While on some days the job sites look quiet, in reality Modern Continental Construction is mounting an all-out effort on the $157-million Long Island Expressway (LIE) Reconstruction Project in Queens, NY. As a result, the contractor stands to finish ahead of schedule, before the end of this year, and so far has achieved every incentive milestone early.
Modern Continental, one of the Modern Continental Companies Inc., Cambridge, MA, with field offices in Queens, is rehabilitating a 5-mi. (8 km) stretch of the LIE from Greenpoint Avenue on the west to the Grand Central Parkway on the east. The project consists of regrading (where necessary) and repaving the existing six lanes of the LIE, plus the entrance and exit ramps and interchanges with other highways, rehabilitating 15 bridges and adding safety improvements. This portion of the LIE, parts of which were built 40 years ago, had badly deteriorated, in part because of extremely heavy-traffic loads. In addition, portions of the LIE with poor visibility due to grades and curves are being redone, principally on the eastern end, where the profile was raised.
The Reconstruction Project is being undertaken by the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) to repair and improve structural operational and safety deficiencies of the roadway. According to the NYSDOT, “Upon completion of this work the LIE will meet current safety standards and motorists will realize better travel conditions and an improved flow of traffic along this transportation corridor. These improvements will also translate into better traffic conditions and environmental improvements within the neighboring communities.”
Modern Continental, led by Project Superintendent Ron Hallquist and Project Manager Nick Whittaker, has an “A+B” contract with the NYSDOT for the job. The A portion is the actual construction value, $157 million, while the B portion covers the incentive phase of the contract, bringing the face value of the contract well over $200 million.
According to the NYSDOT, the A+B — or “cost-plus-time” — bidding procedure makes contractors responsible for developing schedules, and an incentive clause penalizes or rewards them for coming in behind or ahead of schedule. Bidders estimate how long a project will take to complete and multiply the number of days by a daily user cost, which NYSDOT calculates using a computer model. That figure is added to the cost of the work itself, and the award goes to the lowest total bid.
While A+B bidding is not a new concept, NYSDOT was one of the first agencies to make it standard contracting procedure for any projects that have a significant impact on the traveling public — those involving a busy roadway or requiring major detours. For the 18 projects completed to date, contractors have reduced construction duration by 30 percent from traditional staff-calculated schedules, totaling 68 months, or approximately four months per project.
Eric Jones, project engineer of Modern Continental, explained that this schedule value for Modern Continental’s contract is $40,000 a day, which also is the incentive/disincentive per diem for early/late completion of the various segments in the job. The job started in mid-1999 with a 3.5-year completion. However, Jones said, “We expect to roll out of here this year between Labor Day and Columbus Day and complete the contract by Thanksgiving, ahead of schedule, overall.” Modern Continental is on track to substantially complete the overall job ahead of schedule, Jones said. “We’ve hit all the bonuses in the B portion of the contract,” meaning ahead of schedule with resulting incentives, “and some incentive segments we hit 100 percent.”
This achievement is even more impressive, Jones noted, considering that the first part of the contract was installation of the Intelligent Traffic System (ITS) by the electrical subcontractor. The cabling and conduits had to be in place before they were paved or cemented over. “So we didn’t really get rolling until 2000.”
One segment where Modern Continental came in way ahead of schedule was the three-stage reconstruction of the LIE ramp over Greenpoint Avenue on the west end of the job. “The NYSDOT gave it 90 days; we bid 70 days and completed it in 57.”
The reconstruction of this ramp was no small undertaking because it is more accurately described as a bridge, or long viaduct, with active traffic on the roadways beneath it. So Modern Continental had to fully close the ramp to rebuild it and have traffic detoured to the next available LIE Exit — Van Dam Street. The NYSDOT worked with NYPD Traffic to devise a deployment scheme that would ease traffic flow on local streets because of the increase in cars using the Van Dam Street exit. Overall, the ramp received numerous improvements including: installation of new steel cross girders and stringers, new bearings, new concrete bridge deck, drainage system upgrade, and new streetlights. More than 370 tons (330 t) of new structural steel and more than 1,000 cu. yds. (764 cu m) of new concrete were used in the reconstruction of the ramp.
The infamous traffic of the LIE, which ranges from heavy to horrific to standstill, challenged Modern Continental’s incentive-achieving schedule at every turn. Keeping at least four lanes open, preferably five or even six, became a huge logistics problem.
“We first shrunk lanes down while we built the south half of the new LIE, then rerouted traffic onto the new lanes as we worked northward, often splitting the lanes two and one to maintain a total of three,” Jones explained. “After we finished the six lanes we went back to redo the median. And even then, there were lane restrictions, from three down to two, telegraphed well in advance to LIE users by the resulting one- and two-mile long backups.
“This also put unbelievable stress on local and service roads,” Jones noted, and as a result impacted movements of equipment and materials.
As a result, the traditional notions of daytime and overtime work went out the window. Modern Continental basically looked at the job in a 24-hr./7-day week, 52-week time frame, and planned accordingly.
Some portions of the contract demanded weekends-only work — Modern Continental couldn’t work before or after certain hours at the beginnings and ends of weekends without penalties. Other parts of the contract could only be done second and third shifts: slipforming the concrete paving for the main lanes required a constant supply of ready mix concrete, not logistically possible during the day. On other parts of the project, it was just easier to work off-hours. As a result, bridge demolition and steel erection as well as much of the concrete paving were done off-hours.
On the entire project so far, Jones noted, the norm is two-shifts, with a third added for critical items. “We don’t normally work weekends unless the contract calls for it.”
Despite the size of the job, the equipment is relatively small. Jones noted the workhorses have been Caterpillar M315 and M320 rubber-tired excavators as well as Cat tractor-loader-backhoes.
“We used a Cat 345 hydraulic excavator for bridge demolition,” he added. “We equipped it with a ’slab crab’ attachment, which removes the slabs in square pieces. This makes it easier to stack them and haul them away.” All demolition material was trucked off site; some was reprocessed and returned to the site for use as embankment.
Currently, the reconstruction of the LIE westbound main line, from the east end to the LIRR Bridge at 86th Street, is in the final stage of work. Westbound traffic has been shifted to the south, which allows the reconstruction of the two far right LIE westbound travel lanes, the Junction Boulevard exit ramp and the retaining walls along the northern edge of the roadway. Modern Continental already has completed all the eastbound lanes between Woodhaven Boulevard and the eastern terminus and is now working on the westbound lanes.
Concrete paving, approximately 40,000 cu. yd. (30,582 cu m), makes up about half of the job and is now 90-percent complete. Specs call for 12-in. (30.5 cm) layer of NYSDOT approved sub-base material, topped by a 4-in. (10.2 cm) permeable base course and finished with 11-in. (27.9 cm) thick unreinforced concrete in 14.7 ft. (4.5 m) panels tied in with dowels.
For the top course on the main lanes of the LIE, Modern Continental originally used forms and a form rider, but then it switched to slipform paving (an option allowed by the contract), performed by subcontractor Surianello General Concrete Contractors Inc., Buffalo, NY.
The switch helped Modern meet a profilograph smoothness specification with a 3- to 5-percent performance bonus (see CEG, April 24, 2002). Surianello ran a Gomaco Commander III paver, fronted by a PS-2600 placer/spreader belonging to partner Leone Construction Inc.
Because the slipforming was divided into small parcels and in confined areas between active traffic lanes, Surianello elected to do most of the work at night. The slipforming, one of the first major applications of this method in New York State, was completed successfully and on or ahead of schedule.
Currently, Modern Continental is laying concrete paving in spots and stretches too small for slipforming.
The remainder of the paving work consists of milling off and repairing worn concrete paving and replacing it with hotmix asphalt in binder and top layers of 1.5 in. (3.8 cm) each. This includes work on the main lines of the LIE, where there are some asphalt sections as well as concrete, and interchanges and entrance/exit ramps. The main hotmix section is the LIE interchange with the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.
Subcontractor Columbus Construction Corp., Mt. Vernon, NY, recently started the hotmix paving on a fast-track schedule. The paving will be the new Superpave, or Superior Performing Asphalt Pavement technology. This technology, which became widespread starting in 1997, incorporates a different grading system for asphalt binders than previously used, one which more appropriately relates the grade of the asphalt binder to the pavement temperature and traffic loading for the construction project than the previous grading systems.
What is emerging from all the frenetic activity is an upgraded expressway that is not only easier and safer to use, but more pleasant to look at. The best that could be said about the appearance of the original LIE in this stretch was that it was “utilitarian.”
For example, the new Maurice Avenue entrance has been totally rebuilt from the sub-base up with new concrete pavement, streetlights, and ample landscaping. The new landscaping includes Japanese Lilac trees, River Birches, evergreens and new grass plantings.
According to the NYSDOT, “These improvements are proof of the successful partnership between environmental enhancement and highway reconstruction. While many people think only of concrete, steel, and asphalt when it comes to construction, NYSDOT is committed to protecting and improving our environment. This landscaping not only looks beautiful but also will result in cleaner air and less soil erosion.”
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