REConews

Location: Durham County, NC The Triangle Parkway (Phase one of the Triangle Expressway) opened to traffic on December 8, 2011 after a ribbon cutting ceremony held by The North Carolina Turnpike Authority. The Triangle Parkway is a 3.4 mile stretch of new roadway from I-40 at NC-147 in Durham County that connects to I-540 at NC-54. Once Phase Two (The Western Wake Freeway) of the 18.8 mile project is completed, portions of NC 147 and I-540 will become the first toll road in North Carolina. The tolling will be all electronic, with no toll booths, and will allow for toll collection with electronic transponders or license plate photo-recognition.

The Triangle Parkway is a design build project constructed by the general contractor ST Wooten Construction, with RK&K being the lead engineering consultant. Bonn J Contracting was the sub-contractor who installed the MSE walls and who has worked with RECo on countless successful projects throughout North Carolina, Florida and others.

The project required five new bridge structures,

four of which consist of Reinforced Earth ® Mechanically Stabilized Earth (MSE) abutments and wingwalls. There is also one stand-alone MSE retaining wall on the project. The Reinforced Earth Company (RECo) provided design and supply of the MSE walls on the project, including custom corner bent panels, pilaster panels and precast parapet units. RECo also provided wire face MSE wall materials for use in construction phasing of one of the bridges.

Architectural Requirements

The project aesthetic requirements included brick facing, MSE wall pilasters and corner bent panels which mimic the pier columns. In addition, road names are recessed in the wingwall parapets. In order to allow for a brick veneer on the MSE wall facing, RECo provided plain MSE panels with dovetail slots. Once the settlement period for the wall was complete, full size brick was laid up and connected to the MSE facing with dovetail anchors. Since MSE walls are flexible and built on top of soil, the final brick facing also needed to provide some flexibility. To that end, vertical joints were placed in the brick facing at ten to twenty foot +/- intervals, aligned

Triangle ExpresswayNorth Carolina’s First Modern Toll Road

REINFORCED EARTH®

In this Issue

Cover Story: Triangle Expressway...................................1

Route 3 Passaic River Crossing...............3

Phenix City Riverwalk................................4

Affiliations News Flash..............................5

SR 826 and SR 836 Interchange..............6

RECo Around the Globe..............................7

Upcoming Events................................. ........7

Meets Your Project Managers.................8

Winter 2011

Triangle Expressway Reinforced Earth® Abutments with Architectural Pilasters

www.reinforcedearth.com1.800.446.5700

Continues on page 2...

with the facing panel joints, and then covered with backer rod and tinted sealant. Under-drains and weep-holes were provided to allow for any water to drain away from the wall.

In order to achieve the aesthetic requirements for the top of wing-walls, RECo developed a custom 4’-8” parapet unit to provide sufficient space for roadway lettering. Since the parapet unit effectively retained nearly 4 feet of fill, Reinforcing Strips were attached to the back to provide for stability.

In order to match the 24” vertical pilaster coursing specified for the bridge pier columns, special 6 foot tall MSE pilaster panels and corner pilasters were designed by RECo. The corners were fabricated in an adjustable form to allow for a range of acute and obtuse corner angles.

Technical Challenges

In addition to the architectural challenges of accommodating brick fascia, pilasters and the parapets, there were several geotechnical challenges on the project. For the Hopson Road Bridge, the existing foundation soils consisted of weathered and sound rock. In order to minimize rock removal, RECo utilized the recommendations of Terre Armee International (RECo’s international sister company) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA-NHI-10-024, section 6.3) to allow for benched excavation into the existing foundation materials and variable reinforcing strip lengths as shown in the figure to the right. This method of construction may be used when the MSE wall foundation material consists of rock or other stiff/dense soils with STP values greater than 50. The placement of reinforcing strips in a stepped configuration results in an overall MSE volume with a resisting mass similar to one built with reinforcing strip equal to the conventional 70% of the wall height. The internal stability of the MSE

wall at the reduced reinforcing strip location is achieved by adding reinforcing strips (where necessary) to satisfy pullout and rupture strength requirements.

In addition to accommodating the variable reinforcing strip length requirements at the Hopson Road Bridge, RECo designed for potential lateral loads induced by the integral abutment piling. Reinforced Earth is an ideal construction material for retaining walls at pile supported abutments because our bolted connection allows for reinforcing strips to be skewed at abutment piling locations.

Successful Construction

Cherry Precast of Winston-Salem, NC fabricated all of the precast concrete MSE wall materials. Bonn-J Construction installed the MSE wall facing panels, pilasters, corner pilasters and parapet units, as well as the wire face MSE walls for phasing of the NC-54 bridge structure. Hunt Valley Construction provided the stain work for the walls and bridge structures.

The end result, as shown in the photos, is a show-case project that all contributors should be proud of.

Hopson Road Overpass Bridge

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Continued from cover

Pile Cap

Rock or Sti� In-Situ

Material(N>50)

50mm x 4mm RibbedReinforcing Strip (typ.)

Select Granular Back­ll

HP 14 x 73 Steel Pile

Brick Veneer(by others)

Front Faceof MSE Wall

Bench intoWeathered

Rock

Typical Section at Hopson Road

Location: Passaic & Bergen Counties, NJ In July 2010, the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) awarded Creamer-Sanzari JV a $148 million construction project to replace the Route 3 moveable bridge over the Passaic River with a fixed bridge. The project includes constructing full shoulders, acceleration and deceleration lanes, and noise barriers. The work will be done in stages in order to minimize construction impacts on the community and expedite construction. The project is scheduled for completion in Spring of 2014.

Creamer-Sanzari JV chose The Reinforced Earth Company (RECo) to design and supply the MSE retaining walls and precast barriers on

the project. There are 30 MSE walls consisting of 3 Abutment walls, 6 wing walls, 11 retaining walls, and 6 temporary phasing walls. Each abutment bridge construction consists of 3 phases. There are also four types of precast barriers mounted on the walls.

The final project quantities are 72,850 sf of large rectangular panels, 22,550 sf of Terratrel wire wall, 5000 lf of precast barriers, and 140 lf of precast coping.

All panels have a fractured fin architectural finish and some walls received a special 3” sound absorptive material. The special Sound Absorptive material, Acoustacrete, was supplied and applied to the panels by Faddis Concrete Products who also was RECo’s

precaster for the MSE wall panels.

RECo worked diligently with Creamer-Sanzari JV to address all design and construction issues on this large and complex project. Some of the challenging issues include acute corners, utility conflicts, changes in top of wall elevations, and adjustments to the anchor plate configuration on precast barriers where sound wall posts and panels will be mounted.

The four precast barriers included standard and special shapes. One challenging shape was a barrier where sound wall posts and panels were mounted behind the barrier. The barrier was 5’-0” wide at the bottom, 2’-6”wide at the top, 7’-10” high, and 10 ft long. The barrier was cast using a special form fabricated by Helser Industries. It weighs 20 tons and is considered to be the largest precast barrier ever constructed by RECo. These special barriers were cast at Jersey Precast Corporation which is well equipped to handle this large product.

Route 3 Passaic River Crossing Project

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20 Ton Precast Barrier

Precast Barrier Placed Atop RE Wall

Fractured Fin Large Rectangular Panels

Location: Phenix City, AL In 2007, the elected leaders of the City of Phenix City, Alabama decided to develop a stretch of the riverbank along the Chattahoochee River immediately north of downtown into a multi-use path. This path was to extend approximately ¾ mile along the river, making a previously

inaccessible portion of the riverbank a focal point for the downtown area. The city retained the services of Alabama Municipal Engineers (AME) to design the project. Alabama Municipal Engineers contacted The Reinforced Earth Company (RECo) to provide the benefit of their experience designing and constructing mechanically stabilized earth (MSE)

embankment walls along rivers and streams. AME put together a design which incorporated three MSE walls supporting the pathway along the edge of the river.

In March 2010, this project was put out for bid. Gerald Brooks Construction Company of Phenix City was awarded the contract in May, 2010.

New RE Wall and Existing Stone Wall Interface

RE Walls Supporting Pathway

Phenix City Riverwalk Focal Point for the Downtown Area

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Nicholson has served an integral role in the construction of the World Trade Center Vehicle Security Center and Tour Bus Parking Facility (VSC). The initial scope of Nicholson’s work at the VSC, which was carried out in JV with EE Cruz, was to create a water-tight excavation, measuring 220 ft. by 450 ft. and reaching a depth of 60 ft. The first phase of the project included the installation of a 40,000 square foot diaphragm wall with 210 tieback anchors, as well as 160,000 cubic yards of bulk excavation, 10 jet grout columns, 320 rock bolts, 6,000 square foot temporary slurry wall, cast-in-place concrete, compensation grouting and pipe struts.

The diaphragm walls installed by Nicholson will form the southern part of the VSC, which will include a parking area to accommodate the increased number of tour buses entering the WTC.

In March of 2011, Nicholson began working for Yonkers Construction on the earth support and water cutoff phase of development, which includes 10,000 square feet of secant pile wall, 75 tieback anchors, 15 micropiles (200 tons) and 122 jet grout columns with lengths ranging from 15-40 feet.

Working in the heart of one of the most heavily populated cities in the world creates a unique and ongoing set of challenges. Nicholson’s exposure to those challenges, beginning with the initial excavation of the site following the attacks, and continuing on through the latest phase of the VSC’s development, has been a critical success factor.

The VSC, which is slated to open in 2012, will contain approximately 50 tour-bus parking spaces in total, which should effectively accommodate the additional tourist traffic entering the newly rebuilt WTC.

Affiliations-News Flash World Trade Center Vehicle Security Center

The original plans called for one of the walls to be constructed in the river in front of an old stone abutment. This wall was to extend up and over an existing dam. It would be difficult to construct this portion of the wall due to the high velocities of water rushing over the dam, therefore Brooks Construction Company set about redesigning the wall in this area to move it to the edge of the river, incorporating the existing abutment to support the Riverwalk. This eliminated the need for the MSE wall to interact with the dam at all, and made the wall significantly easier to build.

Gerald Brooks, President of Brooks Construction, retained the design services of RECo to assist in the redesign which was presented to the Owner in August, 2010. The Owner has retained the services of AECOM to oversee construction of the project. After requiring a new hydraulic study of the area and a structural analysis of the existing stone abutment, AECOM approved the redesign in June, 2011.

Brooks began construction of the walls in July, 2011, with completion of the project scheduled for February, 2012. Once opened to the public, this project will give the residents of Phenix City a beautiful and useful recreational area along the Chattahoochee River that they can enjoy for many years to come. The Reinforced Earth Company is proud to be a part of such a project.. Existing Dam, Stone Wall and New RE Wall

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Overview of World Trade Center Site, New York, NY

Location: Miami, FL The SR 826 and SR 836 interchange project is one section (Section 5) of the 12 part Florida Department of Transportation Palmetto Expressway Improvement Project. The entire twelve part SR 826 improvement project spans along 16 miles of the corridor and is slated for completion in 2015. Some of the key improvements made to the intersection include new connections between SR 826 and SR 836 in all directions, adding an additional travel lane by widening or replacing existing bridges, and the addition of frontage roads to reduce local traffic on the main line. The approximate total cost for the Section 5 project is $560 million.

The Reinforced Earth Company (RECo) has already supplied 258,267 sf of permanent MSE wall to the Palmetto Expressway Section 3 Project, which is another portion of the overall Palmetto Expressway Improvement Project. RECo will be providing approximately 600,000 sf of additional permanent wall to the Section 5

portion. This design build project is currently being designed by BCC Engineering, and will have roughly 30 Reinforced Earth® retaining walls. RECo was able to meet the project’s aesthetic requirements by providing the “Palm Frond” finish. The Palm Frond finish has also been provided by RECo in several other MDX projects throughout the Miami area.

RECo’s Engineering Department has also been instrumental in helping the contractor, Community Condotte DeMoya Joint Venture, meet the stringent project schedule by having shop drawing submittals, at times, completed in less than one week. The quick turnaround with RECo’s plan submittals, and having significant forms dedicated to each project has proven to be a valuable resource to the Design Build Team.

A unique requirement on the Section 5 project is that the contractor has chosen to use a gantry system to install the segmental bridges. The gantry launching system will be located on top of RECo’s MSE wall mass in numerous locations throughout the project. This gantry system will use concrete pads positioned on top of the MSE wall mass to transfer the load of the entire gantry system, in addition to the bridge segments. Due to the significant loading caused by the gantry launching system, the Design Build Team has asked RECo to analyze the effects of loads exceeding 5,000 psf.

Aerial View Courtesy of Florida Department of Transportation

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SR 826 and SR 836 Interchange Palmetto and Dolphin Expressways

Reinforced Earth® Retaining Wall with Gantry Launching System

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Upcoming EventsTransportation Research Board (TRB)January 21-24, 2012 – Washington, DC

World of ConcreteJanuary 24-27, 2012 – Las Vegas, NV

Geo Congress 2012March 25-28, 2012 – Oakland, CA

Structures 2012March 29-31, 2012 – Chicago, IL

Geo-AmericasMay 1-4, 2012 – Lima, Peru

DBIA in TransportationApril 25-27, 2012 – Phoenix, AZ

SAMEMay 22-25, 2012 – St. Louis, MO

International Bridge ConferenceJune 10-13 2012 – Pittsburgh, PA

RECo Around the Globe

Mexico – TerraTrel® Western Sierra Madre Linking Durango to Mazatlan through the rugged Western Sierra Madre, a new 230 km long highway should open in the second half of 2012. With 60 tunnels and 118 bridges, this highway will drastically reduce the travelling time between these two cities and thus bring economic benefitsto many parts of Northern Mexico. On the Western section of this highway Tierra Armada (Mexico) performed the engineering, including external stability, supplied the materials and the technical assistance for the construction of a 24m high double tiered TerraTrel® wall.

Poland – On the Road Again Last September the Reinforced Earth Division of Freyssinet Polska completed another section of the Motorway A2 from Stryków (Łódź) to Warsaw. A2 constitutes a part of the European road E30 which will connect Germany to Belarus. Ensuring the link between Eastern Europe and the Capital is a priority for the 2012 European Football Cup organized jointly by Poland and Ukraine. The construction of this 95 km stretch of motorway, operated under a PPP model was divided in 5 sections. Freyssinet Polska designed and supplied approximately 7,500m² of TerraClass® walls for 34 abutments, being also involved in the installation of the walls and the backfiling.

Australia – Airport LinkReinforced Earth (Australia) recently designed and supplied 1,010m² of TerraTilt® full height pattern panels for the Kedron connection site for Thiess-John Holland, the constructor of the Brisbane Airport Link project. The architect required an internal pattern to the panels consisting of vertical and horizontal rebates in a number of different positions as well as incorporating blockout’s for the placing of internal light fitting. RECo Australia also delivered their temporary wire frame wall system and walls with 2mx2m concrete panels which can be seen at the Airport Drive Roundabout where approximately 3,000m² were supplied.

IS-GI Brussels 2012 - International SymposiumThe Technical Committee TC 211 “Ground Improvement” of the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering ISSMGE has a major commitment towards collecting information concerning the design and execution of ground improvement. The Committee has already organized workshops in Madrid (2007), Alexandria (2009) and Hong Kong (2011) and has now the pleasure to invite you to participate at the International Symposium & Short Courses “Recent Research, Advances on Execution Aspects of Ground Improvement Works” that will take place from 30 May to 1 June in Brussels, Belgium.

The session themes of the Brussels’ symposium are:

Vibro and Impact CompactionVertical Drains, Vacuum Consolidation and Preloading Soil StabilizationDeep MixingRigid Inclusions and Stone Columns Soil Reinforcement Biogrout and Other Grouting Methods

Conference Website: www.bbri.be/go/IS-GI-2012Contact John Sankey for information: jsankey@reinforcedearth.com

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Meet Your Project Managers-Western Division

Ben Palm Servicing CO and UTBenjamin was employed by RECo in June 1999 as a Design Engineer. In January 2001, Ben was promoted to Regional Engineer for the former Central 2 Region, which was comprised of many of the states now associated with our Western Region. In 2002, he relocated to Denver, Colorado where he gained valuable experience as the Project Engineer for the Transportation Expansion (TREX) Design Build Project. The knowledge and expertise Ben gained while working on the TREX project led him to pursue his interests in other aspects of RECo’s business and was thus promoted to Project Manager of the Western Region (formally the Central 2 Region). Ben has worked extensively on Mega Design Build Projects in Colorado and Utah including TREX, COSMIX, RTD Fastracks, I-15 NOW, and I-15 CORE.

Ben is a graduate of the Pennsylvania State University with a BS in Civil Engineering.

Warren Myles Servicing AZ, CA, UT, NVWarren joined RECo in 2006 as a Sr. Designer through the acquisition of the Foster Geotechnical group. Prior to joining RECo, Warren had been employed by Foster Geotechnical as a Designer since 1999. While at Foster, he worked as a designer for projects in different regions across the US while assisting Project Managers and Regional Managers in their day to day tasks. In 2008 Warren took on the role of Project Manager in the Western Division of the Reinforced Earth Company.

Warren has a diploma in Architectural Engineering Technology from the College of the North Atlantic in Canada.

Jay Hippel Servicing CO, WY, MT, NE, KSJay was employed by RECo in June of 2008 as a Project Manager for the Western Region, which coincided with the opening of RECo’s office in Denver, Colorado. Prior to his employment with RECo, he served as a Field Superintendent for Slaton Brothers Construction, an affiliate of RECo, who specializes in construction services for earth retention, ground improvement and soil stabilization needs. In his capacity at Slaton Brothers Jay supervised the construction of various Mechanically Stabilized Earth (MSE) wall types in Colorado, Utah and Arizona and has been involved in the field operations of countless block, wire, and panel MSE projects

Jay holds a BBA from Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Texas.

Shane Korfike Servicing CA and AZShane began his involvement with MSE while working at VSL in 1987 which later became part of the L.B. Foster Geotechnical group. During those years he was the Operations Manager for the Western Division covering 9 states and British Columbia. He was a part of the Foster acquisition in 2006 and was hired by RECo as a Project Manager. After a short period he became Western Precast Manager to assist the National Precast Manager. He is also still involved in some Project Management with the Western Division.

Shane was born and raised in the suburbs around Detroit, Michigan and later attended Lawrence Institute of Technology. After a 2 month long road trip through the Western US, he settled in Santa Cruz, California in late 1973 where he started a business, “Foreign Affairs”, specializing primarily in Volvos and later imported Mercedes and BMW vehicles from Germany. He later decided to get out of auto related business and return to work in the civil engineering field.

Don Grabner Servicing AK, ID, OR, WADon joined RECo in 1983 as an At Large Project Manager. Later that year he was assigned a duel position in the Mid-Atlantic Region as Assistant Regional Manager for commercial projects and Project Manager. In 1984 Don moved to Chicago, IL where he took on the role of Mid-West Regional Manager. He was relocated in November of 1987 to Seattle, WA where he continued his role as Regional Manager, but now servicing the Northwest. From 1990 to 1993 Don once again had a duel role as a Project and Regional Manager servicing the Northwest Region. The reorganization of RECo in late 1993 led Don to make a decision to relinquish the Regional Management portion of his job and focus solely on his Project Management responsibilities and return to his construction background.

Prior to joining RECo Don received his BS in Civil Engineering from Drexel Institute of Technology (now Drexel University) in Philadelphia, PA. Prior to his employment at RECo Don worked on numerous D. C. Metro projects as a Resident Engineer, Project Engineer and Project Manager.

Coming in Spring 2012-Meet your Division Managers