SAI Selected by ACI For An Excellence in Concrete Award

May 22, 2019, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania  – SAI Consulting Engineers, Inc. has been selected by ACI (American Concrete Institute) for an Excellence in Concrete Project Award for the US 119 County Line Crossover Road project. The award was judged upon engineering, creativity/ingenuity, innovation in construction and materials, and functionality. The project was submitted by Golden Triangle Construction Company.

The SR 119, Section A03 Reconstruction project in Westmoreland County was a $38 million reconstruction project. This section of SR 119 is a four-lane, divided, limited-access highway with an Average Daily Traffic volume of 19,000.  Major project highlights include geometric upgrades to the SR 31 Interchange, bridge preservation at the SR 31 and SR 981 overpasses,  ITS upgrades, approximately 190,000 SY of 12″ jointed concrete pavement, cement soil stabilization, incorporation of a roller-compacted concrete truck inspection area, roughly 14,500′ of concrete glare screen barrier, almost 3.4 miles of upgraded drainage and stormwater retention systems, median upgrades with concrete barrier separation, and mine shaft stabilization.

Many obstacles were encountered during construction that required consultation to revise the proposed design and schedule.  One notable issue arose due to the extremely wet, early 2017 construction season that impacted the preparation of the subgrade material.  A field meeting to review the conditions resulted in adding an activity to perform a lime soil stabilization prior to the cement soil stabilization in the area of high water table at the southern project limits.

This project had several sustainability factors, including construction of a 500′ section using an optimized, long-life concrete mixture as a trial for future optimized mixes and the use of recycled materials that included more than 25,000 SY of concrete pavement for site stabilization and toe bench rock.