Wide Load: Highway Contractors Go to Great Lengths on I-17 Widening

By David M. Brown

Crews with some of the valley’s largest heavy-highway contractors are working on ADOT’s $250 million widening of the I-17 corridor north of Phoenix.

Those who live in Anthem north of Phoenix will have an easier time getting home after Interstate 17 north of the Loop 101 Interchange is widened to the Carefree Highway and then beyond.

The Dove Valley Interchange over I-17 is being reconstructed by Meadow Valley Contractors. Designed by Stanley Consultants, the $20 million project is scheduled for completion this fall. Photo courtesy Meadow Valley Contractors

Long a rush-hour and holiday nightmare for this burgeoning area-and for those going north from the Valley-I-17 will offer commuters and travelers twice the number of lanes and improved interchanges when the project completes in early 2010.

The Arizona Dept. of Transportation is overseeing three contracts along the stretch of highway with Meadow Valley Contractors and Pulice Construction, both of Phoenix. The work results from the voter-approved Regional Transportation Plan, which provides for improvements through 2025.

Meadow Valley is completing the $67.8 million section from Loop 101 to Jomax Road, a 5-mi project that began in February 2008 and is scheduled for completion in January.

Washington, D.C.-based Parsons Transportation Group served as the design consultant for this alignment.

Beginning just south of the Union Hills Drive interchange, the project reconstructs the existing I-17 lanes and adds one general-purpose and one HOV lane-concrete pavement with a rubberized asphalt overlay-in each direction. A center-median wall is being constructed.

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The contract also reconstructs the Deer Valley Road interchange, frontage roads and box culverts as well as widens the bridges over Loop 101.

In a $20 million contract funded by the city of Phoenix, Meadow Valley is completing the Dove Valley traffic interchange north of the future Loop 303/ I-17 interchange, approximately 1 mi south of Carefree Highway, State Route 74. With design by Phoenix-based Stanley Consultants, this project also constructs box culverts. The contractor began work in fall 2008, with completion scheduled for this fall.

Begun March 2008, the 4-mi Jomax Road to Carefree Highway section should be completed by January. As with the initial section, Pulice will add in each direction two rubberized-asphalt-on-concrete lanes, one general purpose and one HOV, as well as a center-median wall.

The $75 million contract also widens the two Central Arizona Project mainline bridges into the median and adds a new south-bound frontage road bridge over the canal; builds five bridges near the I-17/Loop 303 interchange and a new interchange at Lone Mountain Road, which will serve as a temporary connection between I-17 and Loop 303 when it is extended to I-17 by 2012; reconstructs the frontage road; and installs drainage culverts.

Crews from Pulice Construction pour a bridge deck on the southbound frontage road along a 4-mi stretch of I-17 from Jomax Road to Carefree Highway. Photo courtesy Aaron Insco/Pulice Construction

Stanley Consultants of Phoenix was the design consultant for this section. McNeil Bros. is providing the concrete paving, and Roadway Electric, Phoenix, the signing and lighting.

As part of the overall I-17 project, Pulice completed two additional contracts in fall 2008: $36 million of traffic interchanges at Jomax Road and Dixileta Drive, which was designed by Stanley Consultants and funded by the city of Phoenix, and a $20-million reconstruction of the I-17/Carefree Highway Interchange.

The latter project, designed by HDR of Phoenix, removed the older Carefree Highway bridge-an I-17 closure of just 15 hours-and reconstructed the interchange with a larger diamond/partial cloverleaf design, including two new loop ramps. Designed with community input, the 17-month project recently won ADOT a “Project of the Year” award from the American Public Works Association for its creative construction sequencing, minimizing disruption to traffic flow.

Still to be awarded is the 6-mi section from Carefree Highway to Anthem Way. To be funded by the stimulus-funding American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the approximately $22 million project will add one general-purpose lane north and south.

With design by Jacobs Engineering Group of Phoenix, the contract will also include a pavement preservation project from Anthem Way to New River Road. ADOT expects the work to begin this summer, with completion set for fall 2010.

Keeping the cars moving has been an ongoing concern. “Traffic flow and congestion have been challenges,” says Robert W. Bottcher, area president for Meadow Valley Contractors.

Rain has cost about 20 to 30 days in construction, says Nino C. Gazi, vice president and area operations manager for Pulice Construction.

Robert Samour, ADOT district engineer, says the job requires transforming a rural highway template into an urban one. “Four lanes on each side, closing the median, new interchange connections, improved lighting and barrier walls represent some of the changes from a limited highway to a modern urban freeway,” he says. “ADOT's work represents an investment of more than $250 million along the I-17 corridor.”

Key Players

Owner: ADOT
Design: Parsons Transportation Group; Stanley Consultants; HDR; Jacobs Engineering Group
General Contractors: Pulice Construction; Meadow Valley Contractors
Subcontractors: Roadway Electric; McNeil Bros; Contractors West; Hunter Guard Rail & Fence; Straight Line Utilities; Case Foundations; Consolidated Rebar; Royden Construction; Highway Tech; Howe Precast

Useful Sources

Visit the project’s website at http://www.azdot.gov/Highways/Valley_Freeways/I17/Black_Canyon_Fwy_North/index.asp

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