TIMED Keeps Moving
More than 65,000 tons of asphalt placed on La.’s US 165

The project includes construction of 7.33 mi of asphalt roadway and six bridges. The heavy-highway contractor self-performed the vast majority of the work.

Gilchrist Construction Co. LLC of Alexandria, La., will complete a $46-million contract to widen U.S. Highway 165 from Georgetown to Tullos in September. The job is part of the 173-mi Transportation Infrastructure Model for Economic Development project to four-lane the corridor from Interstate 10 at Lake Charles to the Arkansas border.

Louisiana DOTD specifications called for a typical section of roadway to include 12 in. of a cement-treated subgrade layer, 6 in. of a soil cement base, 4 in. of stone, 4 in. of asphalt binder course and 2 in. of asphalt wearing course.

Gilchrist’s project includes construction of 7.33 mi of asphalt roadway and six bridges. The heavy-highway contractor self-performed the vast majority of the work, including earthwork; drainage; base; asphalt; and construction of two flat-deck bridges, three girder bridges and one girder overpass.

When Gilchrist received the notice to proceed in July 2007, the utility corridor had already been cleared, says Eric Deloach, project manager. “We then started clearing the rest, which included some heavy wooded areas with steep hills,” he says.

The middle portion of the project crosses Little River, which overflows into a low-lying area the contractor refers to as “The Bottom.”“

The Bottom has a drastically fluctuating water elevation,” Deloach says. “It was a pretty deep river and it would rise as much as 20 or 30 ft overnight. We also had 107 rain days, in addition to our allotted amount.”

Despite the weather, the contractor is still on schedule for completion in October.

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To beat the impending winter weather, one of the first things Gilchrist did was fill in as much as 35 ft in “The Bottom” at the beginning of the project, Deloach says. “Also, this is the area that five of the six bridges would be, so all the header dirt had to be in before those bridges could be built. When bridge construction in that area started, so did the fluctuating water. We were forced to drill and pour drill shafts, as well as set girders off of barges.”

A. H. Beck Foundation Co. Inc., San Antonio, Texas, installed the drill shafts, one of the major subcontract items on the project, Deloach says.

“The only bridge on the project that had drill-shaft foundations was the bridge over the Little River,” says David Cox, project manager for A.H. Beck. “There were three drilled shafts at each bent, and there were three bents for a total of nine shafts. They were all 1,650-mm-diameter shafts, about 27 meters long.”

The new Georgetown-to-Tullos segment of US 165 will pave the way for average daily traffic to grow from 5,700 in 2006 to a projected 8,800 in 2026.

One of the bents was in the middle of the river, so A.H. Beck accessed it with barges. “The river was shallow at times, which meant the barges wouldn’t float,” Cox says. He adds that A.H. Beck, which performs similar work throughout Texas and along the Gulf Coast, fabricated all of its own equipment.

Other subcontract items on the project include: concrete barrier rails, guardrails, steel tying, seeding and traffic striping, Deloach says.

The project required about 830,000 cu yds of embankment, and probably close to 530,000 of that was import and 300,000 was moved onsite, Deloach says.The contractor also excavated about 300,000 cu yds and installed more than 10,000 ft of drainage structures.

The project required about 830,000 cu yds of embankment, and probably close to 530,000 of that was import and 300,000 was moved onsite.

Louisiana Dept. of Transportation and Development specifications called for a typical section of roadway to include 12 in. of a cement-treated subgrade layer; 6 in. of a soil cement base; 4 in. of stone; 4 in. of asphalt binder course and 2 in. of asphalt wearing course, Deloach says.

“We proposed a different shoulder section than plans originally called for,” he says. As approved by the DOTD, Gilchrist placed 4 in. of asphalt-treated permeable base before placing the stone, followed by 2 in. of asphalt wearing course.“

The permeable base is a different kind of asphalt mix, which gave better support under the shoulders,” Deloach says. “We actually changed part of the roadbed too, from 10 in. of stone on top of the subgrade to 6 in. of soil cement and 4 in. of stone.” The changes provided cost savings for the state and a better product on the shoulders, he adds.

Gilchrist placed more than 65,000 tons of asphalt on the project. Asphalt was hauled about 50 mi from the contractor’s plant in Alexandria using the company fleet. “Our 500-tons-per-hour asphalt plant is equipped with 3,300-ton-capacity silos,” Deloach says. “It is called an Astec double-barrel drum.

The project required about 830,000 cu yds of embankment, and probably close to 530,000 of that was import and 300,000 was moved onsite.

”The project is the second-to-last of a 28-segment, Transportation Infrastructure Model for Economic Development to widen U.S. 165 from I-10 at Lake Charles to the Arkansas state line, says Samuel Moore, TIMED spokesperson. Of the 28 segments, 17 are complete and 10 others are under construction. “When those 10 are completed, there will only remain one segment – from the Red River Bridge to Fort Buhlow – which is scheduled to be let in April and completed in 2012,” Moore says.

Like all of the TIMED projects, the U.S. 165 project is designed to enhance economic development. The Georgetown-to-Tullos segment will pave the way for average daily traffic to grow from 5,700 in 2006 to a projected 8,800 in 2026, Moore says. “The overall project also provides a really good alternative north/south hurricane evacuation route and reduces congestion along I-10.”

In addition to the Georgetown-to-Tullos project, Gilchrist won work on four other segments of U.S. 165, Deloach says.