Precast concrete panels accelerate repairs and provide longevity for busy Wisconsin interstate
By Jennifer Schmidt otorists don’ t often think about the roadway they’ re maneuvering
M until an issue arises. Perhaps the concrete along their daily commute is deteriorating, a road they typically travel to church needs resurfacing, or a pavement replacement project near their children’ s school has prompted a lane closure or detour. When construction is called for, both motorists and transportation officials understandably want to keep slowdowns and delays to a minimum.
For travelers on Interstate 94 near Hudson, Wisconsin, a pavement rehabilitation pilot project that incorporated innovative precast concrete panels has done just that. Compared with traditional cast-inplace methods, experts say the new approach shortens the time frame construction crews are working, allows traffic back in sooner, and the repairs last significantly longer.
“ It’ s a long lasting product to repair concrete roads within short work windows. That’ s really what drives it,” said Mike Quaid, product manager at The Fort Miller Co., a New York-based precast concrete products manufacturer that supplied materials for the I-94 project.
A pioneering project
The Wisconsin Department of Transportation( WisDOT) hired Ayres Associates to provide construction observation on the first-ofits-kind project, which involved repairing approximately 500 joints – using roughly 210 precast panels and 300 cast-in-place panels. The work occurred over a 5-mile stretch of I-94, from the US Highway 12 interchange to the St. Croix River bridges.
One complication in the process was that to make repairs to the middle lane of the interstate, crews had to close one lane on either side of the middle lanes to ensure a safe working area. The only time that could occur was from 11 p. m. to 6 a. m. when traffic volumes were lowest. Therefore, the precast panels were used primarily in the interstate’ s center lane, where crews had a shorter time frame for lane closures.
WisDOT had completed a handful of similar smaller scale projects, though none of this magnitude.
“ We have some experimental test panels southwest of Madison, but this is the first actual let project where we were incorporating precast panels,” said Tara Weiss, project manager with WisDOT’ s Northwest Region.
From Weiss’ perspective the project, which began in late April and was completed by the end of August,“ was an absolute success.”
“ There was a lot of coordination upfront because this was a new type of product and process,” she said.“ Whenever we’ re trying something new there’ s a learning curve to that, so we went through a lot of the design, checking to see what would meet the needs of the project and the public – and get a good product. Overall, once the project was complete, we have some nice precast panels out there.”
When selecting a consultant for the work, Weiss said WisDOT considered Ayres Associates’ previous experience on other transportation projects in the area and felt confident in the firm’ s amount of expertise.
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