Photo courtesy of Caltrans
Five emergency contracts were executed in 2023 for the repairs, along with an additional four emergency contracts in 2024, totaling $107.4 million.
Five general contractors — Teichert, Vanguard Construction, Dees Burke Engineering Constructors, Granite Construction and Q&D Construction — are engaged in emergency repairs on California's Interstate 80 in Placer, Nevada and Sierra counties, an initiative that began approximately one year ago.
According to Caltrans, the agency performed an extensive field review of the I-80 corridor in 2023 and found an unprecedented amount of damage. Several areas exhibited moderate to high levels of rutting due to chain wear and required immediate repair. Five emergency contracts were executed in 2023 for the repairs, along with an additional four emergency contracts in 2024, totaling $107.4 million.
Photo courtesy of Caltrans
In addition to repairing ruts, crews from the general contractors are replacing concrete slabs.
"Where roadway structural section is structurally sound, but in need of wheel rut repair," said Jason Fritz, granite's area manager, of the scope of work needed. "A polyester concrete inlay is being placed to replace just the rutted portion of the drive lane. The full lane replacement will start the lifespan of the roadway over, the polymer concrete that is being placed in the wheel ruts will act as a safety band aid for the traveling public."
Emergency repairs started in the summer of 2023 after the extreme 2022/23 winter season.
"Several activities have a temperature and climate window for the repairs which resulted in activity being suspended during the 2023/24 winter season and resumed this spring once the snow melted and drier and warmer conditions were in the forecast," said Jeremy Linder, a public relations officer of Caltrans District 3.
Contractors At Work
Work is currently taking place at five locations along westbound and eastbound sections of I-80 between Colfax and the Nevada state line:
- Location 1: between Colfax and Alta;
- Location 2: between Alta and Yuba Pass;
- Location 3: between Yuba Pass and Kingvale;
- Location 4: between Kingvale and Truckee; and
- Location 5: between Truckee and the Nevada state line.
The pavement for Location 1 is asphalt and the majority of the repairs were completed last year. The roads for Locations 2 to 5 are concrete.
The failing roadway sections are being removed by saw cutting existing concrete slab, then excavated out with two excavators.
"Crews are hammering the panels out with an excavator with hammer attachment followed by an excavator that is digging out the broken concrete," said Fritz. "The broken concrete roadway chunks are being sent to Al Pombo Inc., a local commercial pit that recycles the concrete to be integrated into recycled aggregate base products. Work progress continues to improve each week. To date, crews have done a great job of working safely, maintaining environment best management practices and hitting Caltrans production milestones."
Photo courtesy of Caltrans
Equipment operators are using a Cat 966 loader (concrete off haul), a John Deere 210 skip loader (miscellaneous work, cleaning up concrete floor), an Xtreme Forklift 1045 (site material management, concrete reinforcement), a Telehandler forklift, a Link-Belt hammer hoe 145X4 for concrete demolition and a Cat 315 loadout hoe.
Granite started the emergency work April 28 and plans to complete work in locations 4 and 5 in mid-October.
"Construction operations are taking place during the summer months in an effort to avoid inclement weather conditions," said Fritz. "Construction operations follow Caltrans traffic charts and allow work with lane restrictions from Sunday night to Friday at 12:00 noon. Granite is working to fix encompasses of varying conditions and ages of existing roadway. Some roadway appears to be at the end of its lifecycle and needs full reconstruction. Other areas, the overall structural integrity of the roadway, seems to be effective but the chain wear has damaged the surface causing ruts."
Granite has successfully removed approximately 12,000 lineal ft. of damaged roadway section and replaced 3,500 cu. yds. of Portland Cement Concrete Paving as of June 12.
"Currently we have approximately 11,000 cubic yards of remaining concrete roadway to remove and replace," said Fritz.
Granite in conjunction with subcontractors — ACME Concrete Paving, Meyers and Sons and ABSL — has completed roughly 7 mi. of rut repair. Currently, the project has another 7 mi. to 10 mi. of remaining rut repair to complete.
The majority of repairs are based on concrete slab/lane replacement and polymer paving rut repair.
"The work consists of completing safety repairs to remove and replace old concrete pavement where the roadway is failing and repairing areas where there is severe rutting from snow chain damage with a polyester concrete inlay," said Fritz. "Caltrans and Granite are completing the work with utmost attention to safety, production and traffic restrictions."
Concrete roadway removal operations are being completed during night shifts when traffic volumes are less and all roadway sections are placed back the following mornings. Rut repair is completed with roadway rut removal and grinding during night shift with polyester concrete being placed the following morning.
"All roadway improvements controlled by Granite and team have been completed on time allowing for no traffic restrictions throughout the weekend," said Fritz.
The slab replacement is being replaced with concrete sourced in Truckee, Calif., from Truckee North Tahoe Materials. Concrete reinforcement materials are being supplied from K&K Construction Supply (DBE), which sources its materials from American Highway Products. The rut repair is being replaced by a subcontractor that sources polyester concrete materials from Kwik bond from Benicia.
Granite's project team consists of Project Manager Ryan Murray, Project Engineer Baylee Bishop, Peter Rondeau and Amanda Knowles and interns Megan Madole and Livea Muqatash.
There are four Granite construction crews totaling more than 40 on-site employees between night and day shift.
Working in a remote area places a greater stress on maintenance.
"[The main wear is on] parts such as hammer hoe shafts, cutting edges, and grinding teeth due to excavating and grinding concrete," said Fritz. "Repairs to excavators and skip loaders are primarily done on-site by Granite employed mechanics. Each grinding subcontractor has in-house mechanics that swap out their respective grinding heads, drums, and teeth."
Granite, Meyers and Sons Construction, Acme Concrete Paving and ABSL Construction all have in-house mechanics that complete repairs on-site as necessary.
Granite purchases and rents equipment from Cashman Equipment and H&E Equipment Services in Reno, Nev.
"Equipment dealerships help with providing equipment as needed for specialized operations and if Granite does not have a piece of equipment available," said Fritz.
Photo courtesy of Caltrans
Although this section of I-80 is in a remote part of the state, it is a major roadway.
"I-80 is a vital part of California's economy, offering a direct corridor connecting the east coast and west coast for commercial goods and services," said Linder. "The highway is also used by motorists living in communities within the Sierra Nevada mountains along with seasonal recreational travel connecting the San Francisco Bay area, Sacramento and Reno. In 2022 Caltrans estimated the annual average daily traffic volume across Donner Summit at 32,000 vehicles.
"The solution is to remove and replace the damaged concrete, grinding and installing a polyester inlay where required. This provides a wearing surface and helps to prevent intrusion of salts and other chemicals into the concrete. Rut repair is a strategy that can repair a significant amount of damage in a short amount of time and is Caltrans current chosen method for this kind of maintenance. Wheel rut repair is also a more economic choice when the concrete pavement is structurally in good condition. For the areas with more extensive damage crews are performing full concrete slab replacements.
"Crews are focused on getting as much work done as possible with the funding that was approved for the contracts," said Linder.
Irwin Rapoport
A journalist who started his career at a weekly community newspaper, Irwin Rapoport has written about construction and architecture for more than 15 years, as well as a variety of other subjects, such as recycling, environmental issues, business supply chains, property development, pulp and paper, agriculture, solar power and energy, and education. Getting the story right and illustrating the hard work and professionalism that goes into completing road, bridge, and building projects is important to him. A key element of his construction articles is to provide readers with an opportunity to see how general contractors and departments of transportation complete their projects and address challenges so that lessons learned can be shared with a wider audience.
Rapoport has a BA in History and a Minor in Political Science from Concordia University. His hobbies include hiking, birding, cycling, reading, going to concerts and plays, hanging out with friends and family, and architecture. He is keen to one day write an MA thesis on military and economic planning by the Great Powers prior to the start of the First World War.
Read more from Irwin Rapoport here.
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