Since TIMED doesn't rely on federal funding, the program has continued uninterrupted. To date, 154 roadway mi. have been completed and another 120 mi. are under construction.

Acceleration of the program has been achieved, in part, by shifting from a design-bid-build process to design-build, an alternate delivery method that allows the state to let one contract to both design and build a project.

Newsome said that cuts down the procurement period and eliminates two different advertising processes.

Projects

Rigolets Pass bridge and approaches. Blame it on the hurricanes. That's what Keith Jacobson, vice president of operations for Massman Construction Co. of Kansas City, Mo., is doing.

Work was under way by December on this $50.6 million project on U. S. Highway 90 in St. Tammany Parish. The start date was pushed back a month because the 600-ton floating crane required for driving big concrete cylinder pile was being used to repair hurricane damage in Florida.

The first steps in the project currently scheduled to be underway early in 2005 include clearing, fiber-optic cable relocation and pile testing.

The 1-mi. bridge spanning Rigolets Pass will be supported by 66-in.-diameter concrete pile. The concrete pile will reach up to 208 ft. long and can weigh up to 135 tons, Jacobson said.

"The biggest challenge on the job is going to be handling and driving these large cylinder pile, which takes about the first 13 months of the job," he added. Gulf Coast Pre-stress Inc. of Pass Christian, Miss., is manufacturing the piles off-site.

Nearly 100 workers will be involved on the project, which is scheduled for completion in 2009.

I-10 at Picardy Avenue. It's just a small stretch of highway but Mika McKee, project manager for James Construction Group of Baton Rouge, said the road construction on this 1.5-mi. section of Interstate 10 in Baton Rouge has some interesting features.

The $49.1 million project requires the creation of two one-way frontage roads running eastbound and westbound along I-10 that will connect Siegen Lane and Bluebonnet Boulevard and the widening and reconstruction of I-10 between the two roads. Picardy Avenue is also being extended as an overpass spanning the interstate.

McKee said that the on- and off-ramps on the east- and westbound lanes of I-10 are "braided," meaning one ramp literally bridges over another. I-10 westbound has a bridge exit ramp with an on-grade entrance ramp running underneath, and the eastbound side is a mirror image.

The on and off ramps are steel girder bridges while the 330-ft. Picardy Avenue overpass utilizes a combination of 18-in. precast piles and 84-in. drilled shafts supporting concrete girders.

"One of the key components to this project is what is called a mechanically stabilized earth wall or MSE wall," McKee said. "It's like a block retaining wall. A majority of the westbound frontage is built on top of this MSE wall so you'll actually be riding on top it."

She said there is approximately 230,000 sq. ft. of MSE wall that will be backfilled to support the roadway. ABS Services of Flowood, Miss., is the subcontractor responsible for all the MSE work.

"It's certainly unique," she added. "It's critical to our schedule and it's new to most of us, so ABS is certainly one of our key subcontractors."

Construction is scheduled for completion in late 2006.

U. S. Highway 165, Grayson to Columbia. Denton-James LLC of Baton Rouge is the contractor for 5.5 mi. of road widening and repair on U. S. Highway 165 from Grayson to Columbia. The project is part of the TIMED program's plans to widen 162 mi. of U. S. 165 in 31 segments from I-10 to the Arkansas border.

The three-phase $25.6 million project is getting underway with clearing and utility removal.

Once clearing is completed in March phase two of the project will begin.

Plans call for the construction of a new two-lane stretch to run parallel to the existing roadway. A third phase of construction will begin with traffic being routed on to the new roadway allowing for the reconstruction of the existing road.

A storm sewer installation will overlap phases two and three. Denley said more than 45,000 ft. of concrete pipe ranging from 15 in. to 54 in. in diameter will be placed in spring 2005. Rinker Materials of Alexandria is manufacturing the concrete pipe.

About 60,000 cu. yds. of concrete will be used in the road project that is on target for a spring 2007 completion.

LA 8 from U.S. 171 to LA 28. A similar project is currently under way near Leesville. Gilchrist Construction Co. Inc. of Alexandria is widening 6 mi. of LA Highway 8 from two lanes to four in a $21.5 million project that got underway in July 2003.

"We're close to the end of phase one - constructing the new roadway," said Jason Reeves, project manager. "We hope to move traffic before the end of the year."

An old service station located on the job site required 1,329 cu. yds. of contaminated soil to be removed. Ranger Environmental of Mandeville handled the task.

Unlike earlier projects, the LA 8 roadwork is made up mainly of asphalt - 90,000 tons of it. Each section will contain 12 in. of a soil cement treated subgrade followed by a 6-in. stone section and then 5 in. of asphalt.

Phase one calls for the construction of a new two-lane road that will be completed up to the binder asphalt.

"We won't put the wearing on," Reeves said. "We'll just leave it as binder, put traffic on it, reconstruct the eastbound lanes and then we'll go back and put the wearing on in phase three." This method avoids a sequence of temporary striping.

The current road has one bridge and one eight channel box culvert that will both be replaced with bridges, making a total of four bridges on the two roads, Reeves added. The bridges will be slab-span construction utilizing approximately 1,200 yds. of concrete. Pilings for the bridges are 16-in. precast concrete piles and Reeves estimates using nearly 11,700 ft. of piling.

The project is on schedule for a 2007 completion.

U. S. 165 bridge, Columbia. In March 2004, Jensen Construction Company began 20 months of work on a $19.8 million bridge project to cross the Ouachita River in Columbia. The metric project was designed to replace a decaying bridge from the late 1940s.

Though there is highway work being done in the area, William Coulter, assistant superintendent, said his crew is primarily concerned with the bridge and its 1,000-ft. approaches on either side of the river.

Coulter said the job will require about 12,300 meters of 14-in.-diameter concrete pile. The piles are being driven in 18-meter lengths.

"We needed 17.5 meters, but they're a pain to splice, so we got them a little extra long," he said.

Drilled shafts will also be used in the bridge's construction, but project supervisor J. D. Stewart said the exact dimensions of the shafts are still being determined. Ten shafts are expected and each will be composed of 1,000 to 2,500 meters of concrete and could go as deep as 90 ft.

Nearly 10,000 cubic meters of concrete will be used to pour the bridge deck and Coulter expects to add to his current staff of 14 workers when that phase of the project is reached.

"We'll probably have to put another 20 people on when we get to the decks because we've got a couple of 600-meter pours up there," he said.

The final phase of the project will be the demolition of the old bridge, Stewart said.

U. S. 167 Winnfield. This $18.6 million project will widen U. S. Highway 167 for 3 mi. in the middle of Winnfield. James Construction Group is handling the two- to four-lane conversion for the TIMED project, which is scheduled for completion in June 2006 - assuming some early problems can be resolved.

"We just found out that our cross sections on the south half of the job are apparently all fouled up," said Bernie Sincavage, project manager. "We had a surveying subcontractor, FBL of Shreveport, and it took cross sections of the original land area and found differences of up to five meters from the state's information. That's 15- to 16-ft. differences, up and down in some cases. Somewhere there's a problem."

Sincavage said clearing the ground for the new roadway began in September on a tightly-bid schedule of 630 calendar days, with a $3,000-a-day penalty for every day over that.

"It has slowed us down," he added. "It could mean a lot more excavation work to be done."

In addition to 100,000 sq. yds . of paving for the new road, the project involves replacing a 1,000-ft. bridge that crosses the railroad tracks in town and putting a smaller bridge on the south end of the job to replace an existing box culvert.

The railroad bridge is supported by 30-in.-diameter drill shafts with 24-in. drill shafts at the abutments. The majority of the shafts are 60 to 65 ft. deep, but some go into the ground as much as 85 ft., Sincavage said.

The 150-ft. bridge to replace the box culvert is pile supported with 18-in. square piling ranging from 45 to 56 ft. long.

Useful Source:

For updates on highway construction activity in Louisiana, go to: http://www.dotd.state.la.us/construction/state_map.shtml