CALIFORNIA STATE EDITION
A Supplement to:
June 16 2024 Vol. V • No. 12
“The Nation’s Best Read Construction Newspaper… Founded in 1957.” Your California Connection – Sharon Swanson – 1-760-518-4336 – sswanson@cegltd.com
Tunnel Vision Papich Construction Installing Two Crossings Beneath Highway By Irwin Rapoport CEG CORRESPONDENT
Papich Construction Co. Inc. initiated operations on the California Department of Transportation’s $16.8 million Sonora Junction Shoulders Project on May 14 in Mono County in eastern central California, a rural area adjacent to the Nevada border. A key element of the project, taking place along U.S. 395, is the installation of two wildlife crossings beneath the highway this summer. The work along the two-lane scenic highway, with the Sierra Nevada in the background, is taking place along 3 mi. between Burcham Flat Road and State Route 108 North, 14 mi. north of Bridgeport. Construction crews also are tasked with widening the shoulders of the highway to 8 ft., installing rail-element retaining walls and stabilizing cut slopes with anchored wire mesh. Crews at Work Papich expects to deliver the project in fall 2025. The work is expected to take approximately 160 working days, including a winter suspension. The traffic management plan on this isolated highway is based on one-way traffic control. The two wildlife crossings are approximately 1.3 mi. apart from each other. “Currently, the plan is to start and finish one crossing at a time, under two separate closures of Highway 395, one closure for each crossing,” said the Papich Construction team. “Each crossing will require the full crew to complete. The first order of business is to excavate down to the bottom of
Papich Construction Co. Inc. is installing two tunnels underneath U.S. 395 in Mono County as part of the Sonora Junction Shoulders Project.
the crossing and install the half built steel structure. The structures have been left partially constructed to their size and needing to move them into place. Once set in place, a crew will need to assemble the remainder of the crossing in place before backfilling and patching the roadway which needs to be reopened to traffic at the end of each closure period.” Both wildlife crossings will be roughly 13 ft. from top of roadway to invert of the crossing when complete. see TUNNEL page 8
Each crossing requires extensive excavation, culvert construction, backfilled and trench patched and soil placed in the invert of the crossing.