Go under 90mph and you get run over, it's fun.
Posted on 10/10/2017 5:46:43 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
The southern, privately built section of Texas 130, which has been an obstacle course of bumps and cracks since shortly after its October 2012 opening, will see $60 million of pavement repairs over the next year in 35 spots between Mustang Ridge and Seguin.
Crews in many cases will be removing five feet or more of the road’s “sub-base,” the treated and compacted soil layers that underlie the highway’s asphalt driving surface, replacing it with soil with different, stronger properties, and then repaving those rehabilitated sections.
Some repairs will also include installation of impermeable layers of soil alongside the road to keep water from penetrating that road base and causing the soil to expand.
The 41-mile, four-lane divided tollway, which hit the national news in 2012 because of its 85 mph speed limit, will be reduced temporarily to a single lane in various northbound and southbound spots over the course of the work, said Andy Bailey, chief executive officer of the SH 130 Concession Co. The company runs the tollway under a 50-year lease with the Texas Department of Transportation.
The repairs, the company said, will not trigger a toll increase over at least the next year. The contract with TxDOT specifies certain criteria to qualify for a toll increase, SH 130 spokeswoman Kate Morton said, and that evaluation occurs every August. The last toll increase on this section of Texas 130 occurred in November 2015, she said.
The road’s vaunted speed limit will be reduced to as low as 65 mph in the sections with a closed lane, Bailey said. But traffic is still light enough on the road, he said, that those short constricted sections are unlikely to cause traffic congestion.
(Excerpt) Read more at mystatesman.com ...
It’s a roller coaster, for sure.
Why isn’t the company that built the road being sued for shoddy construction? 5 year old road has to be completely dug up for repair? Taxpayers shouldn’t have to pay for that.
Never ending construction in this state. Both highways I could use to get to work in Las Colinas are under construction and have been for years. Just has a sink hole open up on a recently redone frontage road. SMH
The highways around Scranton PA have been under continuous construction since the late 1970s.
The loop, from 43 north to 43 south is not 85 mph and often grinds to a halt. Ugh!
H. B Zachary was partial owner of that road. I assume Zachary built it. When Zachary built Beltway 8 in Houston. Repairs had to be made to the access roads before the main road was completed.
The soil expands and contracts so bad roads don’t last long in that part of Texas.
By Kim Slowey
A bankrupt Texas toll road, built and operated under a public-private partnership, has new management and new financing after going through Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, according to Engineering News-Record.
SH 130 Concession Co. operated and maintained a 41-mile stretch of Texas State Highway 130, but it experienced irreparable financial losses when tolls failed to meet original, pre-recession projections.
Strategic Value Partners and Louis Berger Services will take over management of the concession and the toll road from Cintra and Zachary American Infrastructure. SH 130 has secured a $260 million loan to help the company exit the bankruptcy process. There has been no increase in tolls as a result of the process.
More public entities are becoming comfortable with P3s. The project structure allows them to hand over the chores of financing, design, construction and operations to the private sector, and to leverage limited government funds across more capital programs. P3s are central to President Donald Trump's plans to transform $200 billion of federal investment into a $1 trillion infrastructure initiative.
As part of the enthusiasm for P3s and the benefits they provide, however, their potential for failure may be overlooked.
Indiana, for example, is a big proponent of P3s, and has had considerable success using the structure on public projects. But in June, the Indiana Finance Authority announced that it was taking over an Interstate 69 highway P3 project after I-69 Development Partners allegedly fell behind schedule and was late in paying subcontractors. The IFA also said there was $236 million in work on the highway yet to be performed but only $72 million in funding left.
Keith Poliakoff, partner in the Fort Lauderdale, FL, office of Arnstein & Lehr, told Construction Dive last month that public entities sometimes choose a P3 partner without fully vetting them or go with the bidder with the rock-bottom price — both of which would be mistakes, he said. The lowest bidder is not always able to perform sufficiently at that number. And many state laws force public agencies to automatically choose the bidder with the lowest estimate.
The potential for P3s to fall off track is one reason public entities typically favor industry giants when selecting winning bids, Poliakoff said. That could prevent smaller companies from participating and, ultimately, limit broader uptake of the P3 method.
That's life with the lowest bidder. If your state has a lowest bidder law, get rid of it. With lowest bidder, you may save money in the short term, but not necessarily in the long term.
Sometimes, you get what you pay for.
Go under 90mph and you get run over, it's fun.
We get our contracts with TXDOT by being the lowest bidder, however I know nothing about the area of Texas that this story is about. No matter what the bid, there are specs that have to be met and state inspectors to oversee that the work meets the specs and design.
Yes, lovely clay soil. Been here 40 years, it was the first time for a sinkhole
I-35 between Waco and Dallas, TX has been under construction - that I know of - since the ‘60s. It’ll never be finished.
“Some repairs will also include installation of impermeable layers of soil alongside the road to keep water from penetrating that road base and causing the soil to expand. “
It was built on clay so you would assume that road slopes are also clay. Clay also acts as an impermeable soil type to prevent water from migrating. In this particular case it seems to me that the subsurface clay is already saturated and the removal of 5 feet of sub-base should cure the issue of heaving or swelling.
I would wonder why they are not putting in a sub-drain system to collect water and move it out of the newly placed sub-base should any water get through the clay slopes/shoulders.
That Gumbo-Mud “soil” East of I-35 will NEVER-35 be a good Road Base, EVER!!!
I’m still wondering just how thick the Runway’s at Bergstrom AFB (now known as Austin Intergalackitic Airport) are to hold up the Jumbo Jets and Bombers.
On the Funside, Mama and I took that way from Seguin to I-35 on the Texas Road Trip 2 months ago and it was GREAT! We were able to bypass that $&!thole that is Austin, get a drive by look at COTA and cruise at 90+ mph to make up some time. All in all I didn’t think that the road was that bad. And it DAMNED SURE BEATS THE OPTION OF I-35 through Austin!!!
how far down ya reckon it is to bedrock?
The info below is for just north of the Austin area.
Belt varies tremendously in Williamson County, from a depth of approximately 695 feet in the northwestern corner of the county to 2850 feet or more in the southeast corner of the county (Flawn et al., 1961).
well... so much for getting a solid roadbase there i guess
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