Potential for Expansion, Upgrades, and Other Changes to Meet Surface Transportation Needs
System expansion and upgrades are exactly what will be required to meet future needs. To do so will require a multi-modal approach, meaning that expansion of highways, highway interchanges, transit, and rail will all be needed, as well as policy innovations such as pricing. Addressing highway needs will require preservation and expansion, not only of the Interstate System, but expansion as well for the National Highway System and other arterials and collector highways needed for the network to function efficiently.
Rather than speak in abstractions, 10 successful projects discussed below will illustrate the expansion and upgrades needed for the future. What they have in common are substantial cost, value, and results. They illustrate innovation in policy, design, contracting, finance, construction, and materials. In most cases projects were completed on budget and ahead of schedule.
1. Expansion of a Major Interstate Bridge
A decade ago, it did not take an expert to determine that the only Federally-owned bridge on the Interstate Highway System, the Woodrow Wilson Bridge over the Potomac River south of Washington, DC, needed replacement. Any of the tens of thousands of commuters chronically stuck in traffic jams on or around it could confirm that.
Located at about the halfway point of the Eastern Seaboard’s Interstate 95, the 45-year-old bridge had become a notorious bottleneck, carrying more than 200,000 vehicles a day, when it was only built to accommodate 75,000 vehicles a day. In May 2006, Federal, state, and local officials dedicated the first span of the new bridge before a crowd of 1,400 people, who were thrilled by its attractive architecture and equally impressed by the project’s on-time, on-budget status. The second span is slated to be opened to traffic in 2008.
Photo courtesy of Trevor Wrayton, Virginia Department of Transportation
The old Wilson Bridge was detonated on August 29, 2006, to make way for the new span that will be
completed in mid-2008
Photo courtesy of Woodrow Wilson Bridge Project
Vessel passes through draw span of new Woodrow Wilson Bridge
The $2.4 billion project will expand the bridge from 6 to 12 lanes, two of which will be reserved for use by transit. Approaches and interchanges north in Maryland and south of the crossing at Alexandria, Virginia will improve connections and traffic flow. The project was made feasible by $1.5 billion in Federal assistance.
As Neil Pedersen, Administrator of the Maryland State Highway Administration testified at the Commission’s November 16, 2006, Hearing in New York, “Maryland and Virginia had been watching the bridge deteriorate and congestion build. The estimated cost of replacing the bridge and the approaches was several times the annual statewide capital budgets of either state. It took a Congressional earmark and exceptional political support to be able to get construction started.”
2. Joint Expansion of an Interstate Route and Construction of a Light Rail Line
Ten years ago Denver civic leaders knew two major transportation projects were needed to improve traffic—widening and improving 17 miles of Interstate 25 and Interstate 225, and adding 19 miles to the Regional Transportation District’s (RTD) light rail system. Separately neither had the public support to proceed. However, Colorado DOT and the RTD determined that if these facilities were built as a joint project, both would have the public support needed.
Courtesy of Regional Transportation District
Southeast Light Rail Interchange opened as part of T-REX in Denver.
Photo courtesy of Regional Transportation District
A large crowd attended the opening of Denver’s expanded RTD light rail system.
In August 2006 the highway portion of Colorado’s Transportation Expansion Project, or “T-REX” as it came to be known, was opened to the public. This $1.7 billion Colorado Department of Transportation project widened Interstate 25 from Denver’s downtown to its rapidly growing suburbs, and improved a key interchange where I-25 met I-225, one of the region’s worst bottlenecks. November 17, 2006, the RTD opened 19 miles of brand new light rail transit for service along the T-REX corridor.
Both projects were placed into service more than a year in advance of their proposed completion dates. Colorado DOT achieved this through a “design-build” contract with Southeast Corridor Constructors. The contract enabled this group to begin construction while also completing the project’s design. As CDOT Director Tom Norton observed, “As the nation’s largest multi-modal transportation project, I am very proud of the fact that we have managed to stay within budget and complete the project ahead of schedule. The innovation and partnership approach demonstrated by T-REX is a model for future transportation projects.”
3. Modernization of a Major Interstate Interchange
Near the end of the 1990’s, the Wisconsin Department of Transportation was faced with the enormous challenge of rebuilding an outdated interchange in the heart of Milwaukee. They had to accomplish that in just four years with a budget of $810 million while maintaining traffic in and out of downtown the entire time.
Built in 1968 at the convergence of I-94, I-794, and I-43, the Marquette Interchange provides access to over a third of the state’s jobs and population in southeastern Wisconsin. The Marquette Interchange was completed at a cost of $33 million. By the end of the century, the Interchange, which was designed to carry 150,000 vehicles per day, was forced to handle 300,000 vehicles per day.
Designed to be one of two major downtown interchanges to serve the growing metropolitan area, the Marquette Interchange was forced into double duty when the second planned interchange was stopped in the 1970s.
The overworked structures also aged quickly. Without reconstruction, the interchange would have been put out of use for truck traffic within the first decade of the new millenium.
Intense traffic mitigation research and public outreach efforts produced a traffic mitigation plan that would keep Milwaukee open for business and recreation during the four-year project.
“I’m proud of what my people have been able to achieve in partnership with Marquette University and the surrounding communities,” said Wisconsin DOT Secretary Frank Busalacchi. “We’ve reached out to them and actively engaged them in helping us figure out how to make this project work for all involved. Our people have listened and revised our plans to be responsive to what folks asked for.”
So far, the plan seems to be working. During the first two years of construction, the Milwaukee Bucks, Admirals, Wave, Brewers, and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra actually reported increased attendance.
Construction of the Marquette Interchange underway in Milwaukee, WI
Now taking shape in the skyline of Wisconsin’s largest city, the Marquette Interchange is blossoming into the inviting gateway that planners envisioned over 50 years ago and that generations to come will enjoy until the next millennium.
4. Adding Capacity in a Downtown on a National Highway System Route
On July 28, 2006, the Governor of Nebraska cut the ribbon on an innovative $100 million project which will ease access to Interstate 680, and take 70 percent of the traffic off local roads. With daily traffic at Omaha’s busiest intersection expected to increase by 50 percent in the next two years, Nebraska’s Department of Roads came up with building two elevated expressway bridges, both 40 feet above grade and a mile long, and worked with contractors Hawkins Construction Company and HDR Engineering to deliver the project a year ahead of schedule. The West Dodge Expressway will relieve congestion at an intersection that sees more than 105,000 vehicles a day. The expressway bridges will carry three lanes of traffic in both directions, with local traffic using the existing at-grade West Dodge Road.
AASHTO’s Executive Director John Horsley said, “I like to point to this project as a demonstration that you can, in fact, ‘build your way out of congestion.’ By going up, rather than out they found a way to add capacity without having to acquire new right-of-way.”
Courtesy of Nebraska Department of Roads
West Dodge Elevated Expressway
