Case Studies: Hammering Out

By: Roads & Bridges

The city of Baltimore Department of Transportation needed to repair 2.5 miles of Wabash Avenue. The roadway of Wabash Avenue is 9 in. thick and 30 years old. It is a six-lane concrete roadway, three north lanes and three south lanes, that also serves as a bus route. Reconstruction was too expensive and would take too long. Kevin Livingston of the city of Baltimore Department of Transportation advised that the solution was to do cement base repairs to the existing road, repairs to some of the curb and sidewalks as well as all the handicap ramps to meet ADA requirements. The bus pads along Wabash Avenue needed to be raised 2 in. to meet the 2-in. asphalt overlay of the roadway surface. On the 2.5 miles of road there are over 200 catch basins and 60 manholes.

The contractor is able to do all the prep work and then apply a 2-in. asphalt overlay. As the paver approached a utility, one man could simply install a pivoted turnbuckle manhole riser for each manhole lid and a catch basin riser for each grate. These risers could be installed in front of the paver thus saving time and money. Another advantage is that compacting is not lost around the utility in the road, thus eliminating any dishing around the utilities in the years to come. This project began summer of 2005 and will be complete summer of 2006.

To jackhammer out all the structures and reset them would have been very time consuming and costly and would be very inconvenient to the traveling public, especially during peak hours of traffic. The use of American Highway Products risers has served the city of Baltimore Department of Transportation’s Resurfacing Program well.