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Construction Achievement Project of the Year Award Print E-mail
This award is presented for a major construction project completed within the past year within the New York metropolitan area. The Construction Achievement Award was instituted by the Metropolitan Section in 1966.

2010 Recipient:

Gowanus Expressway Viaduct Rehabilitation

Owner
NYS Department of Transportation

Contractor
DeFoe Corp.

Designer
Bechtel/Charles H. Sells/URS Tri-Venture

Resident Engineering
HAKS/AECOM, JV

The focus of the $152-million Gowanus Expressway Viaduct Rehabilitation project was emergency repairs and interim deck replacement, including removing and replacing 500,000 square feet of 9-inch concrete deck, over more than 4.4 miles of Interstate Route 278 from the Verrazano Narrows Bridge to the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel. Construction began in February 2006 and was completed in December 2009.

The Gowanus Expressway is a vital regional link in I-278, carrying average daily traffic volumes of 200,000 vehicles per day (AADT). It provides a bypass around New York City for the high volume of trucks from Long Island, New Jersey and locations south that use it daily. Rush hour brings in heavy commuter traffic from the Belt Parkway and Prospect Expressway, with the viaduct’s High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lane serving on average, 1,200 vehicles hourly that carry 11,000 people, or 9.1 persons per vehicle an hour during the morning rush.

Heavy commercial and passenger traffic and harsh weather had taken their toll on the Gowanus Expressway through the years. Repairs and deck replacement were thus essential to keeping the Expressway open and operational, and to maintaining its integral role in the local and northeastern U.S. regional transportation network. NYSDOT responded with this rehabilitation project, which mitigates the deficiencies and provides operational and safety improvements that address congestion and safety concerns, and concerns for the structural integrity of the elevated roadway.

Most of the project involved the bridge deck and consisted of emergency repairs and interim deck replacement, including full- and partial-depth concrete repairs and steel repairs. Some 500,000 square feet of concrete were demolished and replaced. Because of the imperative to maintain traffic throughout construction, an innovative concrete mix designed for fast strength gain and the means to monitor its strength development were employed.

Throughout all of the repairs, the expressway carried its full traffic load every day, which was facilitated by an innovative concrete mix for fast strength development and a means to accurately monitor strength gain in the field. Called High Early (HE) strength concrete, it was designed to attain compressive strengths of 2,200 psi in 14 hours. Some 1,600 cubic yards were placed in deck sections that had to be opened to traffic quickly. Extensive laboratory and field tests were made to correlate compressive strength with maturity logger readings of time-temperature; this allowed the strength of the concrete to be determined from its temperature as the concrete cured. The construction management field staff collaborated with the designers to fine-tune the HE concrete specification for field curing, which will be incorporated into future NYSDOT projects.

  • The Field Automated Communication System (FACS) facilitated communications by enabling information to be shared among all project personnel in real time. In addition, all contract documents, plans, specifications and manuals were available to the inspector via a Panasonic Toughbook Computer. Finally, FACS reduced the use of paper, thus reducing the carbon footprint.
  • Limited work space on the viaduct led the contractor into creative approaches for handling demolition debris, delivering concrete to the deck, and maximizing the work window within permit restrictions. The contractor maximized available time by staging equipment not on the viaduct, but on the street below, which allowed demolition and concrete placement operations to proceed into more extended work windows. The end result turned what would have been 4 hours or less of work on the viaduct into 8 hours of productivity.
  • Operating the Expressway's High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lane while adhering to the New York City work permit required critical scheduling and work staging to efficiently advance the work.
  • The REI team assured strict adherence to the contract plans and specifications, which was essential to quality construction. Quality was exemplified by the virtual lack of cracking in the deck concrete placed adjacent to live traffic.
  • Measures of client satisfaction that resulted from partnering among all stakeholders are in the delivery of high quality construction, ahead of schedule, within budget and with no contractor claims.
  • Another measure is in the performance rating of nine out of a possible 10 the REI team received on the project. With successful project completion, the Gowanus Expressway Viaduct remains viable and continues to serve New York and the region as a key and safe component of the regional interstate transportation system.

Past Recipients:

2009 Realignment of Drury Lane and Construction of a New Access Road to Stewart International Airport
Owner: New York State Department of Transportation
Contractor: Lancaster Development, Inc.
Designer: Berger Lehman Associates, P.C.
Resident Engineering: HAKS/AECOM, JV
2008 FDR Drive – East 54th Street to 63rd Street and Outboard Detour Roadway
Owner: New York State Department of Transportation
Contractor: Slattery Skanska/Weeks Marine, JV
Designer: HDR|Daniel Frankfurt
Resident Engineering: Jacobs Edwards and Kelcey/URS, JV
2007 Route 9A Promenade South Project
Owner: New York State Department of Transportation
Contractor: Conti of New York, LLC
Designer: Vollmer Associates
Resident Engineering: DMJM+Harris (prime), The RBA Group, KS Engineering
2006 Reconstruction of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway from Broadway to 25th Street
Owner: New York State Department of Transportation
Contractor: Slattery Skanska, Inc.
Designer: URS Corporation/Dewberry
Resident Engineer: Parsons Brinckerhoff Quade & Douglas, Inc.
2005 LIE/Cross Island Parkway Interchange Improvement Project
Owner: New York State Department of Transportation
Contractor: Perini Corporation
Engineer: Vollmer Associates
2004 Reconstruction of the Bruckner Interchange
Owner: New York State Department of Transportation
Contractor: Defoe Corporation
Construction Management: HAKS Engineers (Prime Consultant), Edwards & Kelcey Engineers, Inc, (Subconsultant)
2003 Reconstruction of Route 9A from 57th Street to Battery Place
Owner: New York State Department of Transportation
Contractors: Tully Construction, Perini Corporation, Felix Equities, Grace Industries, and Yonkers Construction
2002 CUNY, Baruch College New Vertical Campus
Owner: Dormitory Authority of the State of New York
Contractor: TDX Construction Corp.
2001 Williamsburg Bridge Contract 6, Transit Structure
New York City Department of Transportation
Parsons Transportation Group
Slattery Skanska
2000 63rd Street Tunnel Connector
Slattery Skanska, Inc.
1999 Reconstruction of the Williamsburg Bridge South Roadways
Perini/O&G II (Joint Venture)
1998 Fordham Plaza Bridge
Slattery Skanska, Inc.
1997 New York Hospital Expansion Project
Lehrer McGovern Bovis
1996 Land Based Sludge Management Program, Phase 1 - Sludge Dewatering Facilities
New York City Department of Environmental Protection
Hazen & Sawyer P.C./Stone & Webster Engineering Corporation (Joint Venture)
General Contractors Association
1995 New Croton Gatehouse and Temporary Construction Cofferdam
Mergentime Corp./J.F. White Contracting Corp. (Joint Venture)
1994 Reconstruction of the World Trade Center
Karl Koch Erecting Corp.
Slattery Associates Inc.
H. Sand & Co., Inc.
1993 Morton Street Emergency Exit and Ventilation Shaft
Perini Corp.
1992 Empire Railway Connection Project
Delmar Construction Company
1991 Construction of the LIE Collector and Distributor Roads beneath the LIRR, Queens
New York State Department of Transportation
Andrews & Clark
Slattery Associates, Inc.
1990 Rehabilitation of the FDR Drive between 79th & 90th Streets
John P. Picone, Inc.
1989 Archer Avenue Subway
General Contractors Association
1988 Mid-Manhattan Water Tunnel
New York City Board of Water Supply
Martin Hauptman
1987 North River Water Pollution Control Project
New York City Department of Environmental Protection
General Contractors Association
1986 Statue of Liberty Restoration
Lehrer/McGovern, Inc.
1985 Rehabilitation of the FDR Drive - South Street Viaduct
New York State Department of Transportation
New York City Department of Transportation
Blauvelt Engineering Co.
P.R.C. Harris Inc.
Yonkers Contracting Co., Inc.
1984 Trump Tower
Trump Equitable
Fifth Avenue Co.
Swanke Hayden Connell
HRH Construction Co.
1983 Lexington Avenue Station of the 63rd Street Subway Tunnel
Schiavone Contracting Co.
Impresit-Girola-Lodgiani
Crimmins Contracting Co.
1982 Beth Israel Medical Center Expansion & Modernization Project
R. Rosenwasser
Schumann, Lichtenstein & Claman
W.J. Barney
1981 Palace Hotel
Irwin G. Cantor
Emery Roth
Dic Underhill
Morse Diesel
Helmsley Spear
1980 Bowery Bay Waste Water Treatment Plant
Horn Construction
1979 Hempstead Resources Recovery Facility
Charles Velzy Assoc.
Parsons & Whittemore
Town of Hempstead
1978 Citicorp Center
HRH Construction Corp.
LeMessurier Associates
Emery Roth & Sons
1977 Archer Avenue Subway
Emanuel Ciminello, Sr.
1976 Roosevelt Island
David I. Ozerkis
1975 North Branch Intercepting Sewer, Contract 3
Terence G. McKusker
1974 Waterside Housing Development
Richard Ravitch
1973 63rd Street Tunnel
Clark Hestmark
1972 Bruckner Interchange
John D. Saunders
1968 Middle Income Housing
Alfonso A. DiMeo
1966 Lincoln Center
Col. William Powers