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Now there are projections for I-565 widening to be completed by late 2021......
I see where Reed Contracting has put in a big for the project, but does anybody else want to see another company do the work? It seems like Reed is already stretched thin with what they are currently doing in the area. Aren't they also working on the Zierdt road project? I'd rather see an outside company come in and do the work. I believe a Texas Contractor did the bridge replacement through downtown Birmingham, which is excellent by the way. Having a contractor with tremendous experience would seem like the preferred path for this project. Even though it still is essentially a band-aid over what really needs to be done. I would still like to see it done professionally. Not really a knock at Reed, because I think they can do good work, but I feel like they have a lot of work on their plate already.
Reed is the contractor for Martin Road (from Gate 7 west to Wall Triana), but Wiregrass Construction is the contractor for Zierdt Rd. That has been a royal screwup from the beginning. A lot of that has been Huntsville City management of the project, but Wiregrass seems to me, from observation and being that I drive the road daily, has done a very poor and slow job. And they've not really taken advantage of the drastically reduced traffic load due to Covid. Martin Rd slowness from what I've read has had a lot to do with utility relocation and one bridge on the west end, which is another subcontractor.
Reed apparently won the bid for the 565 work, according to what I read a couple of days ago. I think Reed is OK, at least relatively speaking. They do a lot of things around here, and yes, are probably are stretched thin (they have the Research Blvd contract too, as well as the SE road over the mountain to Hampton Cove).
I think Reed's winning bid was something like $14.5M for the 565 project, and the Birmingham project was close to $1B, so maybe that company doesn't do such small potatoes. Their bonus for the interchange redo in B'ham was more than the entire 565 bandaid project cost.
It should also be noted that the 565 work is already late - finish date is now the end of 2021; when it was first proposed, work was supposed to have wound up by late summer 2020.
Agreed, a half ass solution that will be done in a half ass manner.
There’s a reason Reed was the low offer, it isn’t because of quality.
There are a lot of red flags about this project.
Presumably the 565 project was approved by the Feds? Wasn't that one of the milestones and potential red flags?
I don't know if they're still planning on narrowing the lanes over the existing bridges or not. Narrowing seems dangerous, but having a very narrow margin from the center concrete divider has precedence. I think it's that way on the (properly) widened portion of 20/59 between Tuscaloosa and B'ham, and also in other cities and states. I don't think I've ever seen lane width varying anywhere though.
Regardless, we'll get what we get. It's going to be challenging when traffic levels return to normal after the virus, with only 4 lanes between Wall Triana and County Line Rd and 6 thereafter (and possibly narrowing again before the 65 interchange?). Maybe delaying the finish date by over a year is tied to the virus - they figured it would take at least that long to return to heavy traffic levels, and Mazda/Toyota has already announced a several month delay.
Wiregrass also is doing the work on I-65 between I-565 and US 72. They are currently in their second year of work there.
Aldot has a PDF file on their website for I-565 that I looked at about 3 weeks ago. The lanes over the bridges are narrowed down to 11' if I remember correctly and I also think that the lanes stay at 11' wide for the entire length of the project.
As for Reed Contracting, I worked for ALDOT inspecting Reed's paving operations on several projects in Winston and Lawrence Counties. I can honestly say that I am not impressed by the quality of their paving that much and I dislike Wiregrass even more.
Wiregrass also is doing the work on I-65 between I-565 and US 72. They are currently in their second year of work there.
Aldot has a PDF file on their website for I-565 that I looked at about 3 weeks ago. The lanes over the bridges are narrowed down to 11' if I remember correctly and I also think that the lanes stay at 11' wide for the entire length of the project.
As for Reed Contracting, I worked for ALDOT inspecting Reed's paving operations on several projects in Winston and Lawrence Counties. I can honestly say that I am not impressed by the quality of their paving that much and I dislike Wiregrass even more.
Yeah, I didn't want to get into that either, but since you bring it up. Didn't Reed do some of the I-65 paving going north towards the Tennessee state line? That just seems like a rush job right there. They haven't even put the permanent marker lines and reflectors on the road yet. It just seems like they have too much on their plate to me and we need to start getting some outside contractors in on these projects.
I will say I saw them do the repaving of University Drive last year and that turned out well. I think they do city streets pretty well, but Interstate work is another level....Personally, I think some of it has to do with their ability to find enough workers to do the job....
Wiregrass also is doing the work on I-65 between I-565 and US 72. They are currently in their second year of work there.
Aldot has a PDF file on their website for I-565 that I looked at about 3 weeks ago. The lanes over the bridges are narrowed down to 11' if I remember correctly and I also think that the lanes stay at 11' wide for the entire length of the project.
As for Reed Contracting, I worked for ALDOT inspecting Reed's paving operations on several projects in Winston and Lawrence Counties. I can honestly say that I am not impressed by the quality of their paving that much and I dislike Wiregrass even more.
I always thought Reed had a good reputation, but I could well be wrong based on a couple other posts here. Is there another local company, other than Reed? Maybe I have them confused with someone else.
A few things have changed from what I posted in the link above. The most significant change is the timeframe. What was supposed to be done in a handful of months is now right at a year and a half. The end date is now late December 2021. If you factor in 60-90 day bid evaluation/challenge period, that puts start date sometime in July - so roughly 18 months.
The other change is the addition of an incentive clause. The contractor can earn $25k per day for every day the contractor finishes the project ahead of the end date up to a max award of $1.25 million. Some quick math says that the max award fee would be reached at 50 days, so that would drop almost two months off if fully realized.
I, personally, have a hard time understanding how this project went from several months to complete to 18 months to complete given the scope of work. This is mainly a paving exercise with a small amount of somewhat traditional widening work on the western end mixed in. It's almost like ALDOT threw Reed a bone knowing that they are currently tied up with the US 231 work south of Huntsville. Reed has to be stretched thin. They are doing Research Park widening, Redstone Gateway sitework, Martin Road widening, and Hsv airport runway extension, and aforementioned US 231 repair projects to name a few.
Reed, Wiregrass, Midsouth, and SJ&L all have local offices here or have their operations based here. Carcil & G and John Plott Company are other Alabama-based companies that sometimes bid on projects here. The problem with the first group is that Midsouth and Wiregrass typically sub the construction part of projects they bid to the other two. Wiregrass has the Zierdt SB lane contract but subbed the road construction part out to SJ&L.
As far as quality of work, I would say Reed does much better work than Wiregrass or SJ&L. Look at the failing work done by SJ&L on the Zierdt NB lanes north of Edgewater and the work they did on the SB lanes that were just opened north of Edgewater. I realize they still have to apply a topcoat layer to the SB lanes, but that road surface is very uneven. Perhaps the topcoat will level some of those areas out. I hope it does. Then look at the work Reed did on Martin inside of Gate 7. Very smooth travel lanes and holding up great after five years of pretty heavy usage. So to me, Reed does much better work.
A few things have changed from what I posted in the link above. The most significant change is the timeframe. What was supposed to be done in a handful of months is now right at a year and a half. The end date is now late December 2021. If you factor in 60-90 day bid evaluation/challenge period, that puts start date sometime in July - so roughly 18 months.
The other change is the addition of an incentive clause. The contractor can earn $25k per day for every day the contractor finishes the project ahead of the end date up to a max award of $1.25 million. Some quick math says that the max award fee would be reached at 50 days, so that would drop almost two months off if fully realized.
I, personally, have a hard time understanding how this project went from several months to complete to 18 months to complete given the scope of work. This is mainly a paving exercise with a small amount of somewhat traditional widening work on the western end mixed in. It's almost like ALDOT threw Reed a bone knowing that they are currently tied up with the US 231 work south of Huntsville. Reed has to be stretched thin. They are doing Research Park widening, Redstone Gateway sitework, Martin Road widening, and Hsv airport runway extension, and aforementioned US 231 repair projects to name a few.
Reed, Wiregrass, Midsouth, and SJ&L all have local offices here or have their operations based here. Carcil & G and John Plott Company are other Alabama-based companies that sometimes bid on projects here. The problem with the first group is that Midsouth and Wiregrass typically sub the construction part of projects they bid to the other two. Wiregrass has the Zierdt SB lane contract but subbed the road construction part out to SJ&L.
As far as quality of work, I would say Reed does much better work than Wiregrass or SJ&L. Look at the failing work done by SJ&L on the Zierdt NB lanes north of Edgewater and the work they did on the SB lanes that were just opened north of Edgewater. I realize they still have to apply a topcoat layer to the SB lanes, but that road surface is very uneven. Perhaps the topcoat will level some of those areas out. I hope it does. Then look at the work Reed did on Martin inside of Gate 7. Very smooth travel lanes and holding up great after five years of pretty heavy usage. So to me, Reed does much better work.
1. The 565 project will almost certainly be finished 50 days early, given the incentive. I assume that's 50 working days, so 10 weeks early or mid-October 2021. That's still a long time. Perhaps they'll hop on it and not have construction traffic delays for 18 months.
2. I too noticed how uneven the newly opened Zierdt Rd lanes are, and there are also low areas that collect rainwater. As you suggest, hopefully it will all even out with the topcoat.
3. I think Reed also has the Chaney Thompson contract, but that's probably near finishing. Wouldn't be surprised if Reed gets the "Northern Bypass" contract also.
Reed can do good work. It just requires the right kind of incentives. They did the resurfacing of I-65 from south of I-565 to the Hartselle exit I believe that was very smooth. The one thing in my opinion that forced them to do a much better job than normal is a device called a profilograph. Basically, it is a 40' long truss bridge measuring device. It has really small wheels at each end, a bicycle wheel in the middle that is attached to a paper graph recorder that records every bump in the roadway that it is pushed over. Yes, pushed. Typically, three people take turns pushing it while one of them steers it with, quite literally, an automotive steering wheel. The other requirements used during this operation may involve a parking lot truck vacuum, a power broom or an ordinary shop broom. They don't want any pebble to affect the graph because if the profile line goes above or below a certain point on the graph, they get a deduction in the amount of money they get paid for the asphalt used. To determine the penalty, a blanking band is placed on top of the graph (which must be turned over to ALDOT every day) and the number of areas that go above the blanking band are counted. If a specified number is exceeded, then they get up to a 2% deduction in pay.
If the specfied number is not exceeded, then they get a bonus of up to 2% increase in pay. While I never did have to work alongside this operation, I did see it several times on various projects that I worked on. To my knowledge, the section of I-65 that Wiregrass is currently working on and I have yet to see a profilograph in use but I do not travel through there very often as it is. I will sat this though, the southbound lanes are through as far as I know and you can feel some dips and bumps here and there and the joints where they end one day and start the next are not as smooth as they could be. I will also say this. These joints are not the easiest things to do. I have seen Reed, Wiregrass, Goodhope, Joe Keenum Construction and Rogers group struggle with these joints. Out of these contractors, I have been most impressed with the way Rogers Group does them.
When the end the paving operation each day, they drag the asphalt out until it starts to taper down. At this point, they raise the screed and move the paver out of the way. They then will use a shovel to delineate the area where the joint will be made before the taper, use a tractor with a front end loader to remove the asphalt from that point to where they raised the screed at. They will place heavy brown paper in the joint with the paper extending about 2" or 3" above the cutoff point. From there, they shovel some of the removed asphalt onto the paper, rake it to taper it down for about 10' and then roll it for compaction. The next day, they remove the entire paper joint, leaving a nice, crisp edge to start from. The paver is backed up to the joint and the screed is lowered onto a couple of 3/4" thick wood stakes placed on top of and behind the joint. Once the first load of asphalt is delivered and several more trucks are waiting, they load the hopper on the paver and begin the paving operation. Moving slowly, they pull forward past the joint and as soon as possible, they start raking the joint and checking it with a 10' straight edge. The paver is still moving forward while this is going on. Once the paver is further ahead, the asphalt roller is run over the joint in the direction of the traffic, then moved back and they cross roll the joint only. The paving foreman is checking the joint constantly and directing the roller operator on what he needs to do. Once that is finished, everyone joins the rest of the paving operation and they continue for the rest of the day. One of the things I did not mention, but is used on all Interstate work and most, if not all, major US highway work is another machine that is placed between the dump trucks and the paver is a shuttle buggy or a material transfer vehicle. Both are used to move the asphalt from the dump truck to the paver without having to stop the paver at all. This prevents a lot of bumps and dips in new asphalt paving.
I hope this gives some insight into why roads can be rough or smooth.
Wiregrass also is doing the work on I-65 between I-565 and US 72. They are currently in their second year of work there.
Aldot has a PDF file on their website for I-565 that I looked at about 3 weeks ago. The lanes over the bridges are narrowed down to 11' if I remember correctly and I also think that the lanes stay at 11' wide for the entire length of the project.
As for Reed Contracting, I worked for ALDOT inspecting Reed's paving operations on several projects in Winston and Lawrence Counties. I can honestly say that I am not impressed by the quality of their paving that much and I dislike Wiregrass even more.
I always thought that I-565 was a Freeway. The standard lane width for a Freeway is 12 feet. Is it instead an Arterial road or was it reclassified to be one to allow for narrower lanes?
An arterial road or arterial thoroughfare is a high-capacity urban road. The primary function of an arterial road is to deliver traffic from collector roads to freeways or expressways, and between urban centres at the highest level of service possible.
I worked for NCDOT (Location and Surveys/ Maintenance Survey (secondary roads program)) before moving to the Dothan area in 2013. On a side note, I should have moved to NoAL. Stupid hindsight! Wiregrass has got to be one of the slowest firms I have ever seen. Any project I've seen them on takes an unreasonably and unholy amount of time to compete.
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