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Work on the US-98/SR-158 extension project, estimated at $115 million, in Alabama, began in September 2017 and is expected to be completed until 2023.
To date, dot has awarded 4 of the seven contracts for the structure of road infrastructure and ongoing bridges in Mobile County. More contracts are expected to be signed in the coming years.
“ALDOT continued to paint to complete the designs, safe environmental approvals and acquired the right of way to resume the SR-158 extension structure that will join the new partially complete US-98,” according to ALDOT.
“With BP funding, ALDOT was able to move forward with the US-98 and SR-158 allocation plans for the structure of a two-lane Schillinger Road facility on the Mississippi State Line.
“The scope of the assignment will come with the structure of the foundations and the execution of four-lane ground movements, two-lane paving and exchange creation,” he added. “ALDOT will continue with the latest four-lane design with fully functional highway-type exchanges as the investment becomes available.”
Katelyn Turner, ALDOT’s Head of Public Information for the Southwest Region, the importance of the project.
“This will be the giant volume of giant advertising vehicles, tourists and local traffic that use this road from neighboring states to I-10,” he said.
The first segment was extended to 366 feet. Long, 4-round, the bridge east on US-98 in Big Creek – a $5.5 million contract that was awarded to Tanner Inc. and ended in October 2018. These paintings added 1,350 linear bridge feet, which were supplied with a top and top surface. water barrier and containment formula to improve water and watershed quality.
The second section, beginning east of SR-217 (Lott Rd.) to Schillinger Road (1.5 mi.) in Semmes, started in April 2018 and is nearing completion. The $16 million contract was awarded to John G. Walton Construction Company Inc. The project (80 percent federal and 20 percent state funds) involved grading, drainage, pavement, and the construction of the two bridges over Seabury Creek and Rodgers Road.
The 2.7-mi. segment ($26.8 million) from East of Glenwood to West of Lott Rd. is being built right now by H.O Weaver and Sons Inc.
Construction for the Lot Road Overpass and Jug Handle element, $16.8 million, was awarded to McInnis Construction LLC whose crews started work in May 2020
“The branch plans to submit bids for the Wilmer-Georgetown road exchange structure and the Glenwood Road overpass in 2021, depending on the availability of funds,” according to ALDOT. “The branch implemented a $25 million USDOT structure grant.”
The 250-foot building. long two-lane bridge over Glenwood Rd. it is expected to be leased in November 2021 and $11.1 million, 281 feet. two-lane long bridge over Wilmer-Georgetown Rd. US-98 with Jug Handle will be rented in November 2020.
ALDOT is expected to let the final segment — Mississippi Line to 0.5 miles east of Glenwood — in September 2021.
ALDOT, to keep the public more involved and better informed about the project, established a Community Outreach Group.
“This group of private citizens has volunteered to work with ALDOT to ensure we are headed in the right direction,” stated the project web page. “[They] assist us in providing feedback to plans, suggesting alternatives, asking pertinent questions and keeping the community informed. The group was recommended by an independent panel including members from Mobile County Government, Fish and Wildlife and the Chamber of Commerce. The creation of this Community Outreach Group and their independent selection is part of our continued commitment to a Safe98.”
Johnny Walton, owner and president of John G. Walton Construction Company Inc., is pleased with the work that his crews put into the second segment.
“We asphalted any of the lanes and built the bridges,” he said. “The whole of the spoils is over.”
Michael Gibson, the company’s assignment manager, noted that one of the demanding environmental constraints at Seabury Creek to protect endangered plants and geophysil tortoise from the structure’s activities.
“We had to install a fence along the right of way anywhere to prevent the turtles from entering the site,” he said. “We ended up catching 10 to 15 turtles. ALDOT’s environmental officer searched for turtle burrows and set traps to catch them. We had to check the assignment every day to make sure we didn’t find new burrows. The turtles were transferred to a secure domain through an environmental center to rescue them.”
The work site was located in a sandy terrain, which posed no problems for the excavation and construction of the lanes.
“The rain didn’t affect us because the soil was so sandy,” said Walton, “unless it was pouring down rain. We just about worked every day there. About 500,000 cubic yards of borrow fill went into the project. We had slopes to contend with, but we had a real good erosion subcontractor in Parker Grassing Co. that sodded the slopes. They kept right behind us as we built the slopes, so we had very little erosion.”
The bridge over Seabury Creek is 344 ft. long and one over Rodgers Road is 122 ft. long.
“It went smoothly,” said Walton. “We had McInnis Construction LLC doing the bridges and they did a good job for us.”
The bridge flows for concrete structures were made in the afternoon due to temperatures.
“We did this so that the concrete wouldn’t crack or dry out,” Gibson said.
The earth paints were the primary of the paints and were aided through a Komatsu 210LCi shovel and a Komatsu D51-i excavator that have integrated GPS systems.
“The style structure and the use of GPS devices accelerated the work,” he said. “We spent less time designing and rethinking, which saved us a lot of time.”
On average days, there were approximately 15 Workers from John G. Walton Construction Company and subcontractors on the site. The subcontractors were C-H Construction for signs and railings, Ozark Striping Co. for Tracing, Turner-Wilson Fence Company for Turtle Fences, T.K. Peavy – Sound for concrete work and McInnis Construction for bridge work.
“McInnis was assigned the next task and has a great bridge to build and we are doing the leveling paintings for them,” said Walton, who noted that Rusty Goff, the project’s superintendent.
The company also hired a Volvo ECR235 DL excavator; a John Deere 310L backhoe; a Cat 416E backhoe; a Volvo L90 charger; Rollers: a Hamm H11X and a Dynapac CC624HF; a Wirtgen 2000i miller; a Vogele 5203 finalizer; a WEILER E1250 BFV motion vehicle; a Komatsu GD655-7 motor grader; A more sensible DT-80J self-propelled broom; a Finn B-70 haystack; a Ford F750 tanker truck; and a New Holland TN55 agricultural tractor.
“We had mechanics from our workshop, but we didn’t have any primary device disorder in this job,” Walton said. “Most of the devices are new.”
John G. Walton Construction purchases and rents equipment from Tractor & Equipment Company (Komatsu), Thompson Tractor Co. Inc. (Cat), Beard Equipment Co. (John Deere) and Cowin Equipment Co. (Volvo). CEG