Mar/April TB 2014

Mar.-Apr. 2014 TransportationBuilder 1
builder®
March-April 2014
Transportation Project
Innovation

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INNOVATION
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MAR-APR 2014
VOL. 26, NO. 2
contents The official publication of the American Road
& Transportation Builders Association
www.transportationbuilder.org
FEATURES COLUMNS
Chairman’s Message
President’s Desk
AEM Corner
Every Day Counts: Promoting Innovative
Contracting Solutions to Improve Project
Delivery
Project Profiles:Transportation Design &
Construction Innovations
Federal Issues Program
Schedule-at-a-Glance
Patience Pays, EPA Stormwater
Victory forTransportation
“I WantYou to Want Me”: HiringYoung
Talent in the Construction Industry
610
22 9
31
33
29
8
TransportationBuilder 3
22
ON THE COVER
Over, Under, Around &Through
A Look at InnovationsThroughThree Dimensions14
On the cover: New York Second Avenue Subway.
Photo courtesy of Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
Photographer: Patrick Cashin.
14

Mar.-Apr. 20144 TransportationBuilder
Staff
PUBLISHER
T. Peter Ruane
transportationbuilder@artba.org
DEPUTY PUBLISHER
Matt Jeanneret
mjeanneret@artba.org
EDITORIAL DIRECTOR
Beth McGinn
bmcginn@artba.org
PUBLICATIONS EDITOR &
GRAPHIC DESIGNER
Jenny Ragone
jragone@artba.org
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
J.J. McCoy
Former transportation reporter for the
“Washington Post”
Hari Kalla
FHWA director, center for accelerating innovation
Nick Goldstein
ARTBA vice president of environmental &
regulatory affairs
Brian Binke & Katie Hammond
Birmingham Group president & CEO and
Birmingham Group research & marketing
associate
Transportation Builder®
(TB) is the official publication of the American Road &Transportation Builders
Association, a federation whose primary goal is to aggressively grow and protect transportation
infrastructure investment to meet the public and business demand for safe and efficient travel. In
support of this mission, ARTBA also provides programs and services designed to give its members a
global competitive edge. As the only national publication specifically geared toward transportation
development professionals,TB represents the primary source of business, legislative and regulatory
news critical to the success and future of the transportation construction industry.
Transportation Builder® (ISSN 1043-4054) is published
bi-monthly by the American Road &Transportation
Builders Association (ARTBA). Postmaster: Send
change of address toTransportation Builder®, c/o
ARTBA,The ARTBA Building, 1219 28th
Street, N.W.,
Washington, D.C. 20007.Telephone: 202-289-4434,
Fax: 202-289-4435, Internet: www.artba.org; E-mail:
artbadc@aol.com. Periodicals postage paid at Washing-
ton, D.C., and additional mailing offices. Subscriptions
are $105/year for ARTBA members, which is included
in the dues; $120/year for non-members; and $200/
year non-U.S. mailing addresses. Copyright ©2014
ARTBA. All rights reserved. Material may not be repro-
duced in any form without written permission from the
publisher. Reg. U.S. Patent &Trademark Office.
Visit us: www.transportationbuilder.org
builder®
Executive Committee
Chairman: Doug Black
J3L, LLC, Atlanta, Ga.
Senior Vice Chairman: Nick Ivanoff
Ammann & Whitney, NewYork, N.Y.
First Vice Chairman: David S. Zachry
Zachry Construction Corporation, San Antonio,Texas
Northeastern RegionVice Chairman: John Kulka
HRI, Inc., State College, Pa.
Southern Region Vice Chairman:Tom Elmore
Eutaw Construction Company, Aberdeen, Miss.
Central Region Vice Chairman: Kathi Holst
Roadway Construction & Maintenance Services,
Warrenville, Ill.
Western Region Vice Chairman: Steve McGough
HCSS, Sugar Land,Texas
Vice Chairman At-Large:Ward Nye
Martin Marietta Materials, Inc., Raleigh, N.C.
Vice Chairman At-Large: Scott L. Cassels
Kiewit Infrastructure Group, Inc., Kiewit Corporation,
Omaha, Neb.
Vice Chairman At-Large: MelissaTooley
TexasTransportation Institute atTexas A&M University
College Station,Texas
Vice Chairman At-Large: Bob Alger
The Lane Construction Corporation, Cheshire, Conn.
Vice Chairman At-Large: John Houle
3MTraffic Safety & Security Division, St. Paul, Minn.
Vice Chairman At-Large: Mike Donnino
Granite Construction Company, Lewisville,Texas
Treasurer:Tom Hill
Summit Materials, LLC, Denver, Colo.
Secretary: Pete Ruane
ARTBA, Washington, D.C.
ARTBA-TDF Board ofTrustees Chairman:
Leo Vecellio, Jr.
Vecellio Group, Inc., West Palm Beach, Fla.
Contractors Division President: Pete Getchell
PKF-Mark III, Inc., Newtown Pa.
Contractors Division First Vice President:
Jeff Clyde
W.W. Clyde & Co., Springville, Utah
Research & Education Division President:
Dr. R. Clark Graves
KentuckyTransportation Center, Lexington, Ky.
AEM Representative: Ron DeFeo
TEREX Corporation, Westport, Conn.
Materials & Services Division President:
Mike Flowers
American Bridge Company, Corapolis, Pa.
Planning & Design Division President:
Matthew Cummings
AECOM, Philadelphia, Pa.
Public-Private Partnerships Division President:
Thomas Stoner
H.W. Lochner, Inc.,Tampa, Fla.
Transportation Safety Industry Division
President: Sue Reiss
Impact Recovery Systems, San Antonio,Texas
Transportation Officials Division President:
Eric Seibring
Piatt County, Ill. Assn. of County Engineers, Monticello, Ill.
Council of State Executives: Pat Goss
WIsconsinTransportation Builders Association,
Madison, Wis.
Immediate Past ARTBA Chairman: Steve Wright
Wright Brothers Construction, Co, Inc., Charleston,Tenn.
Past Chairman’s Council Chairman: Jim Madara
Gannett Fleming, Allentown, Pa.
Young Executive Leadership Council Chairman:
David Harwood
Terracon, Olathe, Kan.
Joint Committee Representative: Dave Gehr
Parsons Brinckerhoff, Herndon, Va.
Mobile Barriers
MBT-1®
info@mobilebarriers.com
www.mobilebarriers.com
2012 AWARD 2012 AWARD 2009 AWARD
®

editor’s note
Jenny Ragone,
Publications
Editor & Graphic
Designer
The word “innovation” has been used so often that it almost seems trite—a catch-all phrase
people use to invoke superficial excitement about a new product or event. A quick look at my
dictionary, however, shows it actually comes from the Latin word innovatus, which means “to
renew, alter, or change.” A Google search also turned up this definition: “to make changes in
something established, especially by introducing new methods, ideas, or products.”
Since the time of the Roman roads, man has been building upon existing knowledge and
evolving its methods and tools to construct bigger and better infrastructure. In our cover story,
written by former “Washington Post” transportation reporter J.J. McCoy, we spotlight some of the
innovative techniques and technologies being used on today’s transportation improvement
projects. On page 22, we feature innovation success stories as submitted directly to us by the
ARTBA membership.
Finally, given the looming crisis with the HighwayTrust Fund, we discuss on pages 8-9 the
upcoming ARTBA Federal Issues Program andTransportation Construction Coalition Fly-In, and
ARTBA President Pete Ruane explains why you need to be in the Nation’s Capital June 9-11.
Please feel free to share your reactions to any of the articles featured by emailing me:
jragone@artba.org.
STAY CONNECTED
WITH ARTBA
Facebook: American Road & Transportation
Builders Association
Twitter: @artba
YouTube: www.youtube.com/ARTBAmedia
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/artba
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The Heat Is On.

from the chairman
Doug Black
President, J3L, LLC
2014 ARTBA Chairman
The New ARTBA
Transportation
Investment
Advocacy Center
About half of U.S. public investment
in transportation comes from state
and local governments. With so much
riding on states to finance infrastructure
improvements, it’s not surprising that in
2013, nine states considered
transportation funding initiatives.
This year, there are at least 19.
To help industry allies and
stakeholders boost transportation
infrastructure funding at the state and
local levels through legislation and ballot
initiatives, ARTBA recently launched a
first-of-its kind “Transportation
Investment Advocacy Center™,” or TIAC.
TIAC is a direct product of the ARTBA
Strategic Planning Committee (SPC),
which recommended in 2011 that the
Board of Directors authorize and
provide funding for the “creation and
maintenance of a national transportation
clearinghouse to assist state chapters and
other allies with their own funding and
financing programs.” The SPC, which I
co-chaired with past ARTBA
Chairman Steve Wright, believed that
such a valuable resource would help
investment initiatives move forward.
The cornerstone of this dynamic
education program is:
www.transportationinvestment.org.
The site is structured so that those
interested in taking action do not have to
“re-invent the wheel” in order to mount
successful campaigns. Our main goal was
to put in one place—and promote the
sharing of—current strategies, sample
political and communications tools,
legislative and ballot initiative language,
and information on where to obtain
professional campaign advice, research
and help.
The site features 39 detailed case
studies of recent transportation funding
campaigns—both successful and
unsuccessful—mounted in 28 states, as
well as an overview of the various
funding and financing mechanisms
proposed. It includes the television, radio
and print ads, polling data, and media
strategies used in the campaigns and is
home to a blog, which covers the latest
developments from across the country.
The TIAC program also includes an
annual event in Washington, D.C., and
ongoing webinars for transportation
investment advocates featuring case
studies, best practices, and the latest in
political and media strategies. These
learning sessions will be led by seasoned
transportation investment campaign
managers and consultants.
The inaugural “National Workshop for
State & Local Transportation
Advocates™” will be held July 16 at the
Washington Court Hotel on Capitol Hill
and will include state and local Chamber
of Commerce executives, state legislators,
state and local transportation officials,
“better roads & transportation” groups,
industry and labor executives, and
leaders of state and local chapters of
national organizations with an interest in
transportation development programs.
The TIAC program is funded through
voluntary contributions to ARTBA’s
“Transportation Makes America Work”
(TMAW) program, which is aimed at
building political support for increased
surface transportation investment.
Please take advantage of everything
the TIAC site has to offer and let your
industry colleagues know about it. As the
old adage goes, “knowledge is power.”
And by sharing that knowledge, we can
empower our allies the state and local
levels to help grow the transportation
construction market.

T. Peter Ruane
President & CEO
ARTBA
president’s desk
If Congress does not act soon, the
federal Highway Trust Fund will be
unable to support any new projects in
FY2015, which begins this October 1.
Worse yet, recent reports indicate the
trust fund will start running into cash
flow problems this summer, meaning the
Federal Highway Administration will
slow down reimbursements to states for
existing projects, and many state DOTs
will likely slow down payments to
contractors.
This is a critical situation, but we
can surmount it if the transportation
construction industry and users of the
system work together to get our message
to Capitol Hill.
Every day, ARTBA pushes Congress
to act. However, I realize some in the
industry may be less aware of this
emerging crisis (after all, they have
businesses to run) or may bring some
preconceived opinions to the discussion.
So, to bring this into focus let’s imagine
a conversation among three mythical
figures within the industry, whom I call
“The Utopian,” “The Defeatist” and
“The Realist.”
Realist: “Did you hear? The
federal Highway Trust Fund won’t
have enough revenue to pay for any
new projects in a few months.”
Defeatist: “That’s why I’ve given up on
federal funding and will just focus on
the state and local level from now on.”
Realist: “But the federal highway
program provides more than half of
capital investment in highways and
bridges. What happens if that funding
goes away? And will your governor
and state legislators raise your state
gas tax an average of 21-cents-
per-gallon to make up for those
lost dollars?”
Defeatist: “It doesn’t matter because
the gas tax is dead. People are
driving less and using more fuel-
efficient vehicles.”
Realist: “Actually ‘vehicle miles
traveled’ is increasing after dipping
during the recession. And the only
reason the federal gas and diesel taxes
can’t support current federal
investment is because they haven’t
been adjusted in over 20 years.”
Utopian: “What are you guys worried
about? Congress always waits until
the last minute and then takes care of
these problems. I’ve got better things
to do anyway. Let the associations and
people in D.C. figure it out.”
A Highway
Trust Fund
Conversation
With The Utopian,
The Defeatist and
the Realist
Defeatist: “And I’ve given up on
talking to my federal legislators
because they don’t seem to
understand or care about this issue.
They can’t make tough decisions.”
Realist: “But members of Congress
often say they need to hear from ‘back
home’ before they make an issue a
priority. So you’re going to let every
other interest group and industry talk
to your members of Congress, and
then wonder why they’re not focused
on what’s important to you?”
Utopian: “Congress knows about
this transportation funding problem
already. How could they not be on top
of this issue? I’m sure they’re working
on it.”
Realist: “Many of them DON’T know
that federal support for projects is
about to run out until constituents tell
them about it. DON’T take anything
for granted, but DON’T give up
either!”
You can probably guess that the
“Realist” character personifies ARTBA’s
views. We believe this problem is not
going away, but there is a solution—IF
the industry and our partners work
tirelessly in the coming weeks.
You can start by attending the ARTBA
Federal Issues Program and
Transportation Construction Coalition
(TCC) Fly-in on June 9-11. See page
9 for details. Bring along your favorite
“Utopian” or “Defeatist” so we can show
them first-hand why they need to stay
engaged and never wave the white flag of
surrender!

Hotel Information
Make your room reservations directly
with the Mayflower Hotel by calling
1.800.468.3571 or 202.347.3000. Ask for
the ARTBA Federal Issues Program rate
of $309 per night, which is guaranteed
through May 9.
Mayflower Hotel
1127 Connecticut Ave.
Washington, D.C. 20036
Sponsors (as of April 18)
Platinum
AECOM
AEM
Case Construction Equipment
Parsons Brinckerhoff
Gold
HNTB
Ritchie Brothers
Skanska USA Civil, Inc.
Volvo Construction Equipment
Silver
CH2M HILL
George Harms Construction
HCSS
H.W. Lochner, Inc.
W.W. Clyde & Co.
Michael Baker, Jr., Inc.
Trinity Highway Products
Contact Ed Tarrant to become a sponsor:
202.289.4434 or etarrant@artba.org.
YEDP SESSIONS (continued)
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11
9:00 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.
Young Executive Development Program
THURSDAY, JUNE 12
8:30 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Young Executive Development Program
MONDAY, JUNE 9
12:00 – 1:30 p.m. Transportation Development Foundation Trustees
12:30 – 4:00 p.m. Young Executive Development Program
1:00 – 4:00 p.m. Contract Administration Committee Meeting with Federal
Highway Administration
2:30 – 3:30 p.m. Ports and Waterways Council Meeting
3:30 – 5:30 p.m. Executive Committee
4:00 – 6:00 p.m. Joint Young Executive Development Program &
Young Executive Leadership Council
Council
6:30 – 7:30 p.m. Reception
7:30 p.m. Dinner on your own
TUESDAY, JUNE 10
8:30 – 9:30 a.m. Young Executive Development Program
9:30 – 9:45 a.m. Networking Break
9:45 – 11:00 a.m. General Sessions
1:00 – 2:30 p.m. ARTBA Foundation Awards Luncheon
TCC WASHINGTON FLY-IN SCHEDULE (Begins after ARTBA Program)
TUESDAY, JUNE 10
2:30 – 5:00 p.m. TCC Legislative Briefing
5:30 – 7:30 p.m. TCC Capitol Hill Reception
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11
7:00 – 8:00 a.m. TCC Breakfast
8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Meetings with Members of Congress
March-April 2014
ARTBA FEDERAL ISSUES PROGRAM &TCC FLY-IN SCHEDULE-AT-A-GLANCE
Register: www.artbafederalissues.org

T
he value and trust that the public places in our
transportation system demands that we deliver projects
in the quickest, most cost-efficient way possible,
while maintaining high standards for safety, quality and
environmental protection. In our current climate of
constrained budgets and tight schedules, transportation
agencies are increasingly turning to alternative contracting
methods that allow them to collaborate with contractors early
in the design process and deliver projects better, faster and
smarter.
The Maryland State Highway Administration used two of
these innovative methods for the recently completed
Intercounty Connector (ICC). They delivered the $2.5 billion
project, a new 18.8-mile highway with numerous interchanges
and bridges, using five Design-Build (D-B) contracts.
In D-B, a project’s design and construction phases are
combined into one contract, allowing the designer and
construction manager to work together to minimize risk while
reducing overall delivery time. D-B is not new, it is actually as
old as the pyramids, but legislative contracting reforms that
began in the late 1800s eventually separated the design and
build phases of construction, and Design-Bid-Build (D-B-B)
became the norm. However, today’s complex projects often
benefit from the increased, early collaboration and innovation
inherent with D-B.
For the ICC, D-B was combined with another contracting
innovation called Alternative Technical Concepts (ATCs).
An ATC is a request by a proposer during a contract’s
advertisement period to modify a contract requirement with
a solution that they think will provide a more competitive bid
or proposal. When used with D-B, contractors develop one or
more ATCs and present them to the agency for a confidential
review. If approved, the contractor may use their ATC(s) in
their proposal. A stipend may even be provided.
ATCs can be as simple as a change in materials or
significantly more complex. An ATC used on the ICC involved
reconfiguring an entire interchange to eliminate bridges and
retaining walls. It
Every Day Counts
FHWA: Promoting Innovative Contracting Solutions to Improve
Project Delivery by Hari Kalla

required the state to acquire additional right of way, which was a cost to them, but the
overall savings of redesigning the interchange greatly outweighed it.
G.A. & F.C. Wagman, Inc., was one of the ICC’s D-B contractors. “What is good
about Design-Build is that you give the risk to the people who can handle it the best,”
said Anthony Bednarik, vice president at Wagman. “The state agreed to acquire the
right of way, and we provided the savings by eliminating bridges and retaining walls.
Submitting the ATC helped us reduce our bid price, and we reduced the owner’s
construction cost, as well as long-term costs with fewer bridges to maintain.”
“Any Design-Build project should absolutely have ATCs,” said Bednarik. “To me,
the owner is throwing money away if they don’t. The way Design-Build works, you
have a bunch of smart people from both sides of the table in design and construction,
and they are going to come up with the ideas anyway. So the state might as well take
advantage of it.”
The Federal Highway Administration is championing D-B and ATCs through its
“Every Day Counts” (EDC) initiative. EDC teams work with the transportation
community to identify and promote a new set of innovations every two years, but the
initiative’s main focus is to encourage a culture of thinking “outside the box” to solve
transportation problems.
While ATCs are most often used with D-B projects, the Missouri Department of
Transportation (MoDOT) pioneered a method for using them on traditional D-B-B
projects. This process was used in reconstructing the Hurricane Deck Bridge on the
Lake of the Ozarks.
American Bridge Company won the bid on this project after submitting a bold
ATC that involved an extensive redesign of MoDOT’s baseline concept. Their
solution proposed an entirely new bridge on a parallel alignment, saving more than
$8 million over the lowest bid on the unmodified design.
“For Design-Bid-Build, the owner must design a project that is largely constructible
by the contractor market they are addressing,” said Scott Gammon, vice president at
American Bridge. “So the ATC process gives us an opportunity to optimize the
design for construction expertise or technology specific to our company to decrease
project cost.”
The Michigan Department of Transportation has also used ATCs as part of D-B-B,
piloting the process on the maintenance of traffic (MOT) portion of an alternate
bid-type project to rehabilitate seven miles of U.S. 10. Ajax Paving Industries
developed an ATC that compressed the project schedule and minimized user delay
costs, allowing them to be more competitive in bidding a concrete job against asphalt
companies.
“With our ATC we came up with a different layout to the MOT,” said Luke
Gordon, project manager for Ajax. “Instead of a part-width style roadway
construction, we proposed full-width construction, putting all the traffic on one side
of the road using a concrete barrier wall. This minimized user delays while increasing
mobility for the corridor.” The efficiencies gained resulted in a winning bid for Ajax,
and their concrete overlay project was completed a full year ahead of schedule.
OPPOSITE PAGE: Michigan DOT US-10 project.The white fabric on the road in front of the
paver is a geotextile fabric (Propex) that was used as a separator layer on a 700-foot test
segment on the project. Photo courtesy of Ajax Paving. Photographer: Lukas Gordon.
ANOTHER APPROACH:
Construction Manager/
General Contractor (CM/GC)
I-80 Pipe Rehabilitation in Utah
This CM/GC project was to repair a large
96” to 80” drainage pipe that is up to 30
feet deep in the ground in Utah’s Parley’s
Canyon (originally built in the 1950s) and
runs parallel with, and in several
sections underneath, the six-lane
highway in the canyon. The original
concept was to install a reinforced
concrete invert in the bottom of the
existing deteriorating pipe. Very limited
access over the 10,000 feet of pipe
made construction options very difficult
with only one main access besides the
entrance and exit. After careful
evaluation of this and several other
options, the team determined that with
some temporary traffic striping and
barriers to create positive protection
from the work zone, they could make
enough room to install a new drain sys-
tem off the edge of the existing roadway
and maintain all lanes of traffic during
construction. This approach eliminated
the hazards of working in dark, cold, and
confined spaces that presented several
risks. In the end, this approach allowed
for an entirely new system outside the
roadway and with much better access for
maintenance now and into the future.
“The advantage of a CM/GC project
is that it allows the owner, designer,
and contractor to work together to
determine the best design, means
and methods to complete the work,
and meet the owners goals. Risk is
identified, assessed and allocated
to the party best able to handle
the risk. Hence, providing the best
value to the stake holders,”
—Jeff Clyde, president, W.W. Clyde & Co.
TransportationBuilder

“In CM/GC, the contractor and his team work with the
owner and engineer, providing innovative ideas to design
details; solutions to constructability issues; scheduling, phasing
and sequencing of work; and current market pricing,” said John
Carlson, senior vice president at Sundt Construction, Inc.
“Including the construction professional during the design
process has the impact of substantially reducing costs and
project delivery time, while improving overall project quality.”
Sundt and joint venture partner Slayden Construction
Group, used CM/GC for the current Sellwood Bridge project in
Portland, Ore., and won the job after presenting their innova-
tive idea to lift and slide a 1,100-foot section of the bridge onto
temporary piers to use as a detour bridge while the new bridge
was constructed in its place—keeping traffic moving while
shortening construction time and saving money.
Whether using CM/GC, D-B, or ATCs, each has pros and
cons for different projects, but all allow builders to leverage
their individual strengths into a more competitive proposal or
bid and a more constructible project. The end result is a
collaborative environment between the contractor and public
agency where innovation can not only be supported, but thrive.
Hari Kalla is Federal Highway Administration director, center for
accelerating innovation.
“We would absolutely consider bidding ATCs again,” said
Christine Poe, vice president at Ajax. “Keeping in mind that
there are always parameters that job owners have as require-
ments, but the tighter or more prescriptive those requirements
are, the less room there is for innovation. If the owner has
flexibility in some areas, and lets us have that flexibility, it can
translate into a better ATC.”
Another innovative project delivery method being
championed through EDC is Construction Manager/General
Contractor (CM/GC). CM/GC is an integrated team approach
that applies professional construction management during
project planning, design and construction.
Where CM/GC differs from D-B, but is similar to D-B-B
project delivery, is that the owner contracts separately for
design and construction services, and therefore retains full
control of the design. The significant difference between D-B-B
and CM/GC, is that CM/GC brings the builder into the design
process at a stage where definitive input can have a positive
impact on the project. It allows risks to be easily identified
and mitigated as well as continuously value engineered, and
early components of construction can be fast-tracked. CM/GC
encourages, allows, and requires, innovation during the design
process. This method incentivizes innovation to a greater
extent than any other delivery system.
A first-of-its kind, dynamic education program and internet-based information resource.
This program is aimed at helping private citizens, legislators, organizations and businesses successfully grow
transportation infrastructure resources at the state and local levels through the legislative and ballot initiative
processes.
Learn more: www.transportationinvestment.org

26th
Annual ARTBA Public-Private
Partnerships in Transportation Conference
SAVE THE DATE
July 16 -18, 2014
Washington Court Hotel
525 New Jersey Ave. N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20001

Photo courtesy of Karl Nielsen, MTC.
Photo courtesy of Karl Nielsen, MTC.
Photo courtesy of Stantec.

W
hile today’s sophisticated transportation
construction project innovations aren’t
rolled out from “Sesame Street,” an old
song from the classic children’sTV show ironically
sums up some of the latest trends of going “Over,
Under, Around andThrough.”
This article, another in an ongoing “Transporta-
tion Builder” series on innovation, spotlights how
some recent projects from all across the country
addressed such obstacles in the effort to get peo-
ple and businesses where they need to go. It also
highlights how the use of unmanned aerial vehicle
technology might have applicability beyond deliv-
ering packages for Amazon or over the battlefields
of Afghanistan. What they all share in common
are knacks for imagination and initiative to keep
Americans and commerce rolling safely along
their respective paths to prosperity.
Over,
&
Through
by J.J. McCoy
Photo courtesy of Caltrans.
Photos courtesy of Michigan Tech Research Institute.

While a journey of one thousand miles begins with a first step,
Bay Area motorists now enjoy a fourth tunnel for the reverse
commute.
After three years of construction, the Caldecott Tunnel’s
fourth bore opened to traffic last fall between Oakland and
Contra Costa County, Calif. For nearly 50 years—ever since
the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans)
opened the third bore in 1964—traffic in the middle tunnel was
directed to accommodate the heaviest flow (a practice which
could change several times a day), invariably creating a
bottleneck as drivers heading the opposite direction funneled
from four lanes into two, through a single tunnel. With the
fourth bore designed to reduce congestion and travel times for
traffic traveling in the off-peak direction, motorists in normal
conditions are saving 15 to 20 minutes with traffic flowing freely.
The fourth bore is unfamiliar from its elders: the 3,348-foot
tunnel is roomier (both wider and taller) and brighter. It
features a 10-foot-wide shoulder along with walkways and
safety passages, and is outfitted with modern ventilation, traffic
lights, air and traffic monitoring systems, and electronic
message boards. Nineteen bi-directional jet fans mounted to
the ceiling are designed to maintain air quality in the
tunnel, and to blow smoke away from motorists in the event of
a fire. The emphasis on such state-of-the-art fire and life safety
systems stems from an infamous 1982 fire, in which seven were
killed through a chain reaction of accidents in the third bore.
The new tunnel’s incident-detection and response systems
underwent extensive testing before opening, allowing monitors
and first responders to prepare for threats including detecting
and suppressing fires and other hazards while providing
real-time information to help motorists safely exit in an
emergency.
It opened ahead of schedule and about $3 million under its
$420 million budget, with most of the funding ($180 million)
from the 2009 federal stimulus program, Contra Costa
taxpayers raising $125 million from transportation sales taxes,
and the remainder supplied through bridge tolls and state and
regional allocations.
Even so, such efficiencies didn’t come easily while tunneling
nearly two-thirds of a mile through the hills. “The project was
incredibly complex,” Caltrans spokeswoman Ivy Morrison said.
“The toughest challenges were dealing with the geology...
especially given the Bay Area and its tectonic movement.
Though we’d done extensive core-sampling, because of the
conditions you don’t know for certain until you’re in, how the
ground will behave.”
The changing soil conditions forced the excavation crews
to use different equipment along the way. Since pockets of
methane presented potential for explosion, the excavator itself
had to be retrofitted from diesel-power to electric in order to
minimize sparking. Meanwhile, smoking, open flames, radios,
cell phones, cameras and even remote-control keys for cars
were prohibited in the tunnels.
Sequential excavation was performed using the “New
Austrian Tunneling Method” (NATM), in which the initial
support system is pillared to the ground immediately around
it—which through the fourth bore might vary between
CALDECOTT TUNNEL FOURTH BORE
Photos courtesy of Karl Nielsen, MTC.

For about 80 years, locals,
truckers and outdoors
enthusiasts visiting the
Plumas National Forest east
of Chico, Calif., relied on a
steel, deck truss bridge to
cross over Spanish Creek
bisected by State Route 70.
But the 1932 Spanish Creek
Bridge has now been replaced
by a seven-span, box-girder
bridge featuring an open
spandrel arch. Though the
new, 627-foot bridge is one
of the longest conventionally
reinforced concrete spans in
California, its form is out-
shown by its function. It has
a bicycle-friendly path with see-through railing, designed both to be aesthetically
pleasing while also helpful in the removal of snow amid the northern Sierra Nevada.
Like a Hollywood beauty, though, the site itself was rather high-maintenance, as
Caltrans and C.C. Myers, Inc., of Rancho Cordova, Calif., discovered. Located about
10 miles outside of Quincy (pop. 1,728), the bridge stands 160 feet above a rugged
creek bed in an earthquake-prone forest. The new crossing had to meet both modern
highway design standards and current seismic standards, while also accommodating
interregional transportation needs (i.e., the new bridge extends the shoulder width
to eight feet, and quadruples the weight-carrying capacity of its predecessor). Even
so, it was the oldest element in its construction which proved to be the bridge’s most
innovative aspect.
“Going in, I could tell that there was a challenge in the transportation of equipment
and the supply of required energy involved for the project,” said David Clark,
Caltrans’ resident engineer, in describing the project’s rural setting.
But Clark also realized that the runoff from the high Sierra meant the site had a
ready, nonstop supply of cold water literally underfoot. Whereas typically Caltrans
projects would ship in big chillers requiring lots of energy to cool the concrete pour,
they decided instead to pump cold water from the creek through the 364-foot arches’
pour—resulting in both a savings of time and an estimated $200,000 compared to
other methods.
Photos courtesy of Caltrans.
extremes of sandstone and
shale, with various gradations
in between.
“We’d learned a lot through
the construction of the first
three tunnels,” Morrison
explained. “Another way
we addressed the abruptly
changing ground conditions
was by probing, which is a
way to assess the ground
conditions ahead to 150 feet.
[That] allowed us to know
what we’d be getting into
before excavating, and also to
gradually and safely release
the gases.”
Deploying a sequential
excavation method meant
that less structural support
was required than in some
other types of rock. Concrete
was sprayed on as soon as the
ground was excavated. “Any
engineering project offers
new challenges, but Jacobs
Associates [a San
Francisco-based engineering
and construction
management firm] has a
wealth of experience
worldwide, so those
conversations [included] a lot
of back and forth, which was
very important,” Morrison
said. “Caltrans is not typically
in the practice of tunneling
projects. We relied on their
expertise, which really
contributed to the success of
the project.”
TransportationBuilder 17
continued on next page

There were other concerns: the lack
of local infrastructure required factor-
ing a five-hour detour into the schedule
in order to haul supplies from one side
to the other. Then the original concrete
supplier proved unequal to the task. The
road alignment’s design required finessed
blasting mere feet from an existing rail-
road tunnel; one of the abutments from
the soil-nail design suffered some listing,
and moved before they had to stabilize it
with tie-backs before constructing the rest
of the wall. Then, one of the mountains
next to the existing bridge slipped, forcing
an unexpected closure of the bridge while
taking out power lines and knocking out
electricity to Quincy for a time.
And then, of course, there were the fish.
“The creek is a temperature-sensitive
environment,” Clark said. “I was able to
use a lot of the available data to make
sure that the construction wouldn’t affect
the temperature [beyond 1 degree F].”
The problems of maintaining the fishes’
pH balance were avoided because the
water ran through [PVC] tubes, instead
of concrete, which causes the pH in the
water to rise becoming harmful to the
fish when the cooling water returns to
the stream.
“The way we went about it was unusual,”
Clark noted. “I’m not aware of anyone
having done it this way before. We had to
do some preliminary research about any
potential negative impacts, but it worked
out. Despite the complications and in the
push to get everything up, construction
of the bridge itself didn’t skip a beat” from
groundbreaking in June 2010 until open-
ing the new bridge to traffic in July 2012.
“Contributing to the success of the
project was the partnering relationship
created with the project team,” said Bob
Coupe, senior project manager
with C.C. Myers. “The owner, contractor
and subcontractors worked together as
one toward a common goal. This facili-
tated the project’s early completion, in
excess of 100 working days, and helped
to achieve the zero injury record that the
project enjoyed.”
Photos courtesy of Michigan Tech Research Institute.

Drones, or more precisely unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)
have made recent headlines for everything from Afghanistan
to border patrol to deliveries from Amazon.com. But in a
first-of-its-kind application, the Michigan Tech Research
Institute (MTRI) has developed a UAV system using
high-resolution photography and 3D modeling to perform
assessment of unpaved roads, which according to the Federal
Highway Administration (FHWA) account for nearly a third of
the more than four million miles of road in our national
transportation infrastructure.
Many of those 1.3 million miles of unpaved stretches—
relied upon by rural residents to reach their homes, jobs
and mail, farmers going to commodity markets, and kids to
schools—fall to the responsibility of local governments and
transportation agencies.
The cutting-edge technology of the Unsurfaced Road
Conditions Assessment System (URCAS) provides local road
managers with information needed for decision-making about
maintenance and repairs. Using the URCAS portfolio of
detailed information and imagery lets them analyze damage
including potholes, washboarding (corrugation), crown
damage and rut detection—and for a pittance of the cost
otherwise. The technology translates to cost of analysis about
$1 per mile, or a fraction of the rate even for the least expensive
Pavement Surface Evaluation and Rating (PASER) method at
approximately $8 per mile.
The ultimate goals of the research-and-development
program, funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s
Commercial Remote Sensing and Spatial Information
Program, were to design, build, and test a prototype remote
sensing-based unpaved road condition assessment system that
can compete with manual methods, and to incorporate such
measurements into a decision support system (DSS) to aid in
managing an unpaved road network.
“We looked at a few different ways to do it, and a UAV system
gives us the ability to rapidly gather the imagery needed to
understand the road conditions and distresses. Managers were
looking for a way to accurately assess the severity and amount
of problems,” explained Program Director Colin Brooks of
MTRI. “Most often we’re talking about gravel roads, so to be
able to see those kinds of distresses, we’re looking at checking
DRONE: UNSURFACED
ROAD CONDITIONS
ASSESSMENT SYSTEM
changes in the crown of the road. You need pretty
high-resolution data to do that. We fly a hexacopter at 80 to
100 feet high, so at a low altitude with a very high-resolution
camera to make a 3D image of the road surface.”
All told, the system requires the UAV platform to collect the
data—a hexacopter is both easy to operate and very stable in
flight—using an off-the-shelf digital camera as its
sensor for the two pieces of software that form the remote
sensor processing system—one to collect that data, while the
other detects the location and severity of the distresses.
Meeting the parameters of the industry-standard “Unpaved
Road Condition Index” requires only about five minutes of
flight time for gathering the sample segments. The Federal
Aviation Administration (FAA) is expected to finalize federal
regulations in the next 18 months making it commercially
practical throughout the country.
“Where we found the most interest is from administrators
responsible for large amounts of unpaved roads, easy to see
from the air and vital to the local infrastructure,” Brooks
explained. “South Dakota has counties where nearly the entire
road network is unpaved. This offers a more rapid and
affordable way to be proactive rather than reactive. They can
make this part of [their] standard assessment basis, either by
acquiring the equipment to gather the data themselves, or by
having it provided as a service. We plan to be flexible and
provide either means.”
The remote-sensing platform has been verified in seven sites
and counting in Michigan, Iowa and Nebraska, with testing
this spring in South Dakota, giving a whole new meaning to
being a flyover state.
“We are interested in this kind of opportunity to reach our
work out to a larger audience,” said Brooks. “We are very
excited in its capabilities and think that rapid UAV-based
mapping of unpaved roads is a good place for this new
technology to be applied in the nearer term. We also think that
these methods could be applied to paved roads and bridges,
especially as technology develops, prices drop, and people feel
more comfortable with UAV-type infrastructure assessment
tools.”

Celebrating the 110th
anniversary of its first underground
service, the New York City Subway is the busiest rapid transit
rail system in the United States, and the daily, 24-hour
lifeblood of the Big Apple. Yet it’s been more than 50 years
since the subway system has seen an expansion as large as the
current Second Avenue Subway project to extend the East
Side’s G Line along Second Avenue while adding new stations
to the city’s more than 420 already online.
When completed in December 2016, the $4.45 billion Phase
I will open two miles (3.2 km) of tunnel served by three new
stations. Controlled blasting operations began in November
2009 at 96th
Street, with a final blast completing excavation in
November 2013.
The goal of the project is to relieve overcrowding by as much
as 13 percent (or 23,500 fewer weekday riders) along the
Lexington Avenue line, improving travel for approximately
200,000 daily commuters by reducing delays and providing
broader access to mass transit for travelers in Manhattan’s far
East Side.
Overall, the expansion project will cost more than $17
billion and run 8.5 miles (13.7 km), from 125th
Street to
Hanover Square. All told, 16 new stations will be built to serve
communities in Harlem, the Upper East Side, East Midtown,
Gramercy Park, East Village, the Lower East Side, Chinatown
and Lower Manhattan.
Sometimes referred to as “The Line That Time Forgot,” the
Second Avenue Subway has been on the books since 1929, with
occasional construction taking place despite interruptions in
funding and emphasis throughout the city’s and nation’s
history.
This most recent financially secure construction plan took
hold with a 2007 tunneling contract awarded by the
Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) to the
Schiavone/Shea/Skanska (S3) consortium, with Parsons
Brinckerhoff serving as construction manager.
Phase I’s heavy civil/structural work included building
demolitions, underpinning, station excavation, slurry wall
construction, and concrete placement of the station invert slab
of the main station, entrances, and ancillary facilities.
Relocating utilities alone involved approximately 82,000 linear
feet of Con Edison primary and secondary electric cables, some
4,500 linear feet of Verizon fiber optic cables, extensive
relocation of low and high pressure Con Ed gas mains, and
relocation or protection of existing water and sewer mains.
Geological and geographical realities in Manhattan led to the
choice of cut and cover excavation, which entailed the
transport and disposal of approximately 400,000 tons of
soil and 40,000 tons of rock and concrete debris translating
to about 22,000 truckload runs to various disposal facilities
throughout New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Given the totality of such massively orchestrated efforts, it’s
no spin for the MTA’s Michael Horodniceanu, president of its
capital construction projects, to describe it as a monumental
accomplishment. “It could not have been done without the
hard work and dedication of a very motivated team,”
Horodniceanu said.
SECOND AVENUE SUBWAY

When completed in June 2015, the Grassy Creek Bridge will be
Virginia’s tallest, with a vertical clearance of 250 feet above the
creek in a rural project area with more than 400 feet of vertical
elevation differential overall.
Begun in August 2009, the Virginia Department of
Transportation (VDOT)’s Route 460 Connector Phase I
design-build project brought together the talents of Stantec (as
prime designer), Jansen Spaans Engineering (for bridge design)
and Bizzack Construction (as prime contractor) with CJ
Mahan Construction Co. and RS&H CS. Their Grassy Creek
Bridge features twin 1,700-foot-long, cast-in-place segmental
bridges, each with a deck width of 43-feet, carrying two lanes
of traffic in both directions. Ultimately, it will link federally
designated corridors of Virginia and Kentucky in the
Appalachian Development Highway System.
The locale presented all kinds of challenges, be it the geog-
raphy and geology, electrical power or manpower all factoring
into the overall $105 million budget. The roadway and bridge
approaches needed plenty of both conventional and
shape-charge blasting due to the site’s soil and rock conditions.
Bridge foundations also had to compensate for the
complicated and unstable terrain, which influenced much of
the bridge’s design and construction. Limited housing options
meant that most of the highly-specialized management and
labor talent had to commute from neighboring West Virginia,
Kentucky, Tennessee and Ohio.
Not only was specialized equipment needed for the
cast-in-place segmental construction process, blasting for site
preparation, post-tensioning and grouting of steel tendons, but
the required power demanded an adept solution too. The team
devised and deployed a novel combination of tower cranes to
J.J. McCoy, a former staff writer for the “Washington Post,” is a
Washington-based freelance journalist who often covers transportation
and technology: scribejjmccoy@hotmail.com.
Editor’s Note: Future innovation stories will focus on airport and port
construction projects.
string the power over the top of what otherwise would have
required preliminary clearing and construction.
Thus, work proceeded from both of the 250-foot pier
columns in a cantilevered construction operation with four
spots working simultaneously and sufficiently to have all
phases of construction going, be it advancing traveler forms,
tying reinforcing bars, casting concrete and then curing it—
“the full life cycle of concrete construction happening
concurrently,” as Tony Hunley of Stantec’s lead design team
described it. All of it is captured in what’s another unusual
feature for the region—an onsite, time-lapse camera recording
images every 10 minutes to track the progress of the project
from start to finish via VDOT’s website, at www.VirginiaDOT.
org/460connector.
As described, these projects proceed in each of their manners
and in all of their methods to solve vitally pressing and respec-
tively challenging transportation problems. Their accomplish-
ments have been realized in new ways once unimaginable.
Whether in terms of engineering, economics or politics,
they’ve prevailed through time-proven principles of ideas,
designs, dedication and drive. And as anyone from Sesame
Street or Main Street might tell them on Wall Street, those are
the principles to carry you over, under, around and through.
Photo courtesy of Stantec.

TRANSPORTATION DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION
INNOVATION
Earlier this year, “TB”
editorial staff asked
ARTBA members to share
their innovation success
stories with our readers.
On the following pages,
we offer you a sampling
of responses we received.
Veterans Memorial Bridge
Location: Martin County, Florida
Cost: $68 Million
Completion Date: January 2014
Owner: Florida Department of Transportation
Partners: RS&H and Archer Western
Contact: Ben Lehr, ben.lehr@rsandh.com, 904.256.2138
The Veterans Memorial Bridge, one of the largest design-build projects initiated by the Florida Department of Transportation in 2009,
includes two miles of CR 714 on new alignment, two intersection reconstructions, and a new 3,100-foot, high-level concrete bridge. An
important connection between Florida’s Turnpike and US 1/SR 5, the bridge reduces travel times while improving capacity, safety, and
emergency evacuation. The structure is the first new bridge crossing of the Intracoastal Waterway in south Florida in over 20 years and
was built within a highly sensitive environmental corridor that traverses a protected mangrove island.
The approach spans and four-span, main unit utilize Florida I-beams, the first major use of Florida I-beams in the state. This innova-
tion resulted in two beam line savings over design with conventional bulb-T beams. A significant challenge was construction of the
250-foot span over the environmentally-sensitive island without crane access. Beam segments were delivered via trestle and loaded on a
launching truss. The segments were rolled over the island on the truss where they were picked up by an overhead lifting truss and shifted
into position.
Facing runoff challenges due to topography, the design team successfully maintained required stormwater treatment within the
project right-of-way without affecting area residents. The roadway drainage and treatment is carried out through the use of flumes and
linear swales, which eliminated costly closed drainage system elements and numerous utility impacts. It also allowed for the creation of
linear parks along the corridor.

I-79 Meadow Lands Interchange Project
Location: Washington County, Pennsylvania
Cost: $23 million
Completion Date: July 2013
Owner: Pennsylvania Department of Transportation
Designer: Gannett Fleming, Inc.
Contractor: Swank Associated Companies
The I-79 Meadow Lands Interchange serves a growing area where
traffic and development were surpassing the capabilities of the
50-year-old, partial interchange. To address the region’s needs,
design and construction reconfigured the interchange to a
full-access crossing point. Using a split diamond configuration,
existing ramps were reconstructed and a new northbound
entrance, southbound exit ramps, and connector roadways were
built. Four new signalized intersections were added.
The project challenges included avoiding impacts to Chartiers
Creek and relocating more than 800 feet of a creek tributary. A key
element to avoiding impacts to the creek was the construction of a 530-foot-long, concrete retaining wall. The tributary relocation
involved coordination with environmental agencies and included mitigation features such as a meandering low flow channel, mud sills,
boulders, and plantings. Other challenges included relocating a side road, avoiding an archaeological site, avoiding impact to a golf
course, closing off an old mine pond to re-establish low flow back into the tributary, mitigating noise with a noise barrier, the grouting
of mine voids, and rehabilitating the bridge over Chartiers Creek.
Located at Exit 40 of I-79, the project maintained two lanes of traffic on I-79 in each direction during construction.
Completion of the interchange project provided full access, simplified navigation, reduced through traffic, improved access to
commercial and industrial facilities, and improved intersection operation in a nearby community.

MoPac Improvement Project
Location: Austin, Texas
Cost: $136.6 million
Completion Date: 2015
Owner: Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority
Partners: Texas Department of Transportation, City of Austin, Capital
Metro, and the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization
Contact: Project Manager Joseph Schroeder,
joseph.schroeder@ch2m.com. 1.512.270.5014
CH2M HILL’s Alternative Technical Concept (ATC) context
sensitive design adjusted the horizontal and vertical alignment of
the southbound express lane exit ramp to 5th
and Cesar Chavez
Streets and the main lane exit to 5th
and Cesar Chavez Streets. This
proposed concept converted the express lane exit ramp from a
5-span overcrossing to a simple undercrossing passing below the
MoPac main lanes.
Benefits:
1. Converting the exit ramp from an overcrossing to an
undercrossing allows for a shorter structure that can be
constructed more quickly and outside of traffic, reducing
impacts to motorists, promoting construction efficiencies,
and resulting in lower overall costs.
2. This change reduces the quantity of retaining walls and
import fill material by eliminating the bridge approach fill
sections.
3. Changing the vertical alignment eliminates the negative
visual impact of an overpass, improving the aesthetics of the
interchange while reducing road noise in the vicinity and
mitigating environmental impacts to area residents, busi-
nesses, bicyclists, and pedestrians.
4. The ATC improves safety and convenience for travelers and
workers alike by separating construction operations from
live traffic, without affecting mobility through the work
zone.
The context sensitive design provides a cost saving and a better
quality facility to the Mobility Authority. The ATC, which was also
applied to the northbound express lane for a combined savings of
$5 million, improves safety, schedule, and operational efficiencies,
while reducing motorist inconvenience, enhancing aesthetics, and
delivering environmental benefits.
Transfer Sweeper Speeds Mill and Fill Project
Location: I-35 near Davis, Oklahoma
Partners: Broce Broom & Silver Star Construction
Contact: Kimberly Brown, press@powerpr.com, 310.787.1940
When Silver Star Construction, a Moore, Okla.-based road repair
contractor, began a 6.2-mile, three and four-lane divided highway,
mill and fill project on I-35 over a mountain near Davis,
Oklahoma, the deadline for the job was six weeks.
To accelerate project completion, keep traffic flowing and
operators, equipment and debris out of open traffic lanes on the
I-35 project, Silver Star chose to use an efficient sweep and
loading team. The company chose two model 350 broom vehicles
with blade and gutter attachments, followed by an MK-1 transfer
sweeper, by Broce Broom, a Norman, Okla.-based
innovator of construction sweeping technology.
Unlike typical road sweepers that must travel to dump their
milling debris before cleaning again, the transfer sweeper drives
behind a dump truck and integrates a large brush that continually
sweeps debris to its conveyor, which dumps into the truck bed.
“We found a transfer sweeper can fill a 10-cubic yard truck with
milling debris in under 15 minutes,” says Jack Shannon, Silver Star
superintendent. “It’s up to three times as fast at sweeping up mill-
ing debris and loading it into the truck as our previous skid steers
and boxblade. After one pass of the transfer sweeper going up the
middle, our roadway was ready for tack.”
According to Shannon, the transfer sweeper can keep up with
the milling machine, and the only time it has to stop is to swap out
a loaded truck for an empty one.
24 TransportationBuilder

Located in Broward County, Fla., the I-595 Corridor Roadway
Improvements project entails median widening to add three
reversible managed lanes, reconstruction of the existing six-
lane mainline and two-lane frontage roads, and improvements
to four major interchanges. At the interchange of I-595 with
University Drive, the original plan was to remove both flyover
ramps. Dragados USA proposed changes that allowed keeping
one flyover and salvaging most of the five-span, 962-ft. Ramp N.
Ramp N modified design concept was recognized by Florida
Department of Transportation’s (FDOT) Project Manager Paul
Lampley as one of the project’s biggest challenges, but one that
significantly minimized traffic disruptions. Stringent traffic
restrictions required completion and reopening in less than
120 days. Dragados jacked up the 2,360 tons of Ramp N on
July 14, 2012. Twenty-four hydraulic jacks with an Enerpac
ESS Synchronous Lift System and four hydraulic jacks per
pier lifted the flyover 18 inches in 18 steps of one inch. After
the jacking, Dragados completed the demolition, retrofit and
upgrade of all bridge components, and reconstruction of the
southern end of the flyover in 116 days, reopening Ramp N to
traffic on November 7, 2012.
Value engineering and innovation are critical to realize the
possibilities offered by alternative procurement. Extending
the life of existing assets, such as the I-595 University Drive
structure, provided an overall project savings of $200 M on the
I-595 P3 project. The project will be completed by the end of
March 2014, in time and on budget.
I-595 P3 Project
Location: Davie (Broward County), Florida
Cost: (Entire P3 Project/Design-Build Project) $1.7 billion/1.2 billion
Completion Date: March 2014
Owner: District Four, Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT)
Partners: FDOT, Dragados USA (Dragados), ACS Infrastructure Development (ACS ID), AECOM, Finley Engineering and VSL.

Old entry point.

Safety Equipment—
”Personnel & Material Hoist
System”
Location: Various locations in Eastern U.S.
Cost: $250,000
Completion Date: Field implementation
January 2014
Team: Skyman USA and Seaboard/McKinney
Contact: Mark R. Madgett, P.E., Seaboard
Foundations, Inc., mrmadgett@seaboardfounda-
tions.com, 423.323.2100.
Specialty contractors are often faced with
controlling trade-specific hazards where
no Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
is commercially available to protect their
employees. In years past, individual groups
were left to develop means, methods, and
equipment that, while robust, often lacked
the critical overview by safety and
engineering professionals.
Case in point—down-hole entry by
NON-man-rated means (i.e., lowered
in bosun’s chairs via material-only rated
winches or suspended from cranes). Fast
forward to today—the use of non-engi-
neered, field constructed safety equipment
is no longer acceptable to our culture of
safety. But the problem still exists…no
commercially available equipment.
In response to the need for a fully
engineered, man-rated hoist system, the
corporate safety and construction team
of Seaboard/McKinney teamed up with
SkyMan to solve this problem. Over two
years, this team worked together to take
all aspects of this new personnel/material
hoist system from the drawing board to the
field. Since field implementation in
January 2014, the use of this system has
been a huge success. Even seasoned
personnel are embracing the change in
a field where change is difficult. To date,
these hoists have been used to perform
hundreds of confined space entries across
the Eastern U.S. and have performed
perfectly.
Virginia Connected VehicleTestbed
Location: Merrifield, Virginia
Cost: $6 million
Completion Date: 2014
Owner: Virginia Department of Transportation
Partners: Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, Virginia Center for Trasportation Innovation &
Research, University of Virginia, and Morgan State University
Contact: Mindy Buchanan-King, VTTI strategic communications manager,
mbuchanan-king@vtti.vt.edu, 540.231.1548
The Virginia Connected Test Bed initiative is a research project that equips
vehicles with connected wireless technology, enabling them to “talk” to each
other via wireless sensors installed on vehicles and along highway infrastructure.
The goal is to use connected-vehicle and infrastructure technologies to improve
safety, state of good repair, economic competitiveness, livable communities, and
environmental sustainability.
Construction of the testbed began in spring and summer of 2012 with a site
visit and initial equipment installation and is located in Fairfax County in
northern Virginia along I-66 and on the parallel Routes 29 and 50; the latter
roadways are intended for dynamic alternate route research. The tesbed was
designed to utilize a large fleet of highly instrumented vehicles, including cars,
motorcycles, a motor coach and a semi-truck. There are 43 roadside equipment
locations with two mobile spares and an expansion planned for 2014. These
initial 43 locations feature four major merge/diverge locations from the north,
south, and west; two metro stations/public transport and commuter routes; high
occupancy toll lanes, a large county hospital; a fire station; multiple schools;
pedestrian trails; mixed-use commercial/residential areas; and major roadway
construction.
Key elements of this test bed are strong partnerships with local agencies,
including law enforcement and transit providers, particularly the Fairfax County
Transit Authority. This test bed location was selected because it has
transportation system deficiencies: congestion, high crash rates, air quality
non-attainment. These transportation system deficiencies can be effectively
addressed by connected-vehicle technologies that include a high level of
multimodal interactions. It provides a variety of roadway types, topography and
driver types to exercise a connected-vehicle system across a range of
environments, yet provides opportunities for containment such that a high
number of equipped vehicle interactions will occur.
Mar.-Apr. 2014

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The productivity of the Weiler E1250A will get your attention and the
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a smoother mat that will impress inspectors and help secure bonuses.
SIMPLE. PROVEN. POWERFUL.
The all new ARTBA
“Washington
Newsline”
www.artba.org/newsline

I Want You to Want Me: Hiring Young
Talent in the Construction Industry
by Brian Binke & Katie Hammond
Brian Binke is The Birmingham Group president
& CEO. Katie Hammond is The Birmingham
group research & marketing associate:
katieh@thebirmgroup.com
The transportation construction
workforce is aging at an alarming
rate. Organizations in your marketplace
are committed to acquiring top young
talent to spur growth as we head into a
bullish economy. The question becomes
how do you make them want you back?
Young professionals in the construc-
tion industry are highly-educated and
more in demand than ever. In today’s
candidate-driven market, prospective
hires want and have come to expect to be
courted in a fashion similar to athletes
being recruited by top sports teams.
A company may offer the best training,
unparalleled benefits, or financial
stability, however, unless candidates are
fully able to understand the opportunity,
it’s immaterial. For example, candidates
are looking for: What makes your
company special? What makes your
firm different than the competition?
Does your company offer the long-term
growth they are seeking?
The best resource to attract young pro-
fessionals is already at your disposal in
the form of current employees. By gain-
ing a full understanding of what your
young employees like and dislike about
your company, you will be armed with
a knowledge of organizational strengths
and deficiencies from the vantage point
of the people you are looking to hire.
Today’s workplace culture is no longer
a climate where companies can sit back
and wait idly for top talent to come to
them. Progressive companies in your
space are proactively recruiting these
individuals at a breakneck pace.
Additionally, it is of great importance
to reevaluate the qualifications your firm
looks for in new hires to align yourself
with this fluid, ever-changing market.
When competing to hire from such a
small pool of candidates, your company
is best served by redefining and
expanding your talent pool, looking at
those with alternative backgrounds can
bring renewed innovation and passion to
your company. Rather than focusing on
traditional metrics in the construction
industry such as experience, previous
companies worked for and projects
completed, progressive companies are at-
tracted to candidates with qualities such
as resourcefulness, adaptability, drive
and teachability. It is a losing battle to try
to inspire drive and motivation in those
who don’t already have it. To avoid mak-
ing bad hires, companies must have an
understanding of what attracts top talent.
Top candidates will be interviewing
with multiple firms and often times
receive multiple offers. There are several
ways to make your firm stand out during
the interview process. Companies are
unable to hire great candidates for a
variety of reasons including: time lag in
the interview process; inconsistencies
and mixed messages from hiring
managers; and lack of understanding
regarding the long-term opportunity.
Upon identifying the right candidate,
it’s imperative to place your company
in the best possible position to hire
these individuals in a highly comple-
tive marketplace. It’s vital to be concise,
organized and responsive throughout
the interview process. If candidates ask
multiple people within your organiza-
tion similar questions about the position,
they must receive a consistent response
from each hiring authority they speak to.
If the interview coordinator is unrespon-
sive, unreliable or uncommunicative,
candidates will have no choice but to
assume this behavior is reflective of your
organization as a whole.
Interviews are your opportunity to
set yourself apart from your competi-
tion. Traditionally, an interview consists
of only upper management creating an
overly formal setting where interviewers
often times give the answers they believe
their interviewer is looking to hear,
rather than having a substantive dialogue
about the organization and the oppor-
tunity. In response, the most progressive
of your competitors have redefined the
traditional hiring process by including
current employees who are contempo-
raries of your desired candidates. Cur-
rent employees will be better equipped
to explain what the position entails from
first-hand experience, while simultane-
ously providing a peer’s perspective on
the company. Moreover, candidates are
often times more comfortable conversing
with peers who can provide increased fa-
miliarity and knowledge of your company.
In the current sink or swim
transportation construction market, a
major industry change is underway in
which successful, growing companies
have redefined the hiring process,
moving away from the traditional,
stagnate model employed by their
predecessors. This has resulted in
unprecedented growth for aggressive
companies that have embraced the
changes necessary to attract and cater to
the next generation of construction
professionals who are willing and able to
take your company to the next level.

That’s why Corman Construction relies on
the National Work Zone Safety Information
Clearinghouse to ensure employee
and motorist safety and health in road
construction zones.
The world’s largest cyber library of
educational webinars, best practices,
laws and regulations, statistics, training
information and more is available at
www.workzonesafety.org.
Highway contractor Bill Cox
wants all his employees on
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Use It…Save Lives!
Information provided by the National Work Zone Safety Information Clearinghouse, award #DTFH61-06-H-00015,
does not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Federal Highway Administration, (FHWA) or the American Road &
Transportation Builders Association-Transportation Development Foundation. References to specific products and
services do not imply endorsement by the Clearinghouse or FHWA.

Victory
for Transportation by Nick Goldstein
Nick Goldstein is ARTBA vice president of
environmental & regulatory affairs:
ngoldstein@artba.org.
There’s an old saying that “patience
pays off.” That theory proved true
earlier this year, when, after many years
of review and comments, the U.S. En-
vironmental Protection Agency (EPA)
dropped a misguided proposal to apply
a single, “one size fits all” standard to
stormwater runoff on construction sites.
EPA had thought that by instituting a
uniform, numeric standard for the whole
country, it would be able to better control
stormwater runoff. What they did not
consider, and ARTBA repeatedly pointed
out, is that different areas of the country
have very different stormwater situations.
Put more simply, stormwater is more
of a problem in areas prone to rain. A
project in Seattle—where it can rain six
months out of the year—is going to have
a completely different stormwater sce-
nario than a project in the arid southwest
(Arizona or New Mexico, for example).
To think that one standard could apply
equally to both places defied logic.
But, it took more than patience to get
to this outcome. In 2007, ARTBA filed its
first official comments to EPA on storm-
water issues, arguing that builders and
planners needed flexibility for storm-
water permits to account for the vastly
different climate and weather condi-
tions under which projects across the 50
sates are built. Later, ARTBA
explained to EPA that the ap-
plication of a single, uniform
standard would not come
cheap—adding up to $1 mil-
lion in some cases to project
costs. With state departments
of transportation constantly
trying to stretch every trans-
portation dollar as far as it
can go, adding unnecessary
costs would make delivering
badly-needed infrastructure
improvements even more
challenging.
A better approach, ARTBA argued, is
to allow states to continue to use “best
management practices,” which have been
developed to meet the specific
stormwater needs for each state. Thus,
states with more rainfall would be able to
develop different, and more appropriate,
strategies than states with less rainfall.
Seven years and nearly a dozen sets
of comments later, the agency finally
decided to back off their plan, handing
the transportation construction industry
a long overdue victory.
What should be examined in addition
to the stormwater victory itself, is the
manner in which it was achieved. Over
the course of seven years, ARTBA fought
on the transportation construction
industry’s behalf through all channels
possible. In addition to keeping pressure
on EPA through the regulatory comment
process, ARTBA members participated
in small business workgroups and shared
their perspectives on the proposed rule’s
real-world impacts in-person before the
agency’s representatives. In fact, at the
time the plan was first proposed, ARTBA
members were the only transportation
representatives participating in EPA’s
outreach efforts.
The regulatory process is, by nature,
less than speedy. In fact, it is very, very
slow, often times painfully so. To achieve
regulatory victories like these takes time,
persistence and patience.
There are a variety of different regula-
tory issues ARTBA has been engaged
in for many years. We file an average
of 25 sets of regulatory comments per
year. Clean Air Act reform, for example,
is something the association has been
working on for over a decade. On the
non-environmental front, the associa-
tion has been involved in trying to bring
positive changes in the way the Disad-
vantaged Business Enterprise (DBE)
program is administered through com-
ments to the United States Department
of Transportation (DOT).
ARTBA is also heavily involved in the
regulatory efforts behind implantation
of the new surface transportation law
MAP-21. Specifically, there are 42 major
regulatory actions, nearly 100 mandates
and almost 60 additional rulemakings
that DOT must promulgate. To date, only
a small fraction, about 16 percent, have
been completed. It’s safe to say ARTBA
will be providing regulatory comments
on MAP-21-related issues well into the
debate about the next surface
transportation reauthorization bill.
No matter how long it takes, though,
ARTBA will see MAP-21 through until it
is fully put into law.
The association’s regulatory advocacy
efforts involve not only identifying issues
of concern to the industry, but following
those issues through to an acceptable
outcome, no matter how long the process
takes. While the time involved can
sometimes be staggering, a positive
outcome for the industry is always worth
the effort.

Mar.-Apr. 201432 TransportationBuilder Mar.-Apr. 201432 TransportationBuilder

AEM corner
Telematics:
Innovation you
can apply to the
bottom line
Have you ever wished you knew where
every machine in your fleet is with a
glance at the computer screen? Or would
you like to know the idle time of every
piece in your fleet, and how you might
save money with improved fuel
efficiency? How about an easier way to
track and schedule maintenance? With
telematics, all that is possible, and that’s
just the beginning.
While many fleet managers already
benefit from information made avail-
able by telematics, there are others for
whom this technology remains a bit of a
mystery. Telematics can be understood as
telecommunication technology and
computer programs collaborating to
provide information about how the
machines in the fleet are running, where
they are, when they need maintenance,
etc. It’s easy to see how such
information can help save money.
Telematics combines GPS technology
and machine communication that
allows data analysis.
Much of this capability has been
around since the late 1990s.
Nevertheless, advances are still being
made on behalf of end users to improve
and standardize the information they
receive, especially for mixed fleets.
The telematics advantage is seen on the
bottom line. Savings from using
telematics have been significant for
contractors and fleet managers who
effectively use the technology, according
to Al Cervero, vice president, construc-
tion, mining & utility for AEM. He cited
as an example a contractor operating
on another continent using telematics
data, that saved $33,000 a month in tires
alone.
“With this data available daily, you can
obtain efficiencies that really impact the
profit margin,” Cervero said. “Fleet
managers benefit from the ability to
forecast maintenance and the need for
replacement parts, and believe it or
not, the biggest savings is in idle time.
However, other department can use
data too, for instance, load capacities for
operations and billing cycles for finance
departments.”
“Idle time data allows fleet managers to
focus on many things that improve the
company’s bottom line and its
relationship with regulators, and that’s
everywhere in the U.S., not just in states
where regulations limit idle time,”
Cervero added. “If you’re compliant, the
data provides the proof.”
Mixed fleets have challenges in
standardizing data, and to overcome
the different ways manufacturers record
data and make it available to end-users,
a global contingent of heavy equipment
manufacturers, fleet managers and two
leading industry associations have agreed
on a defined set of asset data that, when
communicated remotely via telematics,
can be accessed and downloaded by the
end user of the equipment.
At the recent CONEXPO-CON/AGG
2014 international exposition in early
March in Las Vegas, AEM and the
Association of Equipment Management
Professionals (AEMP) explained to
media, manufacturers and fleet managers
AEM provides trade and business development
services for companies that manufacture equip-
ment, products and services used world-wide
in the agricultural, construction, forestry, mining
and utility sectors. AEM is headquartered in Mil-
waukee, Wisconsin, with offices in the capitals
of Washington, D.C., Ottawa, and Beijing.
that 19 data points will be part of a stan-
dard being developed and maintained by
the two associations and their member-
ships. The new standard will define a
format that enables OEMs to deliver fault
code information as part of the data feed.
Many fleets now make use of the most
simplified telematics data and this new,
expanded standard will allow managers
to go far beyond the basics. The original
telematics data standard developed by
AEMP will now be superseded by this
new, wider industry standard. Telematics
data related to crane operations are
excluded from the agreement and
possibly other niche products, but will
follow shortly.
End users will be able to access the
data from their OEM via an
Application Program Interface (API)
server to a data sharing standard. The
data sharing standard will include
standardized server to server
communication protocols for the transfer
of telematics information in mixed
equipment fleets making it possible for
the end user to retrieve the data from
the OEM.
These protocols will allow end-users
to employ their own business software
to collect and analyze asset data from
mixed equipment fleets without the need
for customization work across multiple
telematics provider applications.
For more information, contact
Rich Jefferson at rjefferson@aem.org or
414-298-4122.

ADVERTISER INDEX
Promote your company’s products and services in
“Transportation Builder!”
Contact ARTBA’s Peter Embrey at 202.289.4434 or
pembrey@artba.org
Check out our rates in the 2014 media kit available
at www.artba.org.
Advertise with “Transportation Builder”
“ARTBA reserves the right, at its discretion and without liability of any
nature whatsoever, to reject, cancel or suspend any advertising in whole
or in part, in which case any fees paid in advance shall be refunded to
the advertiser on a pro-rata basis.”
CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT,
PRODUCTS & SERVICES
Caterpillar Inc.
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Weiler
www.weilerproducts.com.........................................28
Wirtgen America
www.wirtgenamerica.com.......................................BC
HIGHWAY SAFETY PRODUCTS &
RESOURCES
Mobile Barriers
www.mobilebarriers.com............................................4
Roadway Safety + Training Program
www.workzonesafety.org.............................................7
Work Zone Safety Clearinghouse
www.workzonesafety.org...........................................30
LTAP
www.ltap.org...............................................................32
Plastic Safety Systems
www.plasticsafety.com............................................IBC
TESTING & MONITORING SYSTEMS
Pile Dynamics
www.pile.com/tip.........................................................5
SOFTWARE
HCSS
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SIGN UP FOR
DAILY WEBINARS
Federal Issues Program &Transportation
Construction Coalition Fly-In
JUNE 9-11, WASHINGTON, D.C.
ARTBA Foundation 19th
AnnualYoung Executive
Development Program
JUNE 9-12, WASHINGTON, D.C.
6th
AnnualTransportation Construction Law &
Regulatory Forum
JUNE 11, WASHINGTON, D.C.
National Workshop for State & LocalTransportation Advocates
JULY 16, WASHINGTON, D.C.
26th
Annual Public-Private Partnerships in
Transportation Conference
JULY 16-18, WASHINGTON, D.C.
ARTBA National Convention
SEPTEMBER 7-9, RANCHO PALOS VERDES, CALIF.
Dr. J. Don BrockTransOvation™ Workshop & Awards Program
NOVEMBER
MEETINGS & EVENTS
Mar.-Apr. 2014

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Mar/April TB 2014

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