Miller & Miller Inc. (bridge construction) is taking on the $53.9 million, multi-year Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT) South Memorial Parkway (Alabama 53 / U.S. 231) expressway and frontage roads between Golf Road and Whitesburg Drive in Huntsville. This project, which is ahead of schedule, is part of ALDOT and the city of Huntsville’s five-year, $250-million joint-funding agreement for road and bridge infrastructure upgrades in the city. The Memorial Parkway (U.S. 231) runs through the heart of Huntsville in Madison County. “This section from north of Whitesburg Drive to south of Golf Road was a roughly 1.5-mile gap in the eight-lane expressway/service road system where traffic funneled into a divided six-lane with four signalized intersections in less than a mile,” said Seth Burkett, ALDOT’s north region public information officer. “Martin Road, an important access point for Redstone Arsenal, crossed over the parkway via a two-lane bridge constructed in 1961.” The traffic using these roads and bridges is considerable. In 2015, the parkway had an average of 64,020 vehicles daily just north of Lily Flagg Road. The project includes the replacement of the Martin Road Bridge over U.S. 231 and the construction of U.S. 231 mainline, a four-lane highway with overpasses at Byrd Spring Road and Logan Drive/Lily Flagg Road, two-lane
CEG CORRESPONDENT
Logan Drive during early Phase 2.
frontage/service roads on either side and interchanges between the overpasses along this 1.5-mi. stretch. “The project ties in with existing limited-access portions of the parkway to the north and south,” said Burkett, “form-
ing a continuous expressway from south of Mastin Lake Road in north Huntsville to north of Meadowbrook Drive in South Huntsville — a total of about 9.5 miles of expressway see ALDOT page 6
Mercedes-Benz to Invest $1B to Expand Production in Alabama DETROIT (AP) Mercedes-Benz said it will spend $1 billion to expand its Alabama facilities and start production of a new line of fully electric SUVs. The company plans to build a new battery plant near its existing assembly plant in Tuscaloosa, Ala. Construction of the 1 million sq.-ft. battery plant will begin next year. Mercedes said the project will create around 600 new jobs. The company currently employs 3,700 people in Alabama. The Tuscaloosa assembly plant will start produc-
tion of the EQ line of electric SUVs around 2020. Mercedes is aiming at Tesla with the EQ, which will also have advanced semi-autonomous driving features. Mercedes made the announcement as it celebrated the 20th anniversary of its Tuscaloosa plant. The plant currently makes the GLE and GLS SUVs for the U.S. and global markets. (This story also can be found on Construction Equipment Guide’s website at www.constructionequipmentguide.com.)
Motor Trend photo
The Mercedes-Benz Tuscaloosa assembly plant.
Page 2 • December 6, 2017 • www.constructionequipmentguide.com • Alabama State Supplement • Construction Equipment Guide
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Construction Equipment Guide • Alabama State Supplement • www.constructionequipmentguide.com • December 6, 2017 • Page 3
Page 4 • December 6, 2017 • www.constructionequipmentguide.com • Alabama State Supplement • Construction Equipment Guide
Construction Equipment Guide • Alabama State Supplement • www.constructionequipmentguide.com • December 6, 2017 • Page 5
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Page 6 • December 6, 2017 • www.constructionequipmentguide.com • Alabama State Supplement • Construction Equipment Guide
Crews Complete Challenging Utility Relocations on Project ALDOT from page 1
with service roads. It will improve traffic flow by allowing motorists on the four-lane mainline to bypass the intersections via the series of overpasses/underpasses, greatly decreasing traffic volume at the intersections and improving their efficiency.” A major challenge for the project was limiting impacts on commuters as well as residents and businesses in the area. One way of doing this was to condense the timeline for construction, Burkett said. “The project is divided into two phases that could have been let as separate projects,” he said, “but were instead tied together to eliminate any potential downtime between completion of one phase and authorization of the second.” Also, the contract for the JV partners provides a total of $5 million in incentives for early completion or disincentives for late completion. The service roads and Martin Road bridge have been completed and are open to traffic, and work is well underway on the overpasses and mainline. A section of the mainline under Martin Road was opened in July to allow traffic to bypass the Martin Road intersection for the remainder of the construction. “ALDOT and the contractors have worked very closely with city officials, local businesses, community groups and the media to make motorists aware of traffic changes,” said Burkett, “and to find solutions to reduce delays and impacts on businesses. One example of this is the Benaroya Connector, constructed by Reed under a separate contract with the city, which provided alternate access to a business district as well as an alternate route for traffic leaving the arsenal. Another, is the early opening of the portion of the mainline under Martin Road, which originally would not have opened until all overpasses were complete.
Byrd Spring Road during early Phase 2
“This project is part of a $250-million joint-funding agreement with Huntsville, in which ALDOT and the city each cover half of the combined expense of all projects funded under the agreement,” he said. “Another project under this agreement will extend the North Memorial Parkway expressway north of Mastin Lake Road, including construction of an overpass at Mastin.” The infrastructure for the ongoing work was designed by outside consultants. ALDOT is doing all it can to minimize the impact on local traffic and businesses. “Whenever possible, two lanes in each direction were The first bridge girders are placed at Logan Drive and Lily Flagg Road during Phase 2. kept open,” said Burkett. The Phase 2 portion of the to businesses and the public, as the pipe had vation, 293,147 cu. yds. of borrow excavawork also will be completed early. to be staged across a number of business tion, 14,552 cu. yds. of structure excavation Construction on Phase 1 — Memorial entrances and cross streets.” and 1,872 cu. yds. of unclassified bridge Parkway service roads (two-lane) and new Some of the major subcontractors are: excavation. The new materials being used bridges, and a wider elevated intersection on ABC Cutting Contractors; Alabama include 84,111 tons of asphalt, 1.2 million, Martin Rd —began on Dec. 2, 2015 and was Guardrail; McCord Construction; Concrete lbs. of steel reinforcement, 52,516 ft. of steel completed in August, more than three Builders Inc.; Gilley Construction Inc.; piling, 78,711 lbs. of structural steel, 6,036 months ahead of its Dec. 1 deadline. Phase 2 Ozark Safety Services Inc.; Seaboard cu. yds. of concrete and 141,200 sq. ft. of work — the Memorial Parkway mainline Foundations Inc.; Shoals Electric Inc.; Sloan MSE (mechanically stabilized earth) wall. (four-lane and overpass at Byrd Spring Road Utility Contracting Inc.; and Surface (This story also can be found on and Logan Drive/Lily Flagg Road — is due Preparation Technologies Inc. Construction Equipment Guide’s website at to be complete by June 1, 2019, but all major The joint-venture anticipates that it shall www.constructionequipmentguide.com.) work items may be complete as early as remove 61,038 cu. yds. of unclassified exca- CEG summer 2018. The major challenges for the work involved relocating multiple utilities within very limited right-of-way, maintaining business turnouts and/or side streets during their installation and coordination/communication between multiple stakeholders. The project managers for the joint-venture, have been on top of all of the issues and challenges, and they and their management team and crews have overcome them through solid planning and lessons learned from previous projects. “They have adapted very well to conditions on the ground,” said Burkett. “Whenever issues have come up, they work very hard to meet those issues head on and overcome them.” The work is being done mainly by day, with some night work. “They have worked at night to reduce impacts on traffic,” said Burkett. “This is mainly for setting bridge girders and other related elements. Approximately 1,400 feet of pipe was pulled at night to lessen the inconvenience Crews work on the Byrd Spring intersection during Phase 1 of construction.
Construction Equipment Guide • Alabama State Supplement • www.constructionequipmentguide.com • December 6, 2017 • Page 7
Page 8 • December 6, 2017 • www.constructionequipmentguide.com • Alabama State Supplement • Construction Equipment Guide
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