90 Working Days Saved on U.S. 90 Reconstruction

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E.E. Hood cuts downtime and increases production by working simultaneous phases
Finishing the project six months earlier than anticipated, E.E. Hood & Sons Construction Inc., Von Ormy, completed the reconstruction of U.S. 90 from Knippa to Uvalde in 158 out of the allotted 248 working days. This was one of the last projects on the heavily traveled roadway between San Antonio and Del Rio, with an average traffic volume of 9,400 vehicles.

According to TxDOT Hondo area engineer Carl Friesenhahn, the project was originally set up to be constructed in three separate phases to shorten the construction zone and minimize the traffic disruption. However, before construction started E.E. Hood submitted an alternative request to TxDOT to work two of the phases simultaneously to increase production and eliminate downtime.

"We agreed to allow this change provided there were gaps in between the work zones that enabled motorists to pass slower vehicles prior to entering the next work zones," stated Friesenhahn.
The reconstruction projects consisted of a 5-mi.-lone section that was comprised of four 12-ft. lanes and 4-ft. shoulders; and a 3.2-mi. section into the city of Ulvade that included a 14-ft. center-turn lane for a total project length of 8.2 mi.

E.E. Hood started by milling the upper 8 in. of the pavement surface. The removed material was then stockpiled for transfer to Uvalde County under Rider 43, Senate Bill 370, the County and Local Government Assistance Program. The millings will be used by Uvalde County for reconstructing and surfacing road projects.

After the milling and stockpiling, Portland cement was spread on the remaining base and subgrade at the rate of 4 percent, or 32.4 lbs./yd2, according to item 275 of the TxDOT Standard Specifications for Construction of Highways, Streets and Bridges.
The in situ base/subgrade was treated to a depth of 8 in., and the only pulverization requirement was for materials to pass the 2-in. sieve. The material was mixed in only one pass with a CMI RS500B pulverizing mixer, in tandem with a water truck.
Cliff Coleman, project superintendent for E.E. Hood said, "We had no trouble mixing in one pass," and the Hood crew was able to '"blue-top" the same day. After the material was treated and mixed, it was compacted to ordinary compaction with a sheepsfoot roller and vibratory steel roller. It was then sealed with a prime coat.

"This was a perfect job for us," said Coleman, "It was easy to lay out, and we used up to 200 tons of cement per day.. .but I think we could have done more."

Coleman's crew for the project was only 14 men. Another 10-member crew was added when the asphalt surface treatments started.

The hot-mix asphalt surfacing initially began with 4 in. of Type A black base as a temporary road surface. The black base was surfaced with 2 in. of Type C PG-64-22 asphalt hot mix and an additional 2 in. of Type C PG-70-22 surface mix.
Vulcan Materials supplied the hot mix asphalt from one of its plants dedicated specifically to this project.
In addition to Friesenhahn's direction, Greg Biedeger, assistant area engineer, was the project manager and David Lutz was chief inspector.

Jim Smith was the project manager for E.E. Hood and Sons and Don Yates was assistant project manager.
 
 


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