Design/Build Speedway

Contracting Method Accelerates and Streamlines the $100 Million Rte. 28

By Tom Gibson

Construction progress on the Rt. 28 and Rte 625 detour bridge.

Twenty years ago, a drive on Route 28 meant tooling dow a two-lane road through bucolic farm land, seemingly half a world away from Washington, D.C. Today, Washington's suburbs have crept out to this area, and the now-six lane thoroughfare plies a region studded with high-tech businesses and burgeoning residential areas.

But while the expansion may seem uncontrolled and helter skelter, the evolution of Route 28 is following a well thought-out, long-term plan - and design/build is making it happen quickly.

Located in northern Virginia just east of Washington, D.C., Route 28 forms a major north-south corridor in Loudon and Fairfax Counties, running 15 miles between I-66 on the south and Route 7 on the north, both major eastwest corridors.

In 1987, Virginia passed legislation allowing localities to create special tax districts to finance transportation improvements. A year later, Fairfax and Loudon Counties teamed with landowners along Route 28 to form the first transportation improvement district in the commonwealth.

The two counties enacted a special levy on commercial and industrial property in the district, and bonds were issued to fund construction of improvements to Route 28. The landowners agreed to pay for 75 percent, with the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) paying 25 percent.

When the tax district formed, officials devised a master plan and executed the first phase in the early 1990s by widening the road to six lanes and building interchanges at Route 50, Route 7, and the Dulles Toll Road. They envisioned a thoroughfare with limited access and no signals between I-66 and Route 7.

In 2002, VDOT signed an agreement for the second phase with a oint venture to develop, design, and build six more high-capacity interchanges to replace atgrade intersections. The intersection upgrades include Route 606, Route 625, and Sterling Boulevard in Loudon County, and the Air & Space Museum Parkway, Westfields Boulevard, and McLearen Road in Fairfax County. Most involve full or partial cloverleaf interchanges with a bridge elevating the road over Route 28.

Dewberry & Davis is the design partner in a design-build joint venture formed with Clark Construction Group and Shirley Contracting. The jv is called Route 28 Corridor Improvements, LLC.

Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, Clark Construction Group provides overall anagement of the project and design and construction oversight. Based in Lorton, Virginia, Shirley Contracting Company shares in the management and carries out construction activities as an independent subsidiary of Clark Construction Group focusing on highway and heavy construction.

"In terms of construction techniques, it's very typical job," said Susan Shaw, Route 28 project manager for VDOT.

"The big difference comes in the way the project is structured."

Dave Mahoney, design project manager for Dewberry & Davis added, "The challenge for everybody is doing this in the design-build mode, with the fastpaced environment."

Jon Harman, development manager for Route 28 Corridor Improvements, LLC, revealed one of the major aspects of this: "We're doing everything that VDOT would normally do - all the utility relocations and right-of-way acquisitions."

How difficult is it to purchase rights-of way and relocate utilities? "At one interchange alone, we had 90-some properties to acquire. Overall, there's probably 150 properties to acquire," Mahoney said.

Shaw added, "Because of all the dotcoms in the corridor, there's a huge amount of fiber optics. It's very difficult dealing with those companies. I know that's been a big challenge for the joint venture." In the dot-com bust, these firms change hands frequently, if they survive at all, and moving utilities doesn't show up on their priority list.

But as Harman stated, doing tasks VDOT normally does and operating under the design-build mantra has put the project on a fast track. When it comes to obtaining rights-of-way, " the big advantage is that we can overlap that with construction and utility relocation. The normal process with VDOT is pretty linear.

They do the design, acquire the right-of way, move the utilities, and then the project goes out for bid."

Mahoney said, "We've already got one interchange open in a year, and we've got detours established at other interchanges. We're cutting years off the normal cycle of construction."

The interchange Mahoney refers to as open is a full cloverleaf with a four-lane bridge carrying the Air & Space Museum Parkway over Route 28. Two signal lights have been eliminated, easing traffic flow through this segment. This provides access to the Air and Space Museum, located on Dulles Airport property.

Two other interchanges are also currently under construction, and work on the other three will start in 2004 and 2005, with completion coming in 2006.

Looking further to the future, ultimate plans call for constructing four more interchanges, for a total of 10, and widening Route 28 from six to eight lanes. With that, a long-term vision will have been realized. You may not see farm land as you drive on Route 28, but you will be able to access businesses and other attractions in orderly fashion.

By 2012, transportation officials estimate the road will carry 200,000 cars a day. "We've modeled out 20 years, and we're designing interchanges to handle that capacity," Mahoney said.

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