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www.acpa.org
Quarter 4, 2016
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K S T r a f f i c w a y
Lengthy planning, design,
and construction
timelines for major roadway projects are not
uncommon, but when wetlands are involved,
the timeline can grow even longer.
Construction of 6.3mile, four-lane, $130million
project trafficway in Lawrence, Kans., required
the contractor to construct approximately 300
acres of manmade wetlands to replace 56 acres
of wetlands needed for the road and to serve as
a buffer to existing wetlands and habitat.
Although construction began in November
2013 and was completed in the fall of 2016, the
preliminary design for the project was done 25
years ago, said Michelle Anschutz, P.E., field
engineering administrator for the Kansas De-
partment of Transportation (KDOT). The first
design for a perimeter road to relieve traffic in
the City of Lawrence was completed in 1991,
but construction of the eastern segment was
delayed to resolve issues with wetlands man-
aged by Baker University and Haskell Indian
Nations University.
The Kansas DOT, Missouri/Kansas Chapter-
ACPA, and Emery Sapp and Sons (ESS), anACPA
member company, employed different technolo-
gies and techniques to minimize disruption to
existing wetlands.
“Geotextile fabric around clean rock did add
to the cost of the project, but it was important
that the road not affect water flow and drainage,”
Anschutz said.The use of concrete pavement was
another way to ensure minimal impact on the
wetlands, she added. “We won’t have to recon-
struct or conduct major repairs for a long time.”
Delivering the granular material for the sub-
grade required careful planning in order to
minimize the pounds per square inch (PSI)
exerted as the road was constructed, according
to Chip Jones, branch manager of the heavy
highway operations branch of ESS. “We used
crane mats to distribute the weight of small
tractor trailers that would dump, and then small
bulldozers pushed the material forward,” he says.
“Procurement of the rock materials as well as
finding and scheduling the number of trucks
required was a full-time job,” he said.
“We also used Cat 740s with scraper pans for
grading because we were able tomove dirt faster,”
Jones said. “This was helpful because we’ve had
a lot of rain in the past 1.5 years, and we were
able to stay ahead of schedule.”
A construction technique unique to working in
wetlands was the use of machetes to hand clear
the area. “One lesson we learned was not to have
the subcontractor’s crews work too far ahead of
the grading operation,” Jones said. “There were a
lot of cattails in the area, which grows fast, and if
the crew did not stay just in front of the grading
operations, they’d have to come back to clear
an area they cleared a couple of weeks before.”
Another technique used in the South Lawrence
project that is not new to road construction but
was new to KDOT was stringless paving, Jones
said. There was some apprehension within the
DOT because inspectors don’t have the typical
reference points they use when paving pins and
strings are used to guide the paver. “We devel-
oped a way to share the data with them so they
could verify slope and elevation throughout the
project, he adds.
“We recommended stringless technology because
it provides a better product—a smoother ride,”
Jones said. “Not only did we eliminate the risk
of human error when setting strings, but we also
used theGOMACOSmoothness Indicator
®
(GSI),
High- and Low-Tech Strategies
Help Protect Wetlands
By Sheryl S. Jackson
continues »