I-64 Construction

First Design-Build Road Project in St. Louis Cruises Along

by Brian R. Hook

The $535-million Interstate 64 project through the middle of St. Louis is not only out of the ordinary because of its size, the reconstruction project is also unique for the Missouri Department of Transportation because it is design-build.

Construction along the main east-west thoroughfare that carries about 144,000 vehicles daily includes rebuilding and upgrading all pavement, bridges and interchanges. It also includes a new interstate-to-interstate connection between I-64 and Interstate 170.

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The project to rebuild 10 mi of I-64—referred to by its state highway designation, Highway 40, by most St. Louisans—got under way in March 2007. All of the lanes on the western 5-mi half are now closed.

The first 5 mi stretch is scheduled to reopen Dec. 31, and in January all of the lanes of the eastern half of the I-64 project will be shut down. MoDOT expects construction along the route to wrap up July 2010.

The new I-64, replacing the highway that was built in sections starting in the 1930s through the 1960s, will include 36 new bridges and 12 interchanges.

History Making Design

This is the first design-build project in Missouri highway history, allowing the contractors that designed the project to also build it. During a design-build initiative, design and construction often overlap, allowing the phases to proceed concurrently.

Ron Morris, deputy project director for the state on the I-64 project, says MoDOT told the bidding contractor teams how much Missouri could spend and gave them an outline with only minimal requirements.

“We were trying to get the most bang for the buck,” Morris adds.

The original length for the entire I-64 project was 11.5 mi, and MoDOT ended up with a little more than 10 mi for the amount of money allotted in the budget.

MoDOT originally calculated that the project could take anywhere from six to 16 years based on how much of the interstate was shut down during construction.

From the start, MoDOT told the contractors that the only thing they could not do was close down the entire length of the interstate for the entire length of the job.

“We gave a timeline that it had to be done by October 2010, and they said they could get it done by July 2010,” Morris says. “Right there, we saved three months.”

The joint venture, Gateway Constructors, was awarded the contract by MoDOT in November 2006. It includes Granite Construction Co., Watsonville, Calif.; Fred Weber Inc., Maryland Heights, Mo.; Millstone Bangert Inc., St. Charles, Mo.; Parsons Transportation Group Inc., Pasadena, Calif.; and URS Corp., San Francisco.

Dan Galvin, public information manager for Gateway Constructors and employed by Granite Construction, says that the design-build process is efficient because “it reduces cost and time.”

Galvin estimates that on most construction projects design-build—as opposed to a design-bid-build—provides approximately a 25% reduction in cost.

Missouri highway codes were not required on this project. Contractors bidding on the project had the option to use codes from anywhere in the nation, provided the specifications met standards from another state or the Federal Highway Administration.

Both contractor teams, however, submitted proposals using mostly MoDOT specs, Morris says.

“It wasn’t as drastic of changes as we expected,” he adds.

Gateway used MoDOT bridge design specs with a California-approved barrier wall, for example. California allows a larger barrier than MoDOT.

“It was just a tweak here and a tweak there,” Morris says. Other out-of-state codes used also included some highway signage, traffic signals and overhead trusses, he adds.

Galvin says that Gateway Constructors found that suppliers and subcontractors used to Missouri standards “had a hard time figuring out what their costs would be.”

Coordinating Construction

To prepare for the shutdown, MoDOT striped extra lanes in each direction on I-70 and Interstate 44 to prevent traffic snarls during construction. I-70 has an extra lane between Interstate 270 and Interstate 170. I-44 has an extra lane striped from I-270 to downtown.

MoDOT also upgraded and coordinated traffic signals along arterial roads to keep traffic moving.

Working with utilities has required a major coordination effort. MoDOT has worked with every utility, including water, gas, electric, cable TV and fiber optics crisscrossing the project.

“You name it, and it is in there,” Morris adds.

There is no coordinating with the weather, however. “Weather has been the biggest obstacle that we’ve encountered on this project,” Galvin says. By early June about 13 in. more of rain had fallen than during the same period last year.

“All you can do is hope it stops and eventually dries out,” Galvin says. He says Gateway Constructors kept busy during the spring working on bridgework, which isn’t affected as much by the rain. Galvin says there is still time to make up for the rainy weather.

MoDOT and Gateway Constructors are already preparing for the shutdown of the second half of I-64 in January. One of the biggest pushes is communicating with the public.

“This is probably the largest communications effort that I’ve seen,” Galvin says.

There are weekly and quarterly newsletters and Web site. Other forms of communications include e-mail alerts, text messaging to mobile phones and electronic message boards.

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