The Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) kicked off the 700 E Reconstruction Project with a community “Meet the Contractor” open house in February 2010. Harper Contracting Inc. of Salt Lake City met with local businesses and residents at the Alta View Elementary School for an informative Power Point presentation explaining the scope of the project and its key players.
UDOT and Harper moved forward to form a Community Coordination Team (CCT), which has met monthly to interact with the contractor and rate them on stakeholder responsiveness. There are five voting periods within the project timeline where the CCT give the contractor a rating that could earn them up to a $200,000 incentive.
The $16,431,200 project is comprised of both federal and state funds. The main portion of construction runs along 700 East from 11400 South to Carnation Drive. Improvements include full roadway reconstruction, two additional traffic lanes in each direction, bicycle lanes, shoulders and sidewalks. The design additionally calls for new curbs, gutters, raised medians at intersections, noise walls (Carnation Drive to Larkspur Drive), a concrete fence and new drainage. Construction is wrapping up this fall on the 1.5 mi. (2.4 km) stretch.
The roadway from 11400 South to 12300 South is undergoing resurfacing. In mid-October, improvements began on the 12300 South Intersection. The canal crossing and intersection modifications to this area will be complete in June 2011.
The Merger
While Harper began the project on its own, a company merger in August 2010 brought it the complementary services of Kilgore Paving and Maintenance LLC. Summit Materials LLC acquired both companies to form Harper-Kilgore LLC, an integrated materials and construction company.
Harper-Kilgore is covering the excavation, storm drains, and the asphalt paving under the concrete.
The Subs
Harper Precast, a division of Harper-Kilgore, is supplying the concrete fence. Wadsworth Brothers Construction (Draper) and Mcneil Construction Company (West Jordan) have teamed up for the concrete paving. B. Jackson Construction & Engineering, based in West Jordan, is in charge of electrical, signal work and lighting. ZPSCO Contractors Inc. of Ogden is building the curbs, gutters and sidewalks. A-Core Inc., headquartered in Murray, is performing sawcutting on the concrete paving, and the striping will be done by Peck Striping Inc. of Kearns. Odyssey Landscaping Inc. of West Jordan will finish up the project with light landscaping and irrigation.
The Nuts and Bolts
The earthwork on the job totals 103,500 cu. yds. (79,131.4 cu m) of earth/roadway excavation, with 93,000 cu. yds. (71,103.6 cu yds) removed from the project and 10,000 cu. yds. (7,645.5 cu m) used on site for embankment. There are approximately 40,000 tons (36,287 t) of asphalt on the project and 91,600 sq. yds. (76,589 sq m) of Portland Cement Concrete Pavement.
The Challenges
“700 East is a major thoroughfare through this area,” said John Montoya, resident engineer of UDOT. “We’ve been detouring to State Street and I-15, but what has helped the most is the completion of the roadwork at the 11400 South/I-15 interchange. Once that opened up, traffic through our project decreased greatly.”
UDOT has been diligent with keeping access open to local businesses, giving prior notification in the event of a temporary closure. One lane of traffic has been maintained in each direction since the project began.
“The biggest challenge, as it is with any urban arterial reconstruction project, was utilities. There were numerous unidentified/misidentified utilities that caused delays. This was critical given the short one season to complete this project,” noted Montoya. This hurdle was tackled by initiating one-on-one walk-throughs with each utility company involved. “They were all as cooperative as possible,” he said.
Weekly updates can be found by visiting www.udot.utah.gov and typing “700E” in the search bar.
(This story also can be found on Construction Equipment Guide’s Web site at www.constructionequipmentguide.com.) CEG
Today's top stories
