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Design Build Project Breaks Records in North Carolina
Thompson-Arthur APAC Atlantic teams up with three other companies to construct the 14-mile U.S. 64 expressway, marking their largest project to date
Four years is not a lot of time when you're tasked with constructing 14.4 miles of roadway. Add in six interchanges, seven grade crossings and 24 bridges, and you're really asking for a miracle. And that's exactly what Asheboro Bypass Constructors pulled off in North Carolina.
This project actually started back in 2011 when the team at ThompsonArthur APAC Atlantic, a CRH
Company, teamed up with the Wright Atlantic teams up with you're tasked with constructing Brothers. They knew the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) was planning to improve U.S. 64 in the Asheboro area. The proposed project was a new 14.4-mile freeway bypassing Asheboro to the south. The project also featured a highlyanticipated 1.8 mile Zoo Connector, which would give visitors to the massively popular North Carolina Zoo
Company, teamed up with the Wright Brothers. They knew the North Caro-
NORTH CAROLINA
Why Was the Asheboro Bypass Needed?
• Existing congestion along U.S. 64 was causing significant travel delays and increases the potential for crashes. Crash rates along U.S. 64 in the area are above the statewide average for similar roadways in North Carolina. This project should relieve the heavy traffic on Dixie Drive in Asheboro. • Existing and projected traffic and land use conditions along existing
U.S. 64 through Asheboro diminish the route’s ability to function as an intrastate corridor. • Congestion and backups occur on N.C. 159 (Zoo Parkway) because local traffic mixes with zoo traffic. Visitors experience delays and residents have difficulty getting to and from their property. The project featured a 1.8 mile Zoo connector that provides better access to the North Carolina
Zoo, a major tourist attraction and economic engine for the region. • It is integral to NCDOT’s plan to upgrade the U.S. 64 and N.C. 49 corridors from Statesville to Raleigh (U.S. 64) and from Charlotte to
Raleigh (N.C. 49 and U.S. 64).
better access to the park from the U.S. 64 Bypass straight to the zoo's entrance via a roundabout, instead of through residential areas.
Thompson-Arthur and Wright Brothers teamed up with RK&K to design engineer the project and Right-of-Way Consultants to work with appraisals and acquisitions. The four companies made up the design-build team, Asheboro Bypass Constructors, LLC (ABC). Using a design-build process allowed NCDOT to contract with the team of designers and contractors who would be responsible for the design, right of way acquisition and construction of the massive project.
The project was awarded to this team in 2015 and construction began in 2016. Completed in December of 2020, the North Carolina Department of Transportation’s Asheboro Bypass was the most complex design-build project APAC-Atlantic, Inc., Thompson-Arthur Division, had ever undertaken. The design-build team worked together constructing the 14.4-mile, four-lane, divided highway from U.S. 64 west of Asheboro, through the rolling and rocky hills to the south, and back to U.S. 64 in the east. Here's how it happened.
ACQUISITION & RELOCATION
A project of this size requires massive amounts of planning and the ThompsonArthur team relied heavily on the team at Right-of-Way Consultants to start everything off right. Right-of-Way is one of North Carolina's most experienced right-of-way firms and they had 40 staff members committed to this project. "The biggest thing at the beginning was the right away acquisition," Jeff W. Saunders, construction projects
Part of the contract included aesthetic features, such as the elephant pictured here, another indication of how important the N.C. Zoo is to Asheboro, Randolph County and the region. With more than 700,000 visiting the zoo each year, this bypass provides easier access to the popular attraction.
PROJECT TOTALS
• 14.4 Miles • 1.8 Mile Zoo Connector • Six Interchanges • Seven Grade Crossings • 24 Bridges • 7.8 Million CY Earth/Rock Excavated • 112,000 LF Storm • 25,000 LF Water & Sewer • 575,000 Tons Stone • 745,000 Tons Asphalt • 50,000 CY of Concrete
manager at Thompson-Arthur said. "We needed to complete all of the utility relocation that was being coordinated before we could start work."
ABC had to handle the complexity of connecting to, or crossing through, 17 different existing roadways, each with its distinct utility relocations and traffic control management. Compounding those challenges was the overall acquisition of 460 parcels for right-ofway and impacts to 103 locations on permitted jurisdictional streams.
To get started, the project team strategically focused the land acquisition and utility relocation in areas of where reinforced concrete box culverts and bridges were needed that would provide early access to areas of mass grading. The sequence of land acquisition, utility relocation and construction was used repeatedly for the first two years before the entire footprint of the project finally took shape.
The ABC team had to wait until the right-of-way was acquired and worked to streamline areas where they wanted to begin the heavy excavating and mainline work. "We did a good job of identifying areas that we could get access to so we were able to get some of the mainline areas started," Saunders said. "We focused on prioritizing those specific right-of-way parcels so we could get to work excavating and grading as quickly as possible."
EXCAVATION & GRADING
Thompson-Arthur partnered with Wright Brothers for the excavation and grading portion as they are the Southeastern U.S. leader in mass excavation. With the extensive heavy equipment and resources that were needed to complete the project, they were the right choice. "Thompson-Arthur is paving and bridges and Wright Brothers completes excavation and bridges," Larry Brickey, division president at Thompson-Arthur said. "Wright Brothers did all the grading, we did all the paving and stone base work and we split the bridge work in half."
And it's a good thing Wright Brothers specializes in excavation with as there were over 500 acres to clear. They removed 8 million cubic yards of earth excavation and 2.75 million cubic yards of only rock excavation.
Communication during this process was key to success as the movement of material had to be done in an efficient manner. The ABC team worked diligently to keep each of the three separate sections, five miles long each, progressing on schedule. "We had a very good schedule and a very good sequence operations," Brickey said. "We worked on a two month schedule and Michael Prince, who was the onsite manager for Wright Brothers, did a very good job at managing that."
Wright Brothers put a project schedule together pre-bid using the Primavera project scheduler. That allowed the project to continually progress in parts along each section, even as the job was spread out over the 14 miles. "Wright Brothers did a very good job at knowing where the material was and where it had to go," Brickey adds. "One of the first cuts on the West End the job was a 60 foot cut which was pretty much rock the whole way. They would get that cut, get that fill in, get working on a bridge, complete the underground as well all the storm drain. And once that was done, we'd be in there paving."
To help streamline the construction schedule and provide a consistent pavement subgrade throughout the length of the project, the ABC Team elected to use 8-in. of aggregate base course in conjunction with geotextile stabilization fabric instead of choosing chemical subgrade stabilization. This process removed the need for repetitive and continuous soil sampling and testing, as well as the seasonal limitations for placing chemical stabilization, which extended the allowable time for pavement construction.
Chemical stabilization would have switched back and forth from cement stabilization to lime stabilization depending on the many soil types that were encountered along the project stretch. Overall, using aggregate base simplified the process of pavement construction.
ASPHALT PAVING
The Thompson-Arthur team are experts in asphalt production and paving. They utilized their asphalt plant locations to make the mix for the project. The mix selection was chosen by the NCDOT, a B25-I19, CS 9-1/2-inch in base-binder- surface-laydown pattern.
To enhance the safety of the project, specifically during rain events, the team added an asphalt pavement layer to U.S. 64 throughout the project limits. This open-graded friction course asphalt layer has become more prevalent on high-volume, high-speed roadways to proactively combat hydroplaning. This open-graded friction course is a permeable asphalt layer that will allow water on the surface to drain vertically through the layer instead of draining naturally off the roadway. As a result, during rainfall there is an increase in surface drainage, limiting the potential for hydroplaning, and driver visibility due to noticeable reductions in water spray behind vehicles.
In all, Thompson-Arthur team members put down 745,000 tons of asphalt from their plant locations. They utilized Weiler material transfer vehicles to keep the flow of material moving to their VOGELE pavers. HAMM rollers were onsite to assist with compaction.
In all, over 200 employees were working on this jobsite at peak times.
The total price tag for the project, including construction costs, design, right-of-way acquisition, utility relocation consulting costs, plan revisions and numerous additions, added up to roughly $264 million. Ultimately, nearly four years and approximately 1,360,029 man-hours later, Asheboro Bypass Constructors delivered the design-build project on schedule, while providing more than $1.4 million in value engineering.
The ABC team kept drone footage of the project throughout the project to keep a historical perspective of the job as it got built.
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