georgia 16 2015

By Cindy RileyCEG CORRESPONDENT

Crews in Leesburg, Ga., have finished work on a newbridge, and will continue work on a bypass to ease trafficflow in the area. Motorists will no longer need to drive intodowntown if traveling to Lee County schools.

“The city of Leesburg is divided by railroad tracks, withonly two crossings within the city limits,” said BobAlexander, Leesburg city manager. “With all the schools inLee County being within the city limits, there is a tremen-dous increase in traffic during school hours.

“With a bridge over the railroad tracks and U.S. 19, theNorth Bypass will divert traffic from the downtown area,reducing traffic congestion and improve school bus safety.The project is scheduled for completion in December of thisyear; however we are hoping that motorists will be able todrive on it when school opens in late August.”

A GDOT report indicates the current and projected demo-graphic and development trends signal the need for a saferand more efficient transportation corridor north of Leesburg.The existing transportation network requires traffic, includ-ing school buses, to travel through downtown Leesburg oralong local streets to reach destinations south of town or toaccess US-19/SR-3. The current conditions also require traf-fic and school buses to cross an at-grade and high-trafficNorfolk-Southern Railroad crossing located at the highly-congested signalized US-19/SR-32/SR-195 & 4th Streetintersection in downtown Leesburg.

One of the highlights of the Leesburg bridge project hasbeen the placement of the massive steel and concrete beams,at 6 ft. (1.8 m) tall, 147 ft. (44.8 m) long, and weighing43,000 lbs. (19,504 kg) each, along the longest span. Once

the beams were shipped and delivered to the project site,workers hoisted them in place to form the fly-over that willconnect US 19 and State Route 195. Officials, contractorsand other individuals lined the road with their vehicles, justto witness the event.

The Leesburg North Bypass project consists of the con-struction of a new two-lane facility with turn lanes at inter-sections from US-19/SR-3 eastward to SR-195 north ofLeesburg. Side roads will be improved and re-aligned as

needed. The project also includes a grade-separated crossingof the Norfolk-Southern railroad and US-19/SR-3.

The project will feature two 12-ft. (3.6 m) travel lanes and6.5-ft. (1.9 m) paved shoulders. The project is entirely onnew location, with no existing right-of-way present. Theright-of-way will generally range from 110 to 225 ft. (33.5 to68.5 m) More right-of-way may be necessary at theapproaches to the grade-separated railroad crossing, or at

New Bypass to Bridge the Divide in Lee County

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The total length ofthe new bridge willbe 329 ft. (100.2 m).

Crews use concrete to cap off the columns.

see LEESBURG page 2

August 52015

Vol. XVII • No. 16

• August 5, 2015 • www.constructionequipmentguide.com • Georgia State Supplement • Construction Equipment Guide

cross street intersections. The project lengthis 1.78 mi. (2.86 km).

Construction was authorized in lateJanuary 2014. The bridge is complete, theroadway has been mass graded, drainage hasbeen installed and graded aggregate base isbeing placed.

“The most challenging phase of mostprojects is the NEPA process, or the environ-mental clearance, simply because of the fed-eral guidelines that must be followed toobtain federal funding,” said DewayneFulton, GDOT project engineer. “Safety forthe traveling public and crew members hasalso been one of our top priorities.”

Pre-construction activities have includedplanning and programming, preliminarydesign, environmental clearance, right-of-way, final design and the construction bid-ding process. Original programming of theproject to construction letting has taken 10years.

The cost of the bridge is $1.7 million withthe roadway portion totaling $6.4 million.The total length of the new bridge will be

329 ft. (100.2 m).Main tasks of the Leesburg project yet to

be carried out include the asphalt interlayerand concrete pavement, the bridge barrierand approaches, roadside safety features thatinclude guardrails, along with signing andmarking and placement of signs.

Materials on the project include 293,000cu. yds. (224,014 cu m) of earthwork, 3,800tons (3,447.3 t) of asphalt, 1,100 linear ft.(335.2 m) of storm drain pipe and 3,080 lin-ear ft. (938.7 m) of PSC bridge piling.

Items required include reinforced con-crete pipe and reinforced concrete box cul-verts of various sizes for storm drainage,granite graded aggregate base with Class 3plain portland cement concrete pavement formainline paving and graded aggregate baseand asphalt paving consisting of 10 in. (25.4cm) granite graded aggregate base, 25mmSuperpave, 19mm Superpave, and 9.5mmType II Superpave for paving at intersec-tions.

Jay Griffith, project manager of generalcontractor Oxford Construction Company of

Environmental ClearanceProves Challenging for Job

Crews hoist the beam into place.

To date, the project has required roughly 22,000 cu. yds. (16,820 cu m) of unclas-sified excavation.

LEESBURG from page 1

see LEESBURG page 6

Construction Equipment Guide • Georgia State Supplement • www.constructionequipmentguide.com • August 5, 2015 •

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Project to Spur Commercial Development Along BypassAlbany, Ga., said “The project is currently around 60 percentcomplete. Subgrade preparation and installation of granitegraded aggregate base is currently ongoing, as well as ero-sion control maintenance. Our concrete paving subcontrac-tor, J.A. Long Construction, is currently erecting their centralmix concrete plant, as well.

“All clearing, storm drainage and rough grading havebeen completed, as well as construction of the new bridgeover US 19 and Norfolk Southern Railroad.”

According to bridge subcontractor Southern ConcreteConstruction Company, a Kobelco CK1600 165-ton (149.6t) crane and a Kobelco CK1000 100-ton (90.7 t) crane wereused to set the long spans. The CK 1600 set the end spans byitself. The heaviest picks were the bulb tees in Span 2,weighing approximately 125,000 lbs. (56,699 kg) each.

“The beams were staged along the roadway before beingbacked into place for unloading,” Griffith said. “It tookabout 20 minutes per beam to get the truck into position, liftthe beam off the truck, set the beam on the cap and reset thecranes for the next to back in.”

The main challenges on the project involved clearing andgrading in wetlands.

The property within the new right-of-way consisted of amixture of pecan grove, clear cut timber land and pastureland. To date, the project has required roughly 22,000 cu.yds. (16,820 cu m) of unclassified excavation, 4,000 cu. yds.(3,058.2 cu m) of granular embankment and 180,000 cu.yds. (137,619 cu m) of borrow excavation. Borrow excava-tion was obtained from three offsite pits on private propertyadjacent to the project.

For clearing, Griffith said a John Deere 350D LChydraulic excavator equipped with a Labounty grapple wasused, along with a John Deere 544 J wheel loader equippedwith root rake and a John Deere 700 K dozer.

Grading equipment has included a John Deere 672 GPmotorgrader equipped with Topcon GPS, a John Deere 772D motorgrader, a John Deere 650 J dozer, a Caterpillar D6KLGP dozer, a Komatsu D51EX-22 dozer, Caterpillar 623 Gelevating scrapers, Caterpillar 615 C Series II elevatingscrapers, John Deere 300D articulated off-highway trucks,Mack CV713 Tandem axle dump trucks, a KomatsuPC290LC-10 hydraulic excavator and Dynapac CA 362PDvibratory sheepsfoot compactors.

Storm drainage machinery has included a KomatsuPC360LC-10 hydraulic excavator, a John Deere 544J wheelloader and a Dynapac CA134PDB vibratory sheepsfootcompactor. For base installation, crews have relied on aCaterpillar D6K-LGP equipped with a Rivinius/DomorR600-C base spreader, a Dynapac CA 262D vibratorysmooth drum roller and a John Deere 672 GP motorgraderequipped with Topcon Millimeter GPS. Asphalt Pavingequipment has included a Caterpillar AP1055E track asphaltpaver, a Hamm HD 140 VO double drum vibratory roller, aHamm HD 120 VO double drum vibratory roller and a JohnDeere 310 J loader backhoe.

Other heavy machinery has included a Gomaco 2600 con-crete paver, a Gomaco RTP 500 pickup machine and a RexModel S portable central mix concrete plant.

Traffic has not been a major obstacle at any time.“Most of it is on new location, only intersecting three

existing roads with fairly low traffic counts, so it hasn’t real-ly been an issue,” said Griffith. “Safety is always our mainconcern for the traveling public and our crews, no matter thescope or magnitude of the project.”

As for detours, there will be minimal traffic shifts at theSmithville Road intersection during concrete paving opera-tions, and there will be a detour of SR 195 while the LeslieHighway tie-in is being constructed, according to Griffith.

“The rest of the project is either on new location or will beconstructed under traffic using lane closures.

“The project was very wet due to heavy rainfall whencrews started construction inFebruary 2014, but weather has notbeen a major issue, to date.”

According to GDOT numbers,Lee County is the eighth fastestgrowing community in Georgiaand the 43rd fastest growing in thenation, with the majority of resi-dents relocating to the areadescribed as families with school-aged children. Residential devel-opment is projected to occur onagricultural lands west and east ofthe existing Leesburg West Bypass(US-19/SR-3 Bypass) and north-

ward along the US-19/SR-3 corridor. Commercial develop-ment is expected to occur immediately adjacent to and alongboth sides of the bypass and rapid mixed development isexpected along Robert Lee Drive.

(This story also can be found on Construction EquipmentGuide’s Web site atwww.constructionequipmentguide.com.) CEG

One of the highlights of the Leesburg bridge projecthas been the placement of the massive steel and con-crete beams.

Crews drive piles for the foundation of the bridge overU.S. 19.

LEESBURG from page 2

Crews prepare to transport beams.

Construction Equipment Guide • Georgia State Supplement • www.constructionequipmentguide.com • August 5, 2015 •

georgia 16 2015

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