NITKE AUCTIONS HOST 56TH ANNUAL WISCONSIN CONTRACTORS SALE

Nitke Auctions, a Hansen Auction Group company, held its 56th annual Wisconsin Contractors two-day fall sale Oct. 28 to 29 at its facility in Mosinee, Wis. A large selection of items were available for bidders to purchase in person or online.

Some of the construction equipment items up for bid included excavators, skid steers, dozers, trucks, telehandlers, attachments and more from manufacturers including Bobcat, Volvo, Doosan, Case, John Deere, Caterpillar, Komatsu and more.

For more information, visit nitkeauctions.com.  CEG (All photographs in this article are Copyright 2021 Construction Equipment Guide. All Rights Reserved.)

The Rottier brothers, Matt (L) and Andy, owners of Rottier Brothers Construction of Green Bay, Wis., have a look at this Case 650K dozer.

Sam Meyer of Meyer Construction runs this Cat D5G LGP dozer. There were plenty of wheel loaders to bid on at the 56th annual Wisconsin Contractors Fall Auction.

Bryce Hansen (C), president and CEO, Hansen Auction Group, with sons Chase (L) and Taylor prior to the start of day two of the annual auction. Just when you thought you have seen it all at auctions, think again ... Leo Krombholz of Leo’s Auto Transport brought his bomb loader — used for loading bombs onto B-52s — to be auctioned off.

INTERCHANGE from page 36

new roadway, which has a different profile (i.e., elevation) compared with the existing roadway in some areas, Cutler elaborates. “These MSE walls also allow for the maintenance of traffic between phases of construction.”

Other work includes: • 16 drilled shafts for bridges — 42-in. diameter, 98 ft. deep • 16 drilled shafts for light towers — 60-in. diameter, 22 to 32 ft. deep • 113, 846 cu. yds. of concrete (to date) • 36,096 tons of reinforcing steel (to date) • 3,480,753 cu. yds. of earthwork (to date) • 4,802 tons of structural steel (to date)

So far, more than 50 piers have been constructed; most bridge piers are pile-driven, according to Cutler.

Roughly 10,000 tons of asphalt will be placed in locations throughout the project, including shoulders and detours, using rollers, pavers and milling machines.

“All asphalt on the project is being supplied and placed by subcontractor L.L. Pelling,” said Stone. “Depths range from six to 16 inches, depending on application, with density anywhere from 140160 pounds per cubic foot, depending on the location and whether it’s for shoulder widening, temporary detours, etc.”

One unusual aspect of this design-build project is the pier shapes and aesthetics, which were determined through a series of meetings with various agencies and the public. The style chosen features limestone texture and color treatments that will complement the concrete barrier rail design along I-80 through the Iowa City/Coralville metro area, Cutler said.

Challenge Accepted

Work on the Systems Interchange Project is expected to be complete in the summer of 2024. While it’s on schedule right now, there were times it was in danger of veering radically off schedule.

Crews fell behind schedule in the fall of 2019 and spring of 2020 due to extremely wet weather.

Hugh Holak, construction engineer with Iowa DOT, told the local Gazette, “This meant we were unable to get things situated where we wanted to for winter work.” Narigon confirms that 2019 was a “very, very wet year” and told the Gazette that Iowa DOT had to pull some crews from the project in order to build emergency levees to fight flooding across the state.

There also was a two-week shutdown in February due to extremely cold weather. Sub-zero temperatures are hard on the crew and the equipment, causing production rates to drop, Holak said.

Luckily, 2020 was a dry year overall, allowing them to catch up. Another benefit to the schedule was reduced traffic due to COVID-19. With many people working from home and several school closings, commuter traffic volume was down. That allowed the Iowa DOT to implement several single-lane daytime closures — for the first time in decades — that enabled crews to get the project back on schedule.

Financing had an impact on the schedule. Financing for the project comes from federal, state and local governments, as well as a

grant for the development of a 3-D deliverable BIM model as part of a research project for construction use of modeling, a first in Iowa. But pandemic-related cashflow issues delayed letting for the current project from July to December. Other issues arose during construction that affected the budget. Access was one challenge. To ease some of the difficulty of moving materials around on the job site, the contractor created a haul road. In addition, because there’s a creek near the interchange, crews struggled to deal with dirty sand. A high-water table liquified the sandy soil, resulting in challenges for building. To combat that, they installed drainage tile to lower the water table enough to stabilize the ditch. They also used a rock key to stabilize the toe of the back slope and installed wick drains.

Cutler said the access challenges required “extra coordination and planning so various contractors can utilize nighttime roadway closures for various activities at times.”

Maintaining the existing roadway proved another challenge.

“We’ve occasionally had issues with potholes forming in the existing roadway and the temporary patches not holding,” Cutler said. “Usually, they make a more permanent repair, hoping it will last until they can shift traffic onto the new pavement. If the impact to traffic of doing that is high because a full closure is necessary, they have to establish a detour route. [It] can be extensive, with mainline interstate and various ramps that connect into a certain area having to be closed and re-routed.”

Iowa DOT works with the contractors to monitor, temporarily repair and schedule permanent repairs to the existing roadways to get them through the project. Working around roadway repairs and access issues is only part of the staging drama. With 21 new bridges in different stages of construction and two others being widened, scheduling work crews has been a major task.

Timeline

To assist with staging and scheduling, work on this massive project has been grouped strategically for efficiency while minimizing as much as possible the construction Serving as prime contractor on the project is the joint venture of United Contractors Inc., a heavy impacts to local businesses, resihighway construction firm working in the Midwest, South and Southeast, and Cramer & Associates, dents and travelers. an Iowa-based contractor specializing in There will be single-lane cloCrews used excavators and side heavy highway work. sures and full closures at night, as dump trucks to remove guardrail well as overnight ramp and road and cable before stripping closures planned through the sumand stockpiling topsoil. mer of 2024. Cutler said at times there are “multiple closures occurring at the same time on the interchange at night.” Other changes include two System-toSystem loop ramps that will permanently close and detour to allow for staging and construction to progress. The U.S. 218 northbound to I-80 westbound loop permanently closed in December 2020. The new ramp is anticipated to open fall/winter 2023. The I-80 westbound to U.S. 218 southbound loop permanent closure is anticipated at the end of September 2021. The new ramp is anticipated to open fall/winter 2023. This project follows the Iowa DOT Standard Specifications for Highway and Bridge, Cutler noted.

On-Time Delivery

Having made up for lost time last year, Iowa DOT expects all new lanes will be open to traffic by the end of 2023, with additional work (such as a permanent barrier rail) on Jasper Avenue over I-80, plus projectwide erosion control and seeding, continuing into 2024. “The project team has done a great job working together by utilizing their combined resources to complete critical portions of the project on time or ahead of schedule,” Stone said. This has allowed critical traffic switches to happen when needed to keep the project moving forward.” Chad Coalbank, project manager, Cramer & Associates, said, “With lots of subcontractor coordination, scheduling, planning and hard work, we will have this project complete with traffic in its final configuration by the summer of 2024.”  CEG