Top 25 California Highway Projects

Two top projects show challenges of working in dense urban settings

By David Silva

California drivers will spend an average of 80 hours sitting in traffic this year, and, chances are, at least some of these hours will be spent as a result of projects aimed at making traffic move faster.

A list of the top 25 ongoing highway projects in California shows an estimated $1.3 billion in road improvements occurring throughout the state, from San Diego to the south to Soda Springs high in the north. The list was compiled by from McGraw-Hill Construction Dodge data of construction projects begun in 2007.

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Top on the list is Interstate-710 life pavement project, a 9-mi, $164.5 million endeavor stretching from Long Beach to South Gate in Southern California. Atkinson Contractors of Foothill Ranch is general contractor for the project, which includes pavement replacement in both the north- and southbound directions of the freeway; shoulder reconstruction; replacement of metal median guardrails; sound-wall installation; and the widening of the under-crossing on Atlantic Boulevard in South Gate and the Compton Creek Bridge in the city of Compton.

Maria Raptis, spokesperson for the California Department of Transportation, says the project, which began last spring, included some full freeway closures last month.

“The project is programmed to complete in mid-2012, but that’s just a worst-case scenario,” she says. “We’ll probably finish sooner, like 2011 or late 2010. We’re committed to completing in 2010.”

For a work zone stretching through some of Southern California’s densest urban areas, the I-710 project has thus far proceeded without any major glitches, Raptis says.

Going somewhat less smoothly is the U.S. 101 auxiliary lane project in the Northern California cities of San Mateo and Millbrae in San Mateo County. While situated in an urban area similar to the I-710 location, the $156 million 101 project has the added disadvantage of being close to busy San Francisco International Airport.

“Utility conflicts are abundant and the consequences of breeching them are severe,” says project manager Bill Faoro of Valley Springs-based R.L. Brosamer, which forms the project’s joint-venture general contractor with DeSilva Gates Construction of Dublin.

“Sewer, water, and communication lines are in the vicinity of every pile driven and every footing excavated. Twenty-ft-diameter gas lines criss-cross our sound walls and weave between their driven pile supports, 115-kilovolt electric lines drape over our Broadway Pedestrian bridge and 230-kilovolt underground electric lines pass beneath our Peninsula Avenue bridge.”

The project, which began in April 2007, includes adding auxiliary lanes between Third and Millbrae avenues, construction of two pedestrian overpasses, bridge removal and additions of sound walls.

“We conceived, designed and gained approval to change Retaining Wall 2 from a wood lagging wall to a concrete tie-back wall,” Faoro says. “This resulted in a shared savings of over $350,000 plus 22 working days valued at $22,000 per day.”

Dealing with the utilities delayed work for about a month and a half, but, according to Zach Harwell, area manager for DeSilva Gates, the project is on track to be completed by summer 2010, at which point landscaping work will begin.

“We started off a little slow due to the utility delays, and lane-closures pretty well limited worker access on the outside, but since then the project’s been going really well,” Harwell says.

Top 25 California Highway Projects >>