UPDATE: This story has been updated to include comments from Governor Patrick
Twelve down and two to go. The Massachusetts Department of Transportation is currently on track to complete the replacement of 14 structurally deficient bridges on Interstate 93 in Medford by the end of the summer.
The project has drawn raves from the Federal Highway Administration for pioneering “one of the most ambitious” ways to speed up a large highway construction project on a busy stretch of road in a very short period of time. The $98 million “93 Fast 14” project is part of the Patrick administration’s $3 billion accelerated bridge program to tackle the Bay State’s backlog of repairs on structurally deficient bridges.
Construction involves lowering prefabricated bridge panels onto repaired supports, bolting them down, and pouring in concrete. “It’s kind of like a Lego set: you’re creating the infrastructure off-site and then you just bring it in and plop it on top of each other,” said Victor Mendez, the federal highway administrator, during a MassDOT-led tour of the project in July with federal officials, representatives from more than two dozen state departments of transportation, and others.
Using prefabricated components works on I-93 since the design is simple and the spans are short. A conventional bridge replacement project involving rebuilding the bridges on-site from the ground up could have produced up to five years of nightmarish traffic jams on an artery that carries 200,000 vehicles each day. Instead, the tie-ups will end in a few weeks, barring bad weather.
Federal funds cover 80 percent of the project cost. MassDOT also scored a $1 million grant from the agency. According to William McEleney, the northeast regional director of the National Steel Bridge Alliance, a nonprofit industry-government consortium,
the price tag for accelerated bridge construction might be slightly higher than conventional construction since the project contractors can factor in any penalties they may incur into their bid if they don’t meet the expedited construction deadlines.
But Frank DePaola, the acting MassDOT Highway Administrator, said that the state ends up saving some money since payroll and material costs do not escalate as they would during a multi-year project.
Last summer during a road resurfacing project, potholes opened up on I-93 revealing more serious deterioration in the 60-year-old bridges than the department expected. The accidents caused by the potholes and the temporary repair work caused massive backups.
After a senior MassDOT engineer found out about a Virginia project that used prefabricated sections, the department decided to copy that approach and replace the I-93 bridges all at once over the summer to minimize traffic management headaches. “We took [the idea that] if you can do one bridge, why can’t you do 14 bridges?” DePaola said.
Many states steer away from bundling new types of construction projects together, preferring to wait and see how the first one turns out. But building sections off-site helps control quality, said McEleney. Contractors don’t have to compensate for weather-related problems. Actual construction work might start slowly, but after a few bridges get built, everyone knows the drill.
DePaola said the speed of construction also helps. “In some respects, when you have a project that is very intensive like this, you actually get more vigilance than projects that [go] on for an extended amount of time,” he said.
The I-93 bridge panels were built in a New Jersey warehouse, trucked up I-95, and stored at a parking lot in Wilmington. Construction began in June. Between Friday evening and Monday early morning, traffic is reduced to two lanes in each direction.
While traffic was affected primarily on weekends, there were also backups during the week when highway officials put up traffic control barriers and made other bridge repairs in advance of the big weekend push.
The mantra is “get in, get out, stay out,” said McEleney. “Get into the site, get the job done, and get out as fast as you can; but make sure it’s done right, so no one has to come back in year or two to correct mistakes.”
Contractors J.F. White and Kiewit collaborated on the “design/build” project, a system that avoids the expensive and time-consuming back and forth between engineers and contractors that can occur when the team that designs a project is different from the one that bids for and ultimately builds it.
“The finalization of the design is done jointly with the contractor, so they are part of the ownership of the design,” says DePaola.
There are penalties and incentives for the two firms. If the work goes on past a 5:01 am Monday deadline, there is a $450,000 penalty. For every 15 minutes of delays after that, there are additional penalties. The contractors receive bonuses for early re-openings each weekend as well as finishing up the entire project by Labor Day. So far, every bridge has opened by 1 a.m. and one opened as early as 10 p.m. on Sunday. The two firms stand to collect $7 million in incentives if they continue to at their current pace and manage traffic challenges well.
What can other transportation sectors take away from the highway project? DePaola, who served as the MBTA’s assistant general manager for design and construction before moving to the highway division, explained that the design/build process could help reduce the number of costly change orders that the T has to approve. (A change order modifies an existing contract to compensate a contractor for work that was not included in the original document.) The transit agency has started using design/build procurements to speed up and reduce financial risks on some of its bigger projects. The T also plans to use the faster building techniques on one Red Line bridge and two other spans on the Fairmount commuter rail line.
UPDATE: Patrick praises bridge project
Gov. Deval Patrick went to great lengths to praise Jeffrey Mullan, the outgoing Secretary of Transportation, for his work on Interstate 93 bridge replacement project.
“Jeff did more than repair the damage, he launched “93 Fast 14,” said Patrick, referring to the project that has received national recognition for its innovative engineering and rapid construction work.
The project is “one of my favorite examples of Jeff’s leadership,” said Patrick at a State House press conference today.
In July, Mullan told the MassDOT board of directors that the project was “a big part of the new normal we are promoting at DOT.”
