The Unofficial
I-26 Construction
Madison County
North Carolina
Pages

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 December 15, 2000, over 23,612,000 cubic yards of material has been removed on this project. The contractor is very, very close to completing the excavation, with perhaps less than a million cubic yards left to remove. This is actually causing some concern, as there is over a million cubic yards of embankment left to build in various places on the project. If he runs short of excavated material, the contractor may have to remove material put in Waste Area #2 for the 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 43,780 tons of erosion control stone has been used so far, which is far over the amount originally estimated. Only a few hundred tons of stone has been used since this summer, partly because the weather has been fairly dry and partly because most of the erosion control devices are already installed.

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 865,800 square yards of erosion control matting has been used on this project, a increase over the estimated amount by more than 20 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 103 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. 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 1380 linear feet of planters have been built, out of over 5000 feet total.

The big cuts at Area 2 and Buckner Gap are completed, and only the side hill cut south of the interchange at Bear Branch Road and Area 5 (the big cut north of the interchange) are left to dig out. This material is being hauled over 4 miles south to the fill around Jarvis Road, which is still being constructed. The escape ramp and embankment just south of Area #1 are taking shape now; the escape ramp was redesigned to save embankment and create a larger turnaround site at the end (for the wreckers).

Material is being added to the first waste site to make it ready for the construction of the rest area. The design of the rest area has begun and will provide parking for personal vehicles, RV's and trailers, and commercial vehicles. The welcome center building itself will be elevated above the parking areas and a scenic overlook will be constructed along the ridge behind it to provide a great view of the Black Mountains and Mount Mitchell. North of Buckner Gap, the excavation and construction of the Bear Branch interchange is continuing. The sidehill cut slope between Buckner Gap and the interchange is where most of the remaining excavation is left to remove. Some smaller areas in the interchange itself and on Escape Ramp #2 are the only other locations where excavation is remaining. The ramps are being graded and the bridge over Bear Branch Road only has the bridge rails left to be poured, which will be done in the spring. There is concern that the contractor may not have enough soil to cover over the buttresses and build up the embankments and welcome center locations. Due to the wasting of a large amount of rock excavation in Waste Area #2, the amount of soil to be wasted is almost nil. It now looks like the contractor will be required to remove material out of Waste Area #2 to make up the difference.

A-10D

As of December 15, 2000, over 8,680,000 cubic yards of excavation has been removed on this project. They are also nearly done with the earthmoving portion of the contract, with less than a few hundred thousand cubic yards left to remove. 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.

Over 326,800 square yards of erosion control matting has been used on this project, a large increase over the 11,000 square yards estimated to be required. Like A-10C, all soil cuts and fills when completed have erosion control matting placed on them, which has tremendously increased the use of this quantity. Just over 10,400 square yards of presplitting quantity has been completed, and 59 masonry drainage structures out of 140 have been installed. The erosion control stone quantity is now up to over 9,200 tons, much lower than A-10C but still over the estimated quantiy.

Steel on the Laurel Creek Bridge has been hung from the southern end to the first and second caps, and is being extended to the third cap now. Laurel Creek Road must be closed to vehicular traffic for periods of time while the men work 220' above it to minimize the risk of damage if something is dropped while they are assembling the beams.