Toll Road Projects Top Highway Activity

Lewisville Lake Bridge reaches 50% completion; U.S. 281 North Toll Project in San Antonio selects Fluor-led joint venture with Balfour Beatty for construction services.

Fluor, Balfour Beatty Selected for 281 Toll Project in San Antonio

Cibolo Creek Infrastructure, a Fluor-led joint venture, was selected by the Alamo Regional Mobility Authority as the best value proposal team for the 281 North Toll project - the first added capacity tolled lane project in Bexar County. The Alamo RMA’s Board of Directors authorized staff to finalize contract negotiations with Fluor for the project.

The contract is expected to be in the range of $330 million. Irving-based Fluor will book its 55% share when the negotiations are complete, the contract is signed and the project financing is in place, which is expected to be in the third quarter this year. Cibolo Creek Infrastructure will provide engineering, procurement and construction services for the 281 North Toll project.

Located around the city of San Antonio and Bexar County, the project includes the design and construction of approximately 8 mi of a revised footprint for U.S. 281 from Loop 1604 to the Bexar/Comal County Line. The new footprint, which expands the right of way from the current approximately 200 ft to more than 400 ft in sections, includes the construction of cashless, all-electronic, tolled express lanes in the center and the relocation/rebuilding of the non-tolled lanes.

Cibolo Creek Infrastructure is a 55/45% joint venture led by Fluor with Atlanta-based Balfour Beatty Infrastructure Inc., and will include the services of a number of a number of local firms including Omaha-based HDR Engineering Inc; San Antonio-based Raba-Kistner Consultants Inc.; San Antonio-based Guerra DeBerry Coody; Donze Lopez Public Affairs of San Antonio; San Antonio-based Vickery & Associates Inc.; San Antonio-based Bain Medina Bain Inc.; Houston-based AIA Engineers Ltd. and Pinnacle Consulting Management Group Inc. of Dallas.

Lewisville Lake Toll Bridge Reaches Midway Milestone

The North Texas Tollway Authority has reached the halfway mark in the construction of the Lewisville Lake Toll Bridge in Denton County. As part of a regional effort, NTTA is working cooperatively with Denton County, TxDOT and the cities of Frisco, Little Elm and Lake Dallas to build the bridge portion of the 13.8-mi overall Lewisville Lake corridor project.

The bridge portion is 50% complete after 18 months of construction with the remaining corridor sections in various stages of completion. The progress marks a major turnaround after last summer’s record-breaking precipitation caused the lake’s level to rise resulting in a construction delay. Upon completion, the LLTB corridor will open a new east-west connection between IH-35E and the Dallas North Tollway, providing more mobility options for area residents.

The 1.7-mi toll bridge, a key segment in the Lewisville Lake corridor project, is scheduled to open to traffic in the third quarter of 2009. The NTTA is responsible for the design, construction and operation of the toll-bridge portion of the corridor. The toll bridge will feature two lanes in each direction and an all-electronic tolling system on the project’s western approach, which will mean that motorists should not have to slow down or stop and look for change to pay the toll needed to drive over the bridge.

Dallas’ Project Pegasus Focuses on Transforming Aging Mixmaster

The Texas Department of Transportation has launched “Project Pegasus” to focus on the IH 30/IH 35E interchange on the western edge of downtown Dallas, locally known as the Mixmaster; the depressed portion of IH-30 south of downtown, locally known as the Canyon; and the portion of IH-35E from the Mixmaster to SH 183, also referred to as Lower Stemmons.

The Canyon, Mixmaster, and Lower Stemmons freeways are critically congested and operate in stop-and-go traffic most business days. Traffic accidents and congestion delays occur on a frequent basis. The Mixmaster received national notoriety and dubious distinction by being named as one of the top ten Worst Commuting Bottlenecks in the nation by the American Automobile Association.

Project Pegasus is intended to transform the two major interstate highways directly serving Downtown Dallas by redesigning IH-30 from Sylvan Avenue to IH-45, and IH-35E from Eighth Street to Empire Central Drive (north of SH 183).

The current estimated cost is more than $500 million. TxDOT is joined by several governmental jurisdictions and agencies in the project including the city of Dallas, Dallas County, DART, North Texas Tollway Authority, North Texas Council of Governments, Federal Highway Administration, as well as coordination with other resource agencies such as the Texas Historical Commission, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. A timeline for the project is yet to be released.

Improvement Projects Under Way on Six Lubbock County Bridges

Six Lubbock County bridges are part of a project including $2.7 million of improvements to the structures.

The TxDOT project involves the reconstruction of the Business U.S. 84 bridge in Slaton and the rehabilitation of the bridge at Ash Avenue and North Loop 289 as well as structure repair and painting of the four bridges at Interstate Highway 27 and North Loop 289 in Lubbock.

The Business U.S. 84 bridge is scheduled to undergo a complete rebuild and will require a traffic detour of both westbound U.S. 84 main lane traffic and eastbound Business U.S. 84 traffic. Traffic on eastbound U.S. 84 will be reduced to one lane as westbound U.S. 84 traffic is detoured onto eastbound U.S. 84.

Coppell Construction of Saint Jo has been contracted for the job.

New Connecter to SH 349 Reliever Route in Midland

TxDOT and the city of Midland began a $3.5 million extension of Holiday Hill Road in north Midland. Jones Bros. Dirt and Paving Contractors Inc. of Odessa is the contractor for the 3.3 mi of new road that will connect the existing road, where it presently dead ends at Briarwood, to the SH 349 Reliever Route. The project will cost $3.5 million.

Texas Transportation Commission Adopts Guiding Principles, Policies

The Texas Transportation Commission announced it has adopted guiding principles and policies that will govern the development, construction and operation of toll road projects on state highways and the Trans-Texas Corridor.

The commission received comments from Texas drivers, legislators and members of the citizen advisory committees and released its stance on five key issues: 1) all state highway facilities, including the Trans-Texas Corridor, will be completely owned by the state of Texas at all times; all comprehensive development agreements will include provisions that allow TxDOT to purchase or “buy back” the interest of a private developer in a CDA at any time if buying back the project would be in the best financial interest of the state; 2) the Texas Transportation Commission will approve, in a public meeting, the initial toll rates charged for the use of a toll project on the state highway system and the methodology for increasing the amount of tolls. All rate-setting actions will come after consultation with appropriate local metropolitan planning organizations; 3) only new lanes added to an existing highway will be tolled, and there will be no reduction in the number of non-tolled lanes that exist today; 4) comprehensive development agreements will not include “non-compete” clauses that would prohibit improvements to existing roadways; 5) the department and any governmental entity can construct, reconstruct, expand, rehabilitate or maintain any roadway that is near or intersects with any roadway under the CDA.

The commission affirmed two additional principles: TxDOT will always consider the use of existing right-of-way that satisfies the purpose and need of the project as a possible project location when conducting environmental studies; and to the extent practical, TxDOT shall plan and design facilities so that a landowner’s property is not severed into two or more separate tracts and the original shape of the property is preserved.

Trans-Texas Corridor Awards Environmental Services Contract

Central Texas Highway Constructors LLC awarded Long Beach, Calif.-based Earth Tech Inc. a multi-million dollar contract to provide environmental services on the Trans-Texas Corridor 35 project.

Earth Tech, the lead planning and engineering firm for Spanish firm Cintra Zachry LP on the Trans-Texas Corridor 35 project, was approved for environmental work on Segments five and six of the SH 130 highway project.