UTAH STATE EDITION
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May 24 2020 Vol. III • No. 11
“The Nation’s Best Read Construction Newspaper… Founded in 1957.” Your Utah Connection – Debbie Hansen – 1-702-239-0348 – dhansen@cegltd.com
Ames Moves 1.5 Million Tons of Fill in Tooele County By Lori Tobias CEG CORRESPONDENT
A project under discussion for 60-odd years will give Tooele County residents three miles of new highway and a much needed connection to I-80. Phase one of the $74.4 million Midvalley HIghway (S.R. 179) began last fall, but the project has been on the table since the 1960s. Tooele County got serious about pursuing the funding for the highway in the 1980s, but had to wait 10 years for the money to begin the environmental impact studies. The project is located adjacent to the Great Salt Lake where water tables are high and the soil poor. “It’s a special kind of marsh land,” said Oanh Le-Spradlin, project manager for the Utah Department of Transportation. “It’s salty marsh land, very poor conditions, soft ground, rocks. It could be inundated in water certain times of the year. It’s mostly flat, some hills and situated in the middle of the valley. That’s why we call it mid valley — it’s sandwiched between two mountain ranges.” In order to stabilize the soil, crews with contractor Ames Construction Company first lay geotechnical fabric so that when material is placed on top, the earth below doesn’t sink. The amount of fill material needed is massive —
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with trucks already hauling in 1.5 million tons. “It’s a good mix of small to medium sized rocks,” said David Cox, UDOT resident engineer. “Once we had that well graded mixture, we lay that down, roll it, compact it and put water on it. It continues to build that road up one foot at a time.”
“It’s a special kind of marsh land.” Oanh Le-Spradlin Utah Department of Transportation
A Cat 825 compactor performs work on the job site for a project that includes one new bridge over I-80 and an interchange for traffic to get on in east and westbound directions. There is also one cattle crossing for a local landowner.
Job Challenges Getting the massive amounts of fill is one of the biggest challenges of the job, Le-Spradin said. One of the problems was figuring out where to source the material and how to get it to the project. “There are not that many alternative routes that can handle this kind of traffic and the amount of it,” she said. “We calculated 20,000 unique trips for double haulers. That has to come from somewhere and we have to consider the impact that would have on any road. Even if we can get it in one source. How? During the design, we drove pretty much all of the local roads. We talked to local governments about using their roads. During construction, it’s the contractor's responsibility. But we just wanted to grease the wheel so they wouldn't hear no in every direction.” The project includes one new bridge over I-80 and an interchange for traffic to get on in east see AMES page 6
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