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OHIO STATE EDITION
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A Supplement to:
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6
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71
76
199 30 30 75
68
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71 23 22 68
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70 70
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75
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March 29 2014
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Vol. XVIII • No. 7
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“The Nation’s Best Read Construction Newspaper… Founded in 1957.” Your Ohio Connection: Ed Bryden, Strongsville, OH • 1-800-810-7640
Nelsonville Bypass Project Nearly 50 Years in the Making By Irwin Rapoport CEG CORRESPONDENT
The $155 million 8.5 mi. (13.7 km), fourlane (two in each direction) U.S. Route 33 Nelsonville Bypass project was completed last October after breaking ground in 2007. The three-phase project, which was first proposed in the 1960s, represents the final leg of the corridor between Charleston, W. V., and Columbus, Ohio. The bypass, commissioned by the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) with the contract awarded to Kokosing Construction Company Inc., replaced a section of U.S. 33 which passed through the middle of Nelsonville, Ohio. The new road cuts through the northern section of the Wayne National Forest (WNF), the only national forest in the state. “At one point it was the largest dirt work project in the state and it was the largest stimulus project via the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA),” said Steve Williams, District 10 deputy director of ODOT in Marietta. Close to 25 million cu. yd. (19 million cu m) of dirt was removed and about 21 million cu. yd. (16 million cu m) was recycled. “Most of it was ballast,” said Williams. “Most of the cuts went into the fills. We had three dedicated waste areas where we placed the material that we didn’t use for the fills.” The bypass was built to eliminate the bottleneck and traffic delays that were encountered when the road passed through Nelsonville. “The new highway saves an average of 10 to 15 minutes as opposed to when you had to travel through town,” says Williams, “and on Friday nights, it can save up to 45 minutes.” Because it cut through nearly 5 mi. (8 km) of forest land, the project raised a number of environmental concerns which required several environmental and biological assessments for ODOT. “This meant we had to do a lot of things that we normally don’t,” said William, “so
there are numerous environmental and wildlife features on this project. There had been sightings of Eastern Timber Rattlesnakes and we built a snake crossing under the road and installed snake fencing to convey them. We also erected deer fencing along the entire bypass with deer jump-outs to funnel them off the highway and into the wildlife crossings.” Minimizing the impact of road projects on wildlife is being taken more seriously by highway designers, which has led to greater dialogue between DOTs and environmental organizations. “We consulted with other states on wildlife and environmental mitigation techniques, especially when it came to deer fencing and crossings,” said Williams. “We invested $10 million for all of the engineering and construction of these infrastructures.” One of the bridges — there are four twinspan bridges up to 355 ft. (108 m) long and
42 ft. (12.8 m) wide — was built to protect the endangered Appalachian Grizzled Skipper butterfly. “Research has shown that wildlife culverts and bridges are successful at keeping animals off the highway, as well as allowing them to move freely through their habitat,” said Williams. “We planted certain vegetation under the overpasses. This attracts the animals and helps facilitate the use of these wildlife culverts.” He added that at this point, ODOT does not have any plans to install wildlife culverts Kokosing installed settlement platforms and vibrating wire piezometers in some of the larger embankments to monitor the fills to determine the rate of settlement or pore pressure as required by ODOT.
After decades of planning, several years of construction and effective partnering, the U.S. 33 Nelsonville Bypass is open, providing motorists to southeast Ohio safer, faster and easier travel.
or bridges along existing highways in the state. The bypass does not cross any rivers and has had minimal impact on local streams and waterways. A 6 acre wetland was created to not only help improve the local aquifer, but also help promote ecological growth within the forest. Although the project needed more than 600 acres of WNF land, ODOT helped offset the acreage loss by donating a total of 328 acres back to the forest. “We had some parcels of land that we gave the forest and then we bought 248 acres that was adjacent to it,” said Williams. “We also gave them about 40 acres of old U.S. 33 that already runs through the forest — at the tail end, which they’re going to use for parking and recreation.” But the largest challenge for the project was dealing with very old abandoned coal mines under the roadway that operated in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The mines, which could not be accessed through their entrances as the shafts had collapsed, covered several mi. of the bypass. “It was the largest mine mitigation project in the country at one point,” said Williams, “and on one phase of the project we spent $32 million to grout the mines. We had to drill down from anywhere between 20 and 120 feet as part of the operations.” This project was instructive for ODOT, especially how important it is for cooperation when partnering with other agencies in terms of planning and getting all sides on board to secure approval, permissions, schedules and mitigation efforts. see BYPASS page 2