Construction

ACTT Workshop: Oregon
Paving The Way

[Archived] Chapter 1: Workshop Details

1.1. Opening Session

The I-405 pavement preservation workshop took place April 19-21, 2005, at the offices of David Evans & Associates, Inc., on the Willamette River waterfront in Portland, Oregon.

ODOT Region I Manager Matthew Garrett and Oregon FHWA Division Administrator Dave Cox provided opening remarks, after which workshop participants introduced themselves. Randy Iwasaki, deputy director for the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), discussed "Why ACTT, Why Now," and ODOT Project Leader Janeen Adamo provided a project overview. Dan Sanayi from FHWA reviewed the workshop agenda, and the group finished the day with a corridor tour and welcome dinner.

1.2. Workshop Process

The Oregon gathering followed the traditional ACTT workshop structure, with the skill sets breaking out into individual groups on Wednesday morning and coming back together to present their initial findings prior to lunch. The teams spent Wednesday afternoon intermingling and developing their final recommendations, which representatives from each skill set presented to the group Thursday morning.

1.3. Skill Set Goals

Participants in each skill set had an established group of goals pertaining to their subject area.

Construction

• Address construction sequencing.
• Identify potential contractor staging area/material storage area.
• Ensure contractor and motorist safety.
• Explore construction methods that will minimize cost and shorten the project timeframe.
• Explore partnering as a means of reducing cost and duration.
• Maintain traffic flow at target MPH.
• Provide access throughout construction.
• Minimize delays due to utilities or right-of-way (ROW) conflicts.
• Provide a reasonable, yet compressed, timeframe for the contractor to complete the project.

Innovative Contracting

• Consider multiple contracts versus one large contract.
• Evaluate A-plus-B and A-plus-B-plus-C bidding opportunities.
• Minimize cost and duration.
• Explore the possibility of advance construction contracts.
• Explore construction methods that will minimize cost and shorten the project timeframe.
• Evaluate design-build (D-B) options.

Traffic/ITS/Safety

• Consider parallel/alternative detour routes and low-cost improvements to facilitate traffic movement.
• Maintain the existing number of lanes on I-405 to the extent practical.
• Minimize impacts to traffic.
• Maintain clear, well-signed traffic patterns.
• Ensure contractor and motorist safety.
• Enhance travel and accessibility to downtown, major employment areas, medical facilities and activity centers.
• Use Incident Management System/COMET.
• Maintain traffic at interchanges and cross streets to the extent practical.
• Consider truck traffic and options.
• Consider other area projects and traffic detours.

Public Relations

• Develop a plan of community engagement that will communicate the benefits of accelerated construction, and obtain community support.
• Minimize community impacts.
• Collaborate on emergency response and incident management with the community.
• Publicize the project well in advance to allow the public to change/adapt their travel patterns.
• Collaborate with the media on traffic mitigation.
• Develop a strategic marketing plan to ease congestion during construction.
• Minimize secondary road usage.

Structures/Geotechnical

• Recommend low-maintenance, long-life, economically- and aesthetically-pleasing bridge types that will satisfy roadway geometry, construction staging and traffic constraints.
• Develop a strategy for dealing with deficient vertical height clearances throughout the corridor.
• Identify retaining wall systems that will satisfy roadway geometry, construction staging and ROW constraints.
• Evaluate bridge types and construction options that will minimize bridge-replacement timeframes.
• Use prefabricated components where practical.
• Use high performance materials where practical.
• Provide a means for addressing existing pile foundations at locations where construction of new structure units is required.
• Integrate connections with existing roadways and transit facilities.

Right-of-Way/Utilities/Rail

• Minimize or eliminate project impact on light rail operations.
• Develop/recommend designs that meet light rail design criteria.
• Consider early identification and clearance of utility crossings to reduce delays during construction.
• Identify construction-staging concepts that will reduce utility "down time."
• Obtain early clearance of property; consider construction access and temporary construction easements.
• Minimize impacts to potential 4F properties.

Environmental/Context-Sensitive Design

• Identify and minimize project impacts.
• Minimize environmental construction impacts.
• Consider innovative methods for noise reduction.
• Minimize visual impacts through consideration of aesthetics.
• Recommend methods to minimize economic impacts to local businesses.
• Consider innovative alternatives to costly storm-water treatment facilities.
• Integrate urban design elements that reflect the character of the surroundings.
• Develop concepts that respect the integrity and character of the people and places in downtown Portland.
• Create a better visitor understanding of Portland.
• Respect and restore the way of life in neighborhoods along the corridor.
• Design a safe and efficient road that is sensitive to the context of the downtown corridor.

Pavements/Materials

Short Term

• Alleviate the safety issue created by the deteriorating continuously reinforced concrete pavement.
• Consider alternatives that provide rapid construction while minimizing cost.
• Design for a minimum of an eight-year service life.

Long Term

• Develop a pavement rehabilitation strategy that optimizes performance for the corridor.
• Design to minimize maintenance.
• Incorporate materials resistant to studded tire wear.
• Consider impacts of bridge clearance issues.
• Design for a minimum of a fifty-year service life.