The CFI contained 10 in. of concrete paving, correlating to 53,095 sq yd or 164 truckloads of concrete. For the contractor, some of the challenging aspects of placing 10-in.-thick concrete pavement included nailing the grades through the crown of the intersection, which split into two directions at the heart of the configuration and shed stormwater past the feeder ramps and turn lanes. This was accomplished by matching the longitudinal and transverse joints at each adjacent pour and keeping individual grades to the plan.
Another challenge for the contractor and FDOT was keeping traffic moving while placing an entire intersection. “That part was difficult because we ended up breaking the intersection into four separate cycles—north, south, east, west,” Deer said. “They were all given about two minutes of green time, and you were allowed to make left turns, go straight, and right turns. And it did cause an impact, even then—it would take longer for peak hours to get through, because you could only have ‘X’ number of traffic, and there were only really two lanes.” For one of the traffic shifts, the team closed down the intersection over an extended weekend to build up the CFI.
The work on this stretch of S.R. 82 was the first of seven segments to be completed by FDOT. While the first segment initially only stretched from Lee Boulevard to Shawnee Road, FDOT decided to accelerate the second segment, and extended the contract for an additional $1.4 million to complete work up through 40th Street. As of this writing, six lanes of the project from the CFI to Lee Boulevard are now open to traffic, and the last touches on the project are expected to finish up this month.
Project: S.R. 82 from Lee Boulevard to 40th Street
Location: Fort Myers & Lehigh Acres, Florida
Owners: Florida DOT
Designer: Dewberry Engineers Inc.
Contractors: Ajax Paving LLC
Cost: $55.9 million
Length: 5.46 miles
Completion Date: Oct. 8, 2019
About The Author: Bruns is associate editor of Roads & Bridges.