Route 28 Design-Build: Close Working Relationships - Key to Success

Pacific Boulevard MSE Walls

Location:

Sterling, VA

Owner:

Virginia Dept. of Transportation

Contractor:

Shirley Contracting Company

Precaster:

KJ Williams

In 2002 The Clark Construction Group, Inc and it’s road and bridge construction subsidiary, Shirley Contracting Company, LLC signed a comprehensive agreement with VDOT under the Virginia Public-Private Transportation Act (PPTA) to develop, design and build six grade separated interchanges on Route 28 in Fairfax and Loudon Counties near Virginia’s Dulles Airport. Over the past eight years and under four contracts, The Reinforced Earth Company has provided engineering, materials and construction support to Shirley Contracting for over 180,000 SF of MSE retaining walls for twenty-eight (28) bridge abutment structures, culminating with the Atlantic and Pacific Boulevard Projects in 2010 and 2011. The Pacific Boulevard project, consisting of four abutment walls, was opened to traffic in September of 2010. The Atlantic Boulevard project is currently under construction.

Loudoun County, Virginia is the second fastest growing county in the nation. In 2002, more than 100,000 cars a day traveled the section of Route 28 just north of the Dulles Toll Road. By 2012, transportation officials estimate that the segment will carry 200,000 cars a day. Source: http://www.28freeway.com/

The projects have been designed and constructed using the design-build method, with RECo working closely with Shirley Contracting Company and the project designer Dewberry to optimize the design and project delivery. RECo has provided the gamut of Mechanically Stabilized Earth Wall design and detailing requirements including abutments; tiered walls; acute corners; traffic barrier/parapet and moment slab design and detailing; large cast in place MSE headwall designs; 100 year flood design and several architectural finishes including ashlar stone and fractured fin form liner finishes.

The precast panels and coping units have been fabricated by KJ Williams Precast of Cumberland Maryland. KJ Williams Precast has been working with RECo for over 30 years and has provided millions of square feet of Reinforced Earth panels to Virginia DOT projects as well as all of the other Mid Atlantic States. The close working relationships between KJ Williams, RECo and Shirley Contracting Company has been key to the successful construction of the Route 28 corridor.

The abutments on the project have mostly been pile supported, with both conventional and integral abutments being used, as well as True MSE abutments where the bridge loads are transmitted directly to the reinforced soil via a spread footing abutment. The use of a true abutment on this project was one of the first projects in Virginia to utilize this technology.

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