The largest project for the Sacramento I-5 corridor since being built in 1975, this 67-mile roadway project included pavement rehabilitation, new carpool lanes, ramp meters, sound walls and the extension of various entrance and exit ramps.

Plans originally called for more than five stages and multiple sub-phases over a three-year period. Modifying sequencing to reduce traffic shifts and combining stages saved money and accelerated the schedule by six months, with the team achieving completion in May 2023.

The project team used a long-life pavement design approach called perpetual asphalt pavement, which involves properly designed and constructed asphalt that lasts longer than 50 years without major structural rehabilitation and with only periodic surface renewal. Life-cycle cost analysis showed this will save the client approximately $40 million in undiscounted direct asphalt paving costs over the next 60 years.

Photo courtesy Teichert Construction

A $19-million value-engineering proposal replaced the precast jointed concrete pavement panels at the roadway transitions with structural long-life hot mix asphalt concrete, which offered an extended life cycle and a lower maintenance product. Identifying multiple areas where the existing subgrade structure met or exceeded the design requirements helped the team generate another $1 million in cost savings.

Due to the proactive and collaborative nature of this partnership, the team was able to adapt and incorporate a $20-million change in scope for four additional miles of HOV lanes. The JV team met with the design team regularly to implement and execute this large-scale change order. A major success was opening a seven-mile section of the HOV lanes one year ahead of schedule.

The heavily traversed work zone saw average daily traffic of 200,000 vehicles, including approximately 15,000 trucks and 120,000 daily commuters. Crews navigated more than 1,000 nightly lane closures and 22 weekend closures lasting 55 hours. Extensive schedule coordination was integral to the project’s success due to the highly visible and densely populated urban corridor with numerous stakeholders. During the 55-hour lane closures, crews performed continuous paving operations and maximized night work to limit impacts to the traveling public.