Interstate 275 serves the western portions of Florida’s popular Tampa Bay area — including downtown Tampa, St. Petersburg and the scenic Sunshine Skyway bridge. The heavily-traveled roadway is undergoing much-needed widening and refurbishing in a number of locations, notably the area surrounding Tampa’s Busch Boulevard interchange. Yes, that’s ’Busch’ as in Busch Gardens, the nearby attraction that’s one of the Bay Area’s top tourist destinations.
In this highly visible and much-traveled corridor, one of Florida’s largest highway and heavy construction contractors, Hubbard Construction, is working to improve conditions for motorists.
Capacity and safety improvements to the nearly 2.5-mi. (4 km) section of interstate that stretches from Busch Boulevard to U.S. Highway 41 will open two new lanes to traffic. Along with increasing the four-lane highway to six lanes, the work calls for improvement and modification of interchange ramps, concrete slab repair in existing lanes, construction of a median barrier wall to separate north and southbound traffic, and drainage and lighting improvements.
About 70-percent complete, according to Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) estimations, the $17.3-million project has been under way since May 2000. The target date for completion is summer of this year. The project will require excavation of 33,000 cu. yds. (25,230 cu m) of earth and is expected to consume 25,000 cu. yds. (19,114 cu m) of earth fill.
Andy Agoos, Hubbard Construction’s senior vice president of the Equipment and construction services divisions, said the company used a wide array of equipment on the job. “Dozers, loaders, excavators, backhoes, cranes — almost anything you can name,” he noted. “The equipment we’re using represents all the leading brands: Cat 950s, John Deere 644s, Link-Belt 8035s and a whole assortment of small equipment. In fact, for this Tampa job, we had to purchase two new vibratory screeds because of the amount of concrete work required.”
According to Agoos, Hubbard crews have put in a significant amount of night work on the I-275 job. “Because the Busch Boulevard interchange is such a high-traffic area, we’ve worked with the DOT to minimize inconvenience to drivers,” he explained. “Our challenge has been slab replacement at night. We close a lane to traffic at 9 p.m., remove the existing concrete, then replace it. We have to get the new concrete in place and make sure it’ll cure in time to reopen the lane to commuters by 6 a.m. the following morning. That means getting everything right the first time.” DOT specifications for the project call for approximately 20,000 cu. yds. (15,291 cu m) of concrete and 15,000 tons (13,608 t) of Superpave asphaltic concrete.
Crew safety on the job site also is a primary concern to Hubbard Construction, Agoos reported. “We use a lot of light plants at night to make sure our site is well-lit, and we use barrier walls to protect our crews.” In fact, Agoos added, Hubbard owns more than 36 mi. (58 km) of barrier wall for use on its many road projects.
Headquartered in Orlando, Hubbard has been a leader in sunshine state construction for more than 80 years. Some of its high-profile work includes launch pads at Cape Canaveral and foundations for the monorail system at Walt Disney World and EPCOT. Because the company works on many projects statewide, it maintains its own fleet of equipment.
“Currently, we own about 2,500 pieces of equipment,” Agoos said. “That covers most of our typical needs, though we do use some rented pieces.” For its short-term leasing needs, Hubbard typically turns to local rental houses and dealers. Occasionally, the company also arranges lease-to-purchase options.
Because its extensive work in Florida is ever-changing, Hubbard offers equipment it no longer needs for sale. “Jerry Hilgenberg handles our equipment sales out of Hubbard’s Orlando location,” Agoos said. “And interested buyers can see what’s available on the company Web site.”
A recent visit to the site found more than 40 top brand used items up for grabs at competitive prices. Included were Cat and Komatsu dozers, excavators by Hitachi and Deere, Grove cranes, Hyster static rollers, and a variety of other pieces. “We found that trading in equipment we’d finished using was a cumbersome process,” Agoos explained. “So we decided to offer it for sale instead, and the response has been outstanding.”
According to the Florida DOT, Hubbard Construction is right on schedule with the I-275 widening project, and motorists in the Tampa Bay area can expect to see the final results by next summer. In the meantime, contractors interested in Hubbard’s used equipment line can check availability and prices at www.hubbardgroup.com. CEG
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