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Concrete Pavement Progress
www.acpa.org6
K A N S A S D E S I G N - B U I L D
“DESIGN-BUILD” WAS THE ANSWER TO THIS QUESTION
for the Kansas Department of Transportation
(KDOT). The Johnson County Gateway project was the state’s first major design-build project and
largest transportation project to date. One of the critical needs was to address traffic congestion
in the critical I-35/I435/K-10 interchange area, one of the most congested interchanges in Kansas.
“We chose design-build for the speed of delivery because public surveys showed us that a major
concern for the public and for businesses was the amount of time roads or interchanges would
be closed for construction,” explains Paul Gripka, KDOT project director. “This approach also
promotes innovation and gives us another tool for future projects.”
The $288 million project included:
Throughout the 32 months of construction, contractors had to keep three lanes of traffic open to
handle the 230,000 vehicles each day. “If it was necessary to close any of these three lanes, it had
to be done between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m., and only for a short time to allow trucks and equipment to
get in and out of construction areas,” explains Joe Brand, P.E., project manager at HNTB, which
served as project management consultant to the agency for the first design-build project. “We did
have some night work as well.”
Kansas Design-Build Project Results in
Planning and Communication Innovations
How do you shorten a major highway construction project by one to two years?
By Sheryl S. Jackson
K ANSA S DE S I GN - BU I LD
• 56 new lane miles
• 6.8 million square feet of new pavement
• 27 new or rehabilitated bridges
• 68 retaining walls
• 650 inlet structures
• 14.6 miles of drainage pipe