PACIFIC NORTHWEST EDITION
A Supplement to:
February 21 2016 Vol. I • No. 4
“The Nation’s Best Read Construction Newspaper… Founded in 1957.” Your Pacific Northwest Connection – Patrick Kiel – 1-877-7CEGLTD – pkiel@cegltd.com
Oregon’s Highway 20 Moves Forward Despite Problems By Lori Tobias CEG CORRESPONDENT
Part 1 of a 3-part series: A decade after the design-build contract was first awarded, the end of a project to straighten a dangerous portion of Oregon’s U.S. Highway 20 is within sight, with drivers possibly traveling the new stretch as early as fall 2016. “The project is intended to improve the safety and operating efficiency of a 10-mi. stretch between Eddyville and Sam’s Creek,” said Jerry Wolcott, Oregon Department of Transportation project leader. “On that 10 mile stretch there is an average of 22 accidents and two fatalities a year. It parallels the river. There are tight corners, decreased visibility and it is tucked in trees so it gets a little icy.” The project has been plagued by problems almost from the start. One year after the job was awarded to Yaquina River Contractors — a subsidiary of Granite Construction Co. of Waterville, Calif. — in the single largest contract ever let by ODOT, the subcon-
tractor was fined $240,000 by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality for water quality violations. Work was halted for a period, then resumed. But in 2010, engineers discovered ancient landslides in the Coast Range were still moving and the columns on bridges, some more than 100 ft. (30 m) tall, had moved out of plumb. For a time it was questionable whether the originally budgeted $150 million project would move forward. In 2012, with roughly half the project completed, ODOT and YRC parted company, and ODOT took control of the project. “There were challenges that we faced from the very beginning,” Wolcott said. “One, was the size of the project. It is really enormous. The challenge that really chased us around is the weather. There are only about 100 days of the year that we can work. With a project of this size, the weather becomes critical. So we broke it into phases. We took the time to learn as we went and made see OREGON page 8
ODOT photo
ODOT photo
A decade after the design-build contract was first awarded, the end of a project to straighten a dangerous portion of Oregon’s U.S. Highway 20 is within sight. Crews also installed about 300 instruments in the ground, which feed engineers information about where the landslides are located, how deep they are, which direction they are moving and how fast.
Idaho’s Goose Creek Grade Project to Resume This Spring By Andrea Watts CEG CORRESPONDENT
Beginning this spring, the northern stretch of Idaho 55 between McCall and New Meadows will have another round of road closures and reduced speed zones as work resumes on the Goose Creek Grade project. With road building and blasting on only one curve remaining, construction is expected to be completed this summer. Increasing safety along this 2-mi. On three of the four curves, Knife River’s crews notched back (3.2 km) stretch of highway was the reason for this $3.1 million dollar the hillsides to increase sight distance along the roadway.
state-funded road-maintenance project that was funded in 2015, yet there also is the added benefit of transportation efficiency. Before this project, trailers using Idaho 55 were “limited to a specific size because as they would go around the corner, they would track out of their lane and veer into the oncoming lane or off the road onto the shoulder,” explained Jim Hoffecker, construction coordinator of the Idaho Transportation Department (ITD). This meant longer trailers had to detour onto U.S. 95, which is a less efficient hauling route to and from
Boise. With the Goose Creek Grade project calling for a widening of the road radius and notching the corners back on four curves, longer trailers can use Idaho 55 once the project is finished. The Boise office of Knife River was awarded the contract and received notice to proceed at the end of March 2015. With the project requiring the blasting of cliffs to increase sight distance along the roadway and the construction of mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) walls to flatten out the road’s curve, Josh see IDAHO page 2