WisDOT plans viewing

[on_wisconsin]

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation is now putting all its proposal/plan documentation online for free! (login NOT required)

New distribution method

WisDOT will be phasing out the CDs typically used to distribute plans and proposals and beginning with the June 2011 letting, all plans and proposals will be available on the HCCI website. There is no charge for accessing the plans and proposals.

Each let contract will have at least two pdf files:

    One for the plan
    And one for the proposal

Larger projects may have several PDF files to make downloading easier and faster. WisDOT will post three months worth of plans and proposals until our server capacity increases.

If you are enrolled in the annual subscription program you will continue to receive the CDs through December 2011 unless you ask that they no longer be sent. WisDOT will not refund any subscription payments. No CDs will be distributed after December 2011.

Link: http://roadwaystandards.dot.wi.gov/hcci/contracting-information/index.shtm#plans
Direct Link: ftp://ftp.dot.wi.gov/dtsd/hcci/plansandproposals/

[on_wisconsin]

Here is an interesting signage page of an interchange reconstruction contract that caught my eye:

Can someone explane what that "SPLIT" line means? (Perhaps WisDOT is experimenting with other methods of sign construction instead of the usual extruded strips?) 

[Alps]

I would have to think it means they're going to two-panel signs.

[on_wisconsin]

WisDOT just released new plans for Dec and Jan. December is a huge month plan wise and Jan is very very small for some reason.

[J N Winkler]

At the moment, January has just construction plans for call number 9, which is a 245-MB job that I suspect is being given a special eight-week advertisement because the scope is so large.  This is almost certainly not the entire January advertisement.  For that matter, there is a slender possibility of additional plans being uploaded for December because the NTC has "Deferred" listed for three or four call numbers.  WisDOT could upload plans for one or more of these calls if it were willing to accept a shorter advertising period.

Ever since WisDOT started uploading construction plans sets to its FTP server, I have been extracting pattern-accurate sign panel detail sheets from each plan set using 'pdftk' and a special batch script I wrote as a wrapper around it.  Essentially the script launches each plan file in Acrobat, I navigate to the signing sheets using the bookmarks, I input the page numbers into the script, and it then extracts each page.  My count of sign design sheets for December 2011 is about 67, of which 23 came from 10603470 alone (I think it is some kind of a preliminary contract for the Zoo Interchange).

Edit:  Some of the contracts in the December letting deal with the De Pere-Suamico length of the US 41 Interstate conversion.

Edit II:  The lone contract uploaded for the January 2012 letting is 11330671, the big Scheuring Road contract, also part of the US 41 Interstate upgrade.  It has a sheet count of 2300.

[on_wisconsin]

Thanks for the information, John. Since WisDOT started releasing plans (publicly online) has there been any that have made you go "what the hell are they doing/ thinking"?

[J N Winkler]

To tell the truth, no--I think WisDOT's basic approach to guide signing is generally sane.  They have been doing a lot of overhead signing for multilane roundabouts as part of the US 41 expansion, and I am uncertain how well that works in practice.  I do like the way they now indicate lane drops on the "Christmas tree" stippled-arrow diagrammatics used on the approaches to system interchanges in greater Milwaukee.  Instead of using the usual dash-skip-dash pattern for the dropped lane in the arrow graphic, they now use a dot-dot-dot pattern which matches the elephant-track striping used on the pavement.  This provides additional positive guidance.

There are examples of overhead lane-assignment signing for roundabouts in the Scheuring Road contract in the January 2012 advertisement and of Christmas tree diagrammatics in the Zoo Interchange advance contract.

[DaBigE]

Can someone explane what that "SPLIT" line means? (Perhaps WisDOT is experimenting with other methods of sign construction instead of the usual extruded strips?)  

The split indicates joints in the panels that comprise the sign.  Split locations are determined by WisDOT Central Office (who designs the sign plates for project plansets).  You will typically see the word split on plans larger signs, with either sheet aluminum or 7-ply high density plywood substrates, (the latter being more common).  The exception to that rule lies with some of the larger overhead guide signs installed near system interchanges, when you're dealing with signs that span the entire freeway.  Note that the sheet states that those signs are to be Type III (upper right-hand corner).  Type III signs are typically for temporary purposes (construction zones).  These signs are usually constructed with plywood wood as the substrate.  Extruded aluminum will only be found on Type I signs.

Type I signs consist of guide signs having extruded aluminum base material, reflective backgrounds, and reflective demountable messages. They are ground mounted on steel posts and are used in unlighted overhead locations.

Type II signs consist of miscellaneous warning, regulatory, informational, and standard size guide signs, having sheet aluminum or plywood base material, and reflective or non-reflective backgrounds, and non-removable messages.

Type III signs consist of small guide signs having sheet aluminum or plywood base material, reflective backgrounds, and reflective demountable messages. If ground mounted, type III signs have wooden post supports.

[on_wisconsin]

^
Cool never knew that, thanks for the in depth response. Anyone know if the plans for the Fish Hatchery Rd interchange reconstruction in Madison have been released?

[DaBigE]

Anyone know if the plans for the Fish Hatchery Rd interchange reconstruction in Madison have been released?

Since the project begins in a couple months, http://www.dot.wi.gov/projects/swregion/fishhatch/index.htm, they have to be around somewhere, as they would have already been out for bid.  The problem is trying to find it amongst all the other project plansets.  I still haven't figured out the method to their numbering madness.  It'd be too convenient for them to include a key with the bid lets.

[JREwing78]

ftp://ftp.dot.wi.gov/dtsd/hcci/plansandproposals/2012/05May_08/20120508002plan.pdf

[DaBigE]

ftp://ftp.dot.wi.gov/dtsd/hcci/plansandproposals/2012/05May_08/20120508002plan.pdf

^^^^WARNING That's an 82 MB pdf there

I find a couple things interesting with the Special Sign Plates section--sheet 466 to be specific.  First, it's in Clearview.  Now this was the western endpoint of the Clearview experimentation segment.  Apparently all the signs in that corridor will be replaced in-kind until the whole segment is replaced, probably to keep some uniformity.  Secondly, those plates were either designed by another consultant/contractor or WisDOT C.O. is experimenting with SignCAD.  Note that the design format is a significant deviation from their other special sign plate design standards.

Sheet 466 (I'd bet the farm this was done in SignCAD):


Typical Special Sign Detail Sheet, (using an in-house MicroStation MDL)--Todd Dr is back to normal:


EDIT: Photos re-linked

[on_wisconsin]

^^
Interesting. Also odd is the use of a Google Maps screen shot in the title page.

(Thanks for the link BTW!)

[J N Winkler]

The problem is trying to find it amongst all the other project plansets.  I still haven't figured out the method to their numbering madness.  It'd be too convenient for them to include a key with the bid lets.

The "key" is in the bid advertisements, available here:

http://www.dot.wisconsin.gov/business/engrserv/bid-advertisements.htm

WisDOT as-advertised plans and proposals have standardized filenames of the form YYYYMMDDCCCplan.pdf for plans and YYYYMMDDCCCproposal.pdf for proposals.  "YYYYMMDD" is the letting date and "CCC" is the call number under which the project is listed in the bid advertisement for that letting date.  The bid advertisements have the WisDOT project numbers corresponding to each call and can thus be used to generate a cross-reference table, though not in a simple fashion because the bid advertisements are all in PDF format.  (I have an Acrobat script which dumps each bid advertisement to plain-text format and a batch file which parses the text to cross-reference YYYYMMDDCCC with a lead project number for each call.)

WisDOT, like MnDOT, TxDOT, Louisiana DOTD, and lots of other state DOTs, uses a control-section-job project numbering scheme.  A typical WisDOT project number consists of eight digits, of which the first four are a control section, the next two are a macro project code, and the final two are a project number.  Generally construction and maintenance projects have "7" or "8" as the first of the two final digits, while ROW acquisition projects have "2" in this position.  If WisDOT project numbers are hyphenated (more often than not they aren't when they are used as part of a plans filename), they are broken into 4-2-2 groups.

Part of the reason WisDOT does not use project numbers to identify plan sets at letting is that sometimes multiple projects are grouped under one call.  Sometimes a single planset is generated for multiple project numbers, and sometimes each project has its own planset, with the separate plansets for all the projects under the call being merged one after the other into a single PDF file.  In the former case I think WisDOT deals with the as-builts by cross-referencing:  the actual plans are under one of the project numbers while the others have pointers to it.  In the latter case, I think WisDOT unbundles the separate plansets for archiving the as-lets and as-builts under their respective project numbers.

[DaBigE]

Also odd is the use of a Google Maps screen shot in the title page.

Yeah, I saw that too.  Technically, they are not supposed to be used, as the data isn't always the most accurate.  A couple years ago, WisDOT yelled at consultants for using Google, Yahoo!, or other commercial maps as part of a planset or study, especially without some form of disclosure mentioning the mapping source.  WisDOT maintains their own map .dgn files for each county that are supposed to be used.  (Which is what is used to produce the State highway maps.)

[Scott5114]

Typical Special Sign Detail Sheet, (using an in-house MicroStation MDL)--Todd Dr is back to normal:

Weird...the tops of the "d"s slope opposite from what is normally found in Series E(M) text.

[DaBigE]

Weird...the tops of the "d"s slope opposite from what is normally found in Series E(M) text.

Good eye!   I've never noticed that before.  Oddly, looking at some of my other WisDOT signing plans, it's the same there too.  At least it's consistent?  Surprisingly, it is also constructed that way as well.  (Despite what the sign plans say, the signing contractors/manufacturers have a habit of making minor changes to the end product.)  Looking at some WisDOT sign plates that use Series E, the slope on the 'd' is the other way.  As far as I can tell, the lowercase 'd' is the only letter with a slope that changes direction.  Yet another oddity of the Wisconsin Department of Transportation.

EDIT: Drove that stretch of the beltline and the slash on the 'd' is constructed correctly in all occurrences that I found, despite what the plans originally had shown.  My previous statement was based on a poor quality GSV image

[agentsteel53]

did they get lazy and mirror the "b" glyph?

[DaBigE]

did they get lazy and mirror the "b" glyph?

That makes perfect sense,  since all the letters are individual cells in MicroStation.  I always suspected that with the NO LEFT TURN sign as well.  In their CADD cell library (and for the longest time in their standard sign plate library), the NO LEFT TURN showed the slash going up and right not down and left like all the other prohibition signs (including the NO RIGHT TURN--the left turn's mirror).  The official sign plate was "corrected" in 2010, but the CADD cell still remains the other way.  Yet another case where the sign manufacturer (appropriately?) ignored the drawing spec. 

[on_wisconsin]

WisDOT just released a HUGE advance plan set for July:
ftp://ftp.dot.wi.gov/dtsd/hcci/plansandproposals/2012/07July_24/

[J N Winkler]

Without even looking at it, I am sure it has to be a US 41 job.

I am still waiting to see if the June upload is complete; no bid advertisement has been uploaded yet.

Edit (30 seconds later)--Now uploaded.

[on_wisconsin]

^
Your guess is correct its for the massive WIS 29/ US 41 interchange and environs. The signage plans are in "plan B".

[J N Winkler]

Right now I have pdftk churning out sign design sheets from the single-file version, which has 3630 pages total (of which about 900 are cross-section sheets).  I think it is probably the biggest plan set I have seen from WisDOT since the Marquette Interchange "core" in 2005, which had something like 4100 sheets (about 570 MB).

The June plans sets have 14 sheets of pattern-accurate sign designs total--nothing remarkable.  The US 41 job alone has 25 sign design sheets, including arrow-per-lane diagrammatics and vintage examples of overhead approach signs for roundabouts.  In terms of signing detail, this plans set is fairly bare-bones--with other large WisDOT projects you sometimes get pattern-accurate sign designs for specialty traffic-control signs, sign elevation sheets with pattern-accurate renditions of overhead sign panels mounted on the structure, etc.

[DaBigE]

The US 41 job alone has 25 sign design sheets, including arrow-per-lane diagrammatics and vintage examples of overhead approach signs for roundabouts.  In terms of signing detail, this plans set is fairly bare-bones--with other large WisDOT projects you sometimes get pattern-accurate sign designs for specialty traffic-control signs, sign elevation sheets with pattern-accurate renditions of overhead sign panels mounted on the structure, etc.

Having personally worked on a large chunk of the signing sheets for the 41 corridor project, I am curious as to what you mean by "vintage examples".

[J N Winkler]

I mean "vintage" in the same general sense as "classic"--i.e., reflecting consistent application of the same design principles that are evident in other WisDOT projects which have included overhead lane assignment signs for roundabouts:  one arrow per lane, dot used to indicate the central island, etc.