Road Revival

Zachry, Archer Western Perform Parallel Projects on SH 360

by Natalie Keith

Two highway projects, totaling about 5 mi., are expected to be open by early 2006 and bring much-needed traffic-congestion relief to the growing Metroplex region.

The Texas Department of Transportation is embarking on a $39 million, two-phase project to expand State Highway 360 in Fort Worth and alleviate traffic conditions that have resulted from the region's growth.

"This highway is critical in accommodating the flow of traffic in the Metroplex area in northeast Tarrant County," said Michael Peters, public information officer with TxDOT.

Work is being done concurrently on the project's two phases.

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Construction of the first phase, a 2.8-mi. stretch of highway from State Highway 121 to Mid-Cities Boulevard, began in May 2004. Zachry Construction Corp. of San Antonio is the general contractor on the $18 million project.

Construction of the second phase, a 1.9-mi. stretch of the highway from Mid-Cities Boulevard to State Highway 183, began in November. Archer Western Contractors of Atlanta is the general contractor on the $21 million project.

Construction of both segments of the highway is expected to be completed and the road open to traffic by early 2006, Peters said.

Under development since 1958, SH 360 is 28 mi. long and passes through six major cities. In recent years there has been substantial development south of Interstate 20, increasing traffic on the highway. In 1992 16,000 cars traveled daily on the road, a figure that more than tripled to 55,000 cars daily in 2002, Peters said.

"This project is important because it will accommodate traffic to the Dallas/Fort Worth airport, which has become the third busiest in the country," he added.

During the first phase of construction from SH 121 to Mid-Cities Boulevard, four main lanes will be added, or two in each direction, according to TxDOT.

"In the early 1990s we built access roads to alleviate some of the traffic," Peters said. "So you had this wide median strip that sat there for a decade."

During the second phase of construction from Mid-Cities Boulevard to SH 183, six main travel lanes will be added, three in each direction. Unlike the existing access roads, the new lanes will not have traffic lights, which should speed traffic flow.

The project has had minimal impact on traffic because most of the work is being done on the median strip away from existing travel lanes, Peters said.

However, construction of five bridges is included in the job, so there have been some road closures to accommodate that work. The closures were done from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. to minimize the impact to rush-hour travel, Peters added.

TxDOT chief inspector Richard White said the project team was ahead of schedule and expected that the job would be completed on time. He said there were about 1 million yds. of dirt that had to be removed before the travel lanes were constructed.

"We did a lot of the dirt work at night to minimize impact to the area," he said.

Environmental issues arose because of Big Bear Creek, which runs through the site.

"It's a 'hot spot' so a lot of attention gets paid to protecting it," White added. "We want to prevent any rain or drainage from the jobsite from going into the creek." To help cut drainage, rock riprap and recyclable drain filters were used in the road construction.

Paul Junkersfeld, project manager with Zachry Construction Corp., said he expected the first phase to be completed in July, about five months ahead of schedule.

During the first several months of the job, the team was able to give the project a jumpstart by working double shifts, making up for the time lost due to poor weather. Zachry also brought in extra crews to conduct the bridge work, which helped to speed up the job, Junkersfeld said.

And during a two-week stretch, the project team fast-tracked the road stabilization process.

"Once you finish stabilizing the road, you can place 4 in. of asphalt over it and then work in the wet weather," Junkersfeld said.

He added that the team also faced some obstacles with getting steel beams to the site, a problem he attributed in part to the rising cost of steel. He said the issue was further complicated by the increase in business for trucking service.

"I see this as a trucking problem, with physically getting the materials to the site," Junkersfeld said. "Trucking companies have been busy, which is good for their business, but sometimes a construction job suffers."