New Roads

Interstates in Region Set for Upgrades and Even Expansion

by Bruce Buckley

With limited space and funding available, highway officials in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut face a significant hurdle in trying to keep their legs of the federal interstate highway system in adequate shape while also finding ways to expand capacity for growing traffic counts.

The logistics of improving traffic flow without causing major disruptions on busy corridors - such as Interstate 95 - make reconstruction efforts increasingly difficult, said Mark Rolfe, manager of construction operations for the Connecticut Department of Transportation.

"Our mandate to maintain traffic levels means work is more complicated these days and projects take longer," he said.

It took nearly 35 years to construct the interstate system, an effort set in motion in the 1950s under President Dwight Eisenhower. And today, as the highway system celebrates its 50th anniversary, designers are focused on both the need to increase capacity and on cutting-edge engineering to meet future demand. Already, billions of dollars in new projects are in the pipeline across the three states.

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Big Building Program in Connecticut Connecticut is in the midst of nearly $2 billion in major projects to reconstruct its interstate highways, with some work completed but most under way or in planning. But the focus is squarely on I-95, the state's major traffic artery, an effort taking up $1.4 billion of the total interstate tab.

The multicontract I-95 rehabilitation effort entails operational and safety improvements along 7.2 mi. of the highway between New Haven and Branford. Parsons Brinckerhoff Quade and Douglas of New York is project manager for the I-95 effort, which is scheduled for completion in 2014.

The heart of that effort is a $350 million project to build what is known as the Q Bridge, a new 10-lane structure across the Quinnipiac River. The signature structure is officially known as the new Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge, which is also the name of the span it will replace.

Designed by San Francisco-based URS Corp., it will be the first extradosed bridge in the country, incorporating elements of segmental girder and cable-stayed designs previously used on bridges in Japan.

The project team chose the technique because it allows the bridge to incorporate a long main span without using high towers that could interfere with the flight path of nearby Tweed New Haven Regional Airport, Rolfe said. The main span exceeds 500 ft. in length, while the towers have a vertical clearance of 64 ft. It also cuts a striking visual figure over the river.

"The design met all of our criteria," Rolfe added.

The bridge project drew scrutiny from the Federal Highway Administration last summer over rising cost estimates, but Rolfe said the department is resolving those issues and is expected to issue initial bids for construction early this month.

Another major job is a new interchange planned at I-95, Interstate 91, and Route 34 in New Haven. The $200 million interchange, which has two dozen bridges, will be built within the same footprint as the current one. Designed by H.W. Lochner of Chicago, the project is expected to begin in 2008 and finish in 2014.

Farther west on I-95, $420 million in reconstruction work is finishing this summer around Bridgeport. The 4-mi.-long effort rebuilt 22 bridges, including a new $80 million Yellow Mill Bridge.

A hurdle for state highway officials has been ensuring that big-ticket projects don't eat all of the resources, Rolfe said.

"The Q corridor has been a tremendous part of our program," he added. "That's a huge contract for this state, and everything else works around that."

But Rolfe said officials are breathing a little easier thanks to passage last year of the federal highway bill, SAFETEA-LU.

"It enables us to do a lot more planning," he said. "Right now we have studies that look at I-95 from Branford to the Rhode Island line and a study of I-84 in Waterbury. There's a lot in the works."

New Interstates in the Empire State In New York, the state's Department of Transportation is focused on creating corridors for the future.

A major effort is under way to convert Route 17 into the new Interstate 86 along the southern tier of the state from the New York City suburbs to its western edge. The prospect of bringing an estimated $3.2 billion in economic activity to the area - a figure calculated by a regional business association - has been a main driver, said Marty Butler, assistant to the director of the department's Region 6, which covers Allegany, Chemung, Schuyler, Steuben, Tioga, and Yates counties. Various contracts along the route have been tackling the I-86 plan in sections, eliminating intersections, diverting local routes, and creating interchanges.

"It's been a long time coming, but things start falling into place once you put money into one section of the route," Butler said. "If you're going to create an interstate, you've got to continue these projects. The ball is rolling now."

Among the main projects is a $140 million interchange at I-86 and Route 15 near Corning that will replace the intersection with at-speed ramps. Cold Springs Construction of Akron, N.Y., is general contractor, and completion is slated for 2008.

To the east, a $60 million project is eliminating at-grade intersections on Rt. 17 near Horseheads. Lane Construction of Meriden, Conn., is contractor on the project, scheduled to finish next year.

Meanwhile, the department's Region 9, which covers Broome, Chenango, Delaware, Otsego, Schoharie, and Sullivan counties, has nearly $450 million in projects on the books for the I-86 effort.

A $47 million job in Parksville will reroute the highway along a neighboring hill, while converting the old road to a local route. The department is considering a similar plan for a $60 million project in the town of Hale Eddy. Both the Hale Eddy and Parksville jobs would go to bid in 2008.

All of the necessary work to prepare Rt. 17 for interstate designation in Region 9 should be completed by 2011, said Pete Larson, the district's project manager.

"The department's stand on these projects is that they are of statewide significance," he said. "The expectation is that the money will be there."

Another project set for bid in 2008 is a $200 million overhaul of the interchange of Rt. 17 and Interstate 81 near Binghamton. While that portion of Rt. 17 will eventually become I-86, the planned job is geared more toward improving traffic flow by replacing 40-year-old Y-shaped interchanges and better accommodating merges, because the current configuration leads to driver weaving, Larson said.

As I-86 comes alive, the department hopes to connect it to the ongoing Interstate 99 project, a conversion of the existing Route 15 in Pennsylvania to interstate designation. Under the plan, New York would also convert its portion of Rt. 15 between the state line and the new I-86.

The first mile near the state border is in design, an $11 million job scheduled for bid next year. No schedule has been set for miles 2 through 6. The conversion is estimated to cost $68 million overall.

Meanwhile, in New York City, several major interstate projects are under way, including a $123 million rehabilitation of .8 mi of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway in Queens, which is Interstate 278 and handles 120,000 vehicles daily.

Work began in March 2005 and is slated for completion in December 2008, with a joint venture of Perini Corp. of Framingham, Mass., as managing partner working with Tutor/Saliba Corp. of Sylmar, Calif. The effort for the New York State Department of Highways entails replacing or rehabilitating 11 bridges over local streets, constructing and relocating a ramp and a new retaining wall, installing a noise wall, and realigning and pouring new concrete for the main roadway.

A five-year, $250 million rehabilitation of a separate stretch of the BQE in Queens finished last year.

Road Upgrade Plans in New Jersey As home to some of the busiest stretches of interstate highway in the country, New Jersey is focused on one of the largest "intersections" where Interstates 95 and 80 meet in Ridgefield, a few miles west of the George Washington Bridge that crosses the Hudson River into Manhattan.

The New Jersey Department of Transportation is wrapping up $32 million in work there, including reconstruction of several lanes on both highways and the addition of merge lanes. The contractor was a joint venture of Gardner M. Bishop of White Plains, N.Y., Joseph Sanzari Inc. of Ho Ho Kus, N.J., and J. Fletcher Creamer & Son of Hackensack, N.J.

The work - which involved deck replacements on two bridges, major rehabilitation of two others, and new noise walls, signs, and lighting - showed the extent of advances made to the interstate system over the years, said Eamon Ryan, the department's project engineer. The team had to update elements that had different standards over the years, such as the thickness of cement in the highway deck, which was only 7 to 8 in. thick decades ago but is now more than twice as thick in many parts of the country.

"That was the biggest hurdle," Ryan added. "Most of this was built in the 60s and 70s."

Other projects are active on Interstate 280 in northern New Jersey, including a $4 million bridge replacement in Roseland, with Union Paving and Construction of Irvington, N.J., as general contractor, and a $31 million bridge replacement between Newark and Harrison led by IEW Construction Group of Trenton, N.J.

Perhaps the biggest possible expansion of New Jersey's interstate system in discussion in recent decades was an upgrade of various local roads near Trenton to complete the so-called "phantom leg" of I-95. Currently, I-95 technically terminates north of Philadelphia and picks up again in northern New Jersey, with the two segments largely connected by state roads. Most through traffic along I-95 skips Philadelphia and simply uses the New Jersey Turnpike, most of which is not part of the interstate system but which links New York to I-95 in Delaware.

But now a $650 million interchange north of Philadelphia planned by the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission may finally connect the two I-95 segments, said Gary Toth, director of planning and development for New Jersey's transportation department.

The project would create an interchange between I-95 and the Pennsylvania Turnpike, which is also Interstate 276 and links to the New Jersey Turnpike. The two interstates currently have no interchange, instead requiring a complicated transfer through local streets, Toth said.

The project could "complete" the missing leg by redesignating both the Pennsylvania Turnpike east of the interchange and the New Jersey Turnpike north of that point as I-95. The interchange is not expected to have a major impact on New Jersey traffic flow in the near term, Toth said.

"We expect that more trucks will use it to cross the Delaware River," he added. "According to Pennsylvania's study, the New Jersey side is OK for now."