MAD-70 10.27 Interchange and Bridge

Capacity improvements at the State Route 29 interchange started in 2013 with the construction of one of Ohio’s first roundabouts at the westbound ramps. Growth continued, with nearby warehousing facilities for Target, Home Depot, FedEx and Amazon requiring efficient truck access to Interstate 70. To accommodate that growth, Woolpert provided engineering design as a subconsultant for a 0.75-mile roadway reconstruction and widening project modifying the State Route 29 interchange and adding a new multilane roundabout to the eastbound ramps. Woolpert also modified the existing westbound ramp, converted a single-lane roundabout to multiple lanes, and designed a new bridge over I-70. The bridge was complicated by a high skew of 59 degrees. The team was also responsible for lighting design for both roundabouts, stormwater analysis and design, and complex maintenance-of-traffic design to keep ramp closures restricted to only 37 days.

Finding innovations within the limits of the client’s scope of services is critical to the successful delivery of design-build projects. The team’s innovation began early in the bidding process through optimizing the new twin structure’s design by eliminating one girder line and two pier columns. To meet the project needs, Woolpert designed a four-span (104 feet 10 inches, 161 feet 4 inches, 161 feet 4 inches, 104 feet 10 inches) continuous steel plate girder bridge with a composite-reinforced concrete deck supported on reinforced concrete cap-and-column piers and semi-integral abutments supported on cast-in-place piles.

The high-skew design was carried out in MIDAS 2D grillage models to capture the effects on cross frames and girders due to the skew. Working closely with the contractor, Woolpert was able to define a constructible deck pour sequence that maintained stability through construction and minimized deck stresses. In order to meet overall construction schedules, the plans for the structure were split out from the rest of the project, allowing fabrication of the girders to start before construction of many other elements.

The presence of utilities in the project area required careful consideration and coordination throughout design and construction. The project team was required to maintain an existing AT&T fiber-optic line that would cross under the proposed abutment. To overcome the challenges of maintaining this line, Woolpert worked closely with the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT), the contractor, and the utility company to reach a solution.

During design, the utility company provided a Level B utility location for the team to use. ODOT and the designers worked together to use slightly larger pile spacing than normal to gap over the fiber-optic line and meet structural requirements. Moving into construction, AT&T provided Level A locations once the contractor had started excavating for the construction. The piles were staked out per the plans, and none required adjustment of more than 3 inches to maintain clearances during construction. The piles next to the fiberoptic line were installed in prebored holes to further reduce the chance of damage to the line. This close coordination between multiple parties is only practical under the innovative design-build method of project construction.