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The Unofficial |
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The Unofficial |
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The project between Mars Hill and US 19 is complete. All the signs, paint striping, fencing and paving has been finished and traffic is now using the road. Except for an inch of pavement that will be added on the northbound lanes south of US 19, everything is completed on this project.
A-10C
As of mid-April 2001, over 24,513,000 cubic yards of material has been removed on this project. Only a small amount of excavation is left to be moved, and the contractor has begun removing waste material put in Waste Site #2 to build some of the remaining embankments.
The undercut quantity appears to be completed now. The contractor was paid for removing 1,900,000 cubic yards of undercut, which was about 500,000 cubic yards less than we had estimated.
Over 43,900 tons of erosion control stone has been used so far, which is far over the amount originally estimated. The weather this winter has been relatively kind to the contractor; little rain or snow has fallen that required more erosion control devices, and since so much of the project now has grass growing on it, fewer tons of stone are required.
The presplitting quantity (the creation of smooth finished planes in solid rock by blasting) is now up to over 128,800 square yards. The cuts requiring presplitting are now complete, so this should be the final amount on the project. Over 1,027,000 square yards of erosion control matting has been used on this project, a increase over the estimated amount by more than 28 times (estimated amount of 36,000 sy). The reason for the enormous overrun is simple; every soil slope has had erosion control matting placed on it when it was completed to hold it in place, and the initial estimate did not provide for this use. Although this quantity has been massively overrun, it is well worth it since the slopes have not shown much erosion if at all, and the erosion control matting helps give the new grass a stable place to get started growing. The contractor has begun installing masonry drainage structures (the drop inlets and catch basins along the ditches). So far he has installed 152 out of the 384 on the project. Several of them have had to be installed multiple times due to building them at the wrong elevation and when they were damaged by vehicles driving over them. The concrete planters along the project are now being built. These planters are in front of the rock fence, so knowing how much of these have been built gives you an indication of how much fence has been installed as well. So far, over 3350 linear feet of planters have been built, out of over 5000 feet total. Some of the rock fencing has been delivered but none of it has been installed yet. The contractor, once he completes the grading in an area, will cover the entire surface with 12" of aggregate base course. This ABC will become the lowest course of material for the pavement when it constructed. So far he has placed 113,300 tons onto the project.
All the big cuts are now completed and the planters are being built at the bottom of the cuts. Most of the embankments are finished except for the one south of Area #1 and Escape Ramp #1. The fill in this area is about 30' short of completion, and the escape ramp is about 20' from being finished. The interchange also needs to have the final grading done before everything is finished.
The rough grading for the rest area is beginning and should be completed this summer. The surface drainage will also be installed at that time. The rock buttresses and rock embankments have all been covered with soil and planted with grass. They will eventually be planted with trees so that eventually they will match the surrounding forests.
A-10D
As of mid April 2001, over 8,709,000 cubic yards of excavation has been removed on this project. The contractor is removing material from only one location now, just north of the Laurel Creek Bridge. It's all rock and he is putting it in Waste Site #1, hopefully so the paving contractor can use the material to crush for concrete aggregate. Over 677,000 cubic yards of undercut was also removed, which was far less than the over 1 million cubic yards of undercut that we estimated to be removed.
So far 77 masonry drainage structures out of 140 have been installed. The erosion control stone and erosion control matting quantities have not increased due to the contractor not working through the winter and the embankments being mostly completed. The contractor has also been asked to place a layer of 12" aggregate base course on top of the project when completed, and has so far put down over 78,000 tons.
Steel on the Laurel Creek Bridge is nearly completed now. Only three spans are left to finish over to the north end bent, and then the deck construction can be started.
North of the bridge, Wright Brothers has very nearly completed the excavation on this project. The big cut just north of the Laurel Creek Bridge is all that remains to be completed, and not much is left there. The rock buttress is built, and all the other embankments are done as well. The bridge over US 23 near the north end of the project has had the deck poured, but the bridge rails will not be poured until better weather is available in the spring. A-10CA This project will involve the construction of the welcome center, the concrete pavement for the through lanes, asphalt shoulders, concrete median barrier, guardrail, signing and the rest of the details that go into finishing a highway project. The entire length from south of US 19 to the Tennessee State Line at Sams' Gap will be paved under this one project, and will involve over 100,000 square yards of concrete, hundreds of thousands of tons of asphalt, over 50,000 feet of guardrail, and 84,000 cubic yards of earth material for shoulder construction, final grading and connecting to the freeway already in operation at the Tennessee State Line. A parking lot for the hikers using the Appalachian Trail will be built on US 23 at the state line as well. The contract will be let in July 2001 and with luck, will be completed either late 2002 or mid-2003.
Previous Project Updates:
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