I-39 Construction Under Traffic, Rubblization and 200,000 Tons of Warranty Hot Mix Asphalt Placed in Less Than 5 Months
by: Thomas S. Burch - District Manager
American Asphalt of Wisconsin
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A major project this year for American Asphalt of Wisconsin, Division of Mathy Construction, started at the end of March and consisted of 11 miles rehabilitation of Northbound and Southbound Interstate located on I-39 near Stevens Point, Wisconsin. The existing concrete was rubblized and Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) placed over the rubblized concrete. The design also included the installation of 44 miles of edge drain plus deck overlays on 7 bridges, which could be done either before Memorial Day or after Labor Day. These restrictions were placed on the project since no lane closures were allowed from noon Friday until Monday morning between Memorial Day and Labor Day.
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I-39 Construction Stevens Point, Wisconsin
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The main goal at the beginning of this project was to have as much HMA placed by Memorial Day as was possible which forced American Asphalt to not do the bridge decks until after Labor Day. The edge drain had to be installed before the rubblizing could begin and all of this had to happen before paving started.
Once paving began, the main focus was to work within the lane closures and keep production on schedule. The paving started in the southbound lane at the north end of the job and consisted of paving the passing lane first. The existing roadway slope had to be corrected to a 2% slope. This was accomplished by placing 3 inches of compacted HMA on the shoulder and working the slope back to the centerline. The depth of HMA placed at the centerline was approximately 4.5 inches. Since the complete slope correction was achieved in the first lift, the next two lifts of HMA were used to concentrate on yield and ride.
One of the logistical challenges with this particular job was due to six different interchanges. The ramps had to remain open during the day and could only close at night Monday thru Thursday. Therefore, paving was done mostly on Thursday nights to keep the job on schedule. We tried three different schedules before settling into one that allowed the paving crews to minimize the night work.
The coordination between the subcontractors and American Asphalt was a main reason this job went as smoothly as it did. We utilized TSM for traffic control, Straight Arrow for edge drain, Antigo for rubblizing, W.K. Construction for milling, Brickline for painting, Zenith Tech for the bridges and Trieweiler Construction for base patching.
The local law enforcement was another reason this project was a success. The local law enforcement had two squad cars patrolling this project every day any work was going on. This reduced the speed of traffic and provided a safe place not only for the workers, but also for the traveling public.
The paving consisted of three different layers which required the paving crew to pave more than 200 lane miles. Mainly one paver and 4 different rollers were utilized. This allowed the paving crew to place over 200,000 tons of asphalt in less than 5 months. There are many areas where the ride quality index is 0.00 inches per mile.
Source: Wisconsin Asphalt Pavement Association, Inc. November, 1999
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