Federal stimulus funding is kick-starting hundreds of construction projects country wide, and the rehabilitation and resurfacing of a 4.5 mi. (7.2 km) stretch of Route 422 in Montgomery County, Pa., was one of the first Commonwealth projects financed by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) to get under way.

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) is investing more than $275.5 million on improving bridges and roads, upgrading signals, installing Intelligent Transportation System equipment, and bringing more than 3,500 handicap curb ramps up to required design standards in the five-county area making up the Philadelphia region.

As far as the Route 422 project is concerned, according to Lester C. Toaso, PennDOT district executive, if it were not for these federal funds improvements to Route 422 could not have been begun this year.

The $12.2 million project stretches from half a mile east of the Route 29 Collegeville interchange in Upper Providence Township to 1,500 ft. west of the Royersford interchange in Limerick Township. This section of Route 422 was built approximately 40 years ago and features four 12 ft. (3.6 m) travel lanes with 8 ft. (2.4 m) wide inside and 10 ft. (3 m) wide outside shoulders.

Approximately 62,000 vehicles travel daily between the two interchanges bookending the project.

Project general contractor Road-Con Inc. (RCI) has been in the road and bridge repair and construction business since 1993. Based in West Chester, Pa., and operating in southeast Pennsylvania, it offers heavy and highway construction services.

The project kicked off on May 26, 2009, when removal of deteriorated pavement and patching work got under way on eastbound Route 422, starting at the Royersford interchange.

The company is fielding a Komatsu PC228 crawler excavator for pulling old concrete slabs and placing them on trucks for disposal, a rubber-tired Volvo 180 for grading and placing stone, and a 15-ton (13.6 t) Sterling truck crane for placing rebar mats.

“Although we had a quantity overrun of deteriorated concrete resulting in additional time to do concrete patching, that part of the job and the black top paving on the entire eastbound part of the project and half of the westbound has been completed,” Steve Rubino, Road-Con Inc., project manager said in early November.

“We have also carried out 50 percent of the bridge repair work, which was slightly delayed due to design modifications requested by PennDOT. Even so, we are on schedule for our completion date of summer 2010,” he added.

RCI has 30 employees working day or night shifts on the job. Work to be carried out includes removing deteriorating concrete pavement and pouring patches, repairing 12 bridges and interchange ramps, resurfacing concrete pavement with asphalt, and installing new guide rails, Intelligent Transportation System conduits, reflective markers, and rumble strips.

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