I-435/I-35/K-10 interchange project moved up...

[route56]

From a KDOT email blast received today:

KDOT Announces Johnson County Gateway Schedule

The Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) has announced the schedule for the Johnson County Gateway: I-435/I-35/K-10 Phase 2 design-build project. (Phase 1 — the Yellow Project — is currently under construction and is scheduled to be substantially complete by November 2012.) Construction on Phase 2 will begin in 2014, two years ahead of the original T-WORKS schedule announced in 2011. It is scheduled to be complete in 2017. "We want to take advantage of low bid prices for materials and implement these improvements to alleviate congestion for the public sooner. Design-build will allow us to select a design-build team in 2014 and begin construction shortly thereafter,"  said KDOT Project Manager Burt Morey.

Morey will lead the KDOT team through the first design-build transportation project for Kansas. "I am excited for the opportunity to help deliver the first design-build transportation project in the state. It is a new way to deliver projects in Kansas and will allow us to make improvements to the Gateway more quickly."

Design-build streamlines the project delivery process through a single contract between KDOT and the design-build contractor. Combining the skills of the designers and contractors at the beginning of the project allows for positive collaboration and innovation, which can result in a faster project delivery and more predictable costs.

The Johnson County Gateway is one of the most congested interchanges in the state. 230,000 vehicles use the interchange today with that number expected to increase to 380,000 vehicles by the year 2040. Improvements to the interchange are critical to ensure that commuters and commercial traffic can continue to safely and efficiently travel through the area.

KDOT spent 2009-2011 creating an improvement plan to better handle future traffic demands. As part of the current preliminary engineering for the project, utility crews will be out in the project area locating and marking utilities starting July 17, 2012.

KDOT will continue to use design-bid-build as a project delivery method as design-build is a tool to deliver complex projects more quickly. Design-build could be especially effective to address economic development projects requiring a quick turnaround in transportation improvements or for responding after a natural disaster.

For more information on the design-build process or the Johnson County Gateway Project, please contact Burt Morey, KDOT Project Manager, at (913) 764-4525 or bmorey@ksdot.org. Additional project background information can be found on the project website: www.jocogateway.com. (KDOT Project #435-46 KA-1002-06)

For information on other Kansas City Metro Area Projects, please contact Kimberly Qualls, Northeast Kansas Public Affairs Manager, at (785) 640-9340 or kqualls@ksdot.org.

[You can also reach Ms. Qualls via twitter - @KansasCityKDOT @TopekaMetroKDOT @NEKansasKDOT]

[kphoger]

J N Winkler, what is your take on design-build versus traditional project contracts?

[J N Winkler]

Kphoger--on a strictly personal level, my heart sinks when I hear that a major project is going forward as a design-build, because it usually means I can't get a copy of the construction plans when it is advertised, and thus have to bother someone to get a copy of the record plans when it is finished.  In some states the "reference information documents" that are made available to contractors as part of design-build procurements amount to a complete library of as-builts for the existing length of road that is being re-worked, but this is usually pretty poor compensation for having to keep track of when the project is finished so I can start chasing down the record drawings.  It is much better when the state DOT allows design submittals and released-for-construction plans for a design-build contract to remain visible on a publicly accessible server, so that I can follow the functional disciplines I am interested in (usually permanent signing and workzone traffic control) through the design process.  Unfortunately, very few state DOTs do this.

My personal concerns aside, it is difficult to speak in general terms about design-build contracts because they come in all shapes and sizes.  There is enormous variation in scope of work, in the extent to which the design is developed before it is handed over to the design-builder, in recording arrangements, etc.  However, most design-build contracts have in common an intention to streamline project delivery by allowing the design and construction phases to overlap.  This limits the amount of time that is available to check designs and to carry out soil surveys and other advance work which saves money down the road by removing some of the uncertainty inherent in the design and construction process.  This does not necessarily mean a design-build contract will lead to worse results than a design-bid-build contract, but it does mean that in order to get good results, the state DOT has to be prepared to commit enough resources to ensure that all of the necessary quality assurance and quality control gets done within the tight timeframes of a design-build.  There are also some subtler aspects of design that cannot be hurried and design-build contracts don't usually leave enough time or flexibility for those to play out, so the design that emerges from the process is often (not always) green rather than seasoned.

Among highway engineers there is a saying:  your project can be good, fast, or cheap, and you get to choose any two.  This rule holds true for design-builds just as it does for design-bid-build jobs.

[intelati49]

There is a saying:  your project can be good, fast, or cheap, and you get to choose any two.  This rule holds true for everything

FTFY

[bugo]

Doesn't Kansas 10 end at I-435?

[J N Winkler]

Yes, it does, but the project as a whole (called "Johnson County Gateway") covers lengths of I-35, I-435, and K-10, and involves a major interchange rebuild at I-435/K-10 and a loop unrolling at the I-35/I-435 cloverstack.  (KDOT shrank away from unrolling the other loop in order to keep the overall budget for T-WORKS within the realm of political possibility.  At one time KDOT had no fewer than five interchanges for which four-level Maltese cross stacks were under consideration, but that design option has now been rejected for all of them.)

[Revive 755]

At one time KDOT had no fewer than five interchanges for which four-level Maltese cross stacks were under consideration, but that design option has now been rejected for all of them.)

The only other considered stack I can think of was KS 10 at KS 7, possibly I-235 at US 54/US 400 (thought it was a stack/turbine hybrid) - where were the other two?

[J N Winkler]

The full list is as follows:

*  K-7/I-70--rejected as a Maltese cross stack because of ROW considerations, though the K-7 corridor management study suggests it is necessary to handle the turning flows

*  K-7/K-10--shown as a Maltese cross stack in the K-10 transportation study plates, but described in the report as a target for value engineering

*  I-235/US 54-400--the I-235 corridor study (Central to Kellogg) presented both a Maltese cross stack and a stack/turban hybrid as final-cut options for this system interchange.  The Maltese cross stack option would have yielded speeds of 45 MPH on all left-turning ramps, rather than 45 MPH on one pair and 35 MPH on the other pair for the stack/turban hybrid.  The latter was chosen for reasons which were not spelled out in the report and were not explained by anyone at KDOT when I rather tentatively queried the decision on K-TOC a couple of years ago.  (The engineer who responded to my query maintained, incorrectly, that the adopted design is in fact a Maltese cross stack.  That put me in a position where I would have had to tell him he was flat-out wrong, which made it difficult for me to take the matter further.)  I suspect the hybrid design was chosen to avoid the need to relocate high-voltage power transmission lines in the vicinity of the interchange

*  US 54/K-254 (Northwest Wichita Bypass)--the ultimate design for this interchange, assuming the bypass is extended south of US 54, is currently planned to be a stack/turban hybrid similar to the approved design for I-235/US 54

*  I-35/I-435--the approved design is descoped from an original draft plan which called for unrolling of both loop ramps

KDOT seems to be fascinated with stack/turban hybrids.  I would rather they built full Maltese cross stacks instead because the bridge deck square footage is about the same, speeds on left-turning direct connectors are uniform, and there is less potential for unsatisfactory ramp geometry.  I-25/I-40 in Albuquerque (the "Big I") is the prototype of stack/turban hybrids and the connection from I-25 NB to I-40 EB is quite bad, with a blind summit followed immediately by a sharp right turn.

[NE2]

turban

???

[J N Winkler]

A turban (sometimes called a turbine in the professional literature) is a two- or three-level semidirectional interchange where opposite-facing left-turning direct connectors cross in plan and so wrap around the interchange core.  I-135/US 54 in Wichita is a three-level example, while I-40/I-27 in Amarillo is a two-level (though less than perfect since the I-40 WB-to-I-27 SB movement terminates in the frontage road rather than the mainline).

[NE2]

Yeah, I thought you might mean turbine. Turban sounds like a stupid typo.

[J N Winkler]

It isn't a typo.  Both terms are used for this type of interchange and turban is arguably the better since the ramp layout more closely matches cloth wrapped around a head than vanes curving toward a central axis.

[route56]

Time for another thread exhumation. The candidates for the design-build contract are...

KDOT Announces Shortlist for JOCO Gateway Design-Build Project

The Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) announced the shortlist of the most highly qualified design-build teams to pursue the Johnson County Gateway: I-435/I-35/K-10 Interchange Phase 2 Design-Build Project. As one of the most congested interchanges in the state, improvements are needed to ensure commuters and commercial traffic can continue to safely and efficiently travel through the area.

The three most highly qualified shortlisted teams, in alphabetical order, are:

• Ames Construction
  
  
  
  • Ames Construction, Inc.
  • Parsons Transportation Group
  • TranSystems Corporation
  • Wilson & Company, Inc.
  • Ideker, Inc.
  
  
• Gateway Interchange Constructors
  
  
  
  • Clarkson Construction Company
  • Kiewit Infrastructure Co.
  • HDR Engineering, Inc.
  • George Butler Associates, Inc.
  
  
• Westport Route Constructors
  
  
  
  • Granite Construction Company
  • Fred Weber, Inc.
  • CH2M Hill Engineers, Inc.
  • HW Lochner, Inc.

The design-build teams were evaluated on their qualifications including organizational structure and key personnel assigned to the project, experience on similar projects, and past performance of the firms on each team. KDOT reviewed and evaluated the submitted Statement of Qualifications (SOQs) to determine the most highly qualified teams.

KDOT is using a two-step process to select a design-build team. Step 1: KDOT released the Request for Qualifications (RFQ) on Wednesday, March 20, 2013. They reviewed and evaluated the SOQs received and shortlisted the most highly qualified teams. Step 2: KDOT will release a Draft Request for Proposals (RFP) to the shortlisted teams on Wednesday, May 22, 2013. Proposals are due from the shortlisted teams on Monday, December 2, 2013. KDOT will score proposals from shortlisted teams and select a winning team on Friday, January 10, 2014.

Burt Morey, project manager for KDOT's first major design-build transportation project, was pleased with the SOQ submittals. "We have highly qualified design-build teams proposing on this project and we look forward to learning more about their approach to the project in the coming months,"  he said. "Design-build streamlines project delivery, allowing early collaboration between the contractor and the designer.  This early collaboration can result in project innovations, faster project delivery and more predictable costs."

Along with announcing the shortlist, KDOT has revamped the existing project website, www.jocogateway.com with enhanced features and better mobile device compatibility. "The website will be an essential location for information as we move into construction in the summer of 2014. We want to have a site that provides up-to-date information and is easy to use,"  said Morey.

For more information on the design-build process or the Johnson County Gateway Project, please contact Burt Morey at (913) 764-4525 or bmorey@ksdot.org. Additional project background can be found on the project website: www.jocogateway.com.  (KDOT Project #435-46 KA-1002-04)

For information on other Kansas City Metro Area Projects, please contact Kimberly Qualls, Northeast Kansas Public Affairs Manager, at (785) 640-9340 or kqualls@ksdot.org.

Also, there was an article in the Journal-World.

[route56]

And The winner of the contract is....

KDOT Selects Design-Build Team for JOCO Gateway Project

Congestion relief for the Johnson County Gateway: I-435/I-35/K-10 Interchange is one step closer today as the Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) has selected Gateway Interchange Constructors (GIC) to complete the Phase 2 Design-Build portion of the Gateway Project. In 2010, as part the T-WORKS Transportation Program, KDOT identified the Johnson County Gateway: I-435/I-35/K-10 Interchange Phase 2 Project as the state's first major Design-Build Project in order to accelerate the delivery of these important improvements. 

GIC is a joint venture led by Kansas City, Mo. based Clarkson Construction Company. They are partnered with Kiewit Infrastructure Co. who has national design-build experience on large scale interchange projects such as T-REX in Denver, Colo., a $1.28 billion multimodal design-build project to improve 17 miles of I-25 and I-225. Clarkson and Kiewit worked together to successfully complete the kcICON Design-Build Project, Missouri Department of Transportation's first design-build project in the Kansas City metro area. Clarkson has completed several major construction projects for KDOT in the Kansas City metro area including the I-435 and U.S. 69 Interchange and the I-635 and I-70 Interchange reconstruction. Additional key members of the team include local design firms HDR Engineering, Inc. and George Butler Associates, Inc.

Selection was based on how well the proposals met the core values KDOT outlined in the procurement process. The two scored elements for the project included:

• How much of the interchange improvements can be constructed within the project budget, (the overall scope of the project).
• How well travel delays can be minimized during construction.

"KDOT received three quality proposals making the evaluation and selection process exciting and challenging,"  said KDOT Project Director Burt Morey.

GIC received the highest score of the three proposing teams. "GIC exceeded our expectations with the improvements they are able to build and the time it will take them to do it,"  said Morey. "Their approach will allow us to improve many of the existing issues drivers see today."

Design-build is an alternative project delivery tool that streamlines the process through a single contract between KDOT and the design-build team. "Combining the skills of designers and contractors at a project's onset allow for positive collaboration, which can result in faster project delivery, more efficient use of materials and lower labor costs,"  explained Morey.

(snip - recap of the three candidates -- RPK)

The budget for Phase 2 of the Johnson County Gateway is $288 million, which includes a $3 million schedule incentive GIC accepted to accelerate the construction by seven months to complete work by December 31, 2016. The budget includes T-WORKS construction funding, additional funding from the cities of Lenexa and Olathe, and funding for design and engineering work.

KDOT will spend the next few weeks compiling the contract for GIC. "We anticipate construction starting in late spring 2014. In the coming weeks and months we will be making presentations to business and civic groups around the area and will hold a public open house this spring to rollout the construction schedule and potential traffic impacts. All the latest information can also be found on the project website, www.jocogateway.com, as it becomes available,"  said Morey.

For more information on the design-build process or the Johnson County Gateway Project, please contact Burt Morey, KDOT Project Manager, at (913) 764-4525 or bmorey@ksdot.org. Additional background information can be found on the project website: www.jocogateway.com.

For information on other Kansas City Metro Area Projects, please contact Kimberly Qualls, Northeast Kansas Public Affairs Manager, at (785) 640-9340 or kqualls@ksdot.org.