•  2003 Project Highlights
•  Evaluation Criteria

SR 125 - Military Rd to US 12 - Paving

Walla Walla County

Design: Construction Management: Schedule: Cost: Engineers Estimate: $1,462,567 Contract Award Amount: $1,777,899 Estimated cost for completion: $1,962,783 The project costs ended up approximately 9% over the award amount, and 33% over the engineers estimate. The situation with the milling operation was dealt with by a change order that resulted in a net increase of $90,400 (5% of the bid amount). The impact on the cost was moderate, however, the impact on the schedule was negligible. The contract team managed most issues and worked to avoid major impacts to the cost and schedule of the project. There was a safety issue that did not get resolved as quickly as it should have been. One of the contractor’s workers repeatedly tried to work with his backhoe, in lanes open to traffic, outside of the area protected by traffic control. This problem was taken care of, but it took two or three conversations between WSDOT’s project inspector and the contractor’s project superintendent to get it done.

This project removed the deteriorated driving surface on SR 125 to provide motorists with a new, smoother asphalt concrete pavement. There were extensive tire ruts on the road, particularly on the section through the City of Walla Walla. The job added more depth of asphalt at several intersections to help prevent future rutting. Work began at the Oregon state line, and continued north through the City of Walla Walla on SR 125 (9th Avenue) to the Pine Street intersection. From there, the job continued westerly on the SR 125 Spur to the intersection with US 12.

Construction Summary

The project was a routine, urban-type paving job. WSDOT and its contractor were prepared for the challenges of paving through town, such as high traffic volumes and a large numbers of intersecting roads and driveways. The most costly problem on this job occurred during the milling operation, in which a specified layer of surfacing is removed for paving with new asphalt. As the planned depth of asphalt was being removed, it was discovered that the underlying surface was unsound and it began peeling off as traffic went over it, causing a hazard for the motoring public. A decision was made to increase the removal depth to eliminate this problem. Since the paved shoulders were not to be milled out, and the new paved lanes needed to match the existing shoulders, the depth of new asphalt was also increased. This problem was largely unavoidable and would have only been discovered had extensive core drilling of the existing pavement been done. Core drilling of this type is only done in special circumstances.

There was good teamwork between WSDOT and the contractor, as the Project Engineer’s office has worked with the contractor many times in the past, and all knew what to expect. Each did their best to provide a good product with the least inconvenience to the traveling public. This project reaffirmed that when working in town, added consideration must be given to traffic congestion. The contractor suggested and was allowed to do some work at night in order to avoid severe traffic impacts. Effective communication between WSDOT, the contractor, local agencies, emergency services, businesses, and residents was very important. An Internet construction site was available throughout construction giving information about the project. In addition, faxes were sent directly to the City of Walla Walla, City of College Place, various newspapers and radio stations, and emergency responders. A “flyer” was also produced to describe the work to be done and was hand-delivered to local businesses.

Contractor
Transtate Paving Co., Tri-Cities

WSDOT Contact
Jim D. Dwyer, P.E.
Phone: 509-577-1840
Email: dwyerj@wsdot.wa.gov

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