I-70 Flagler to Arriba CDOT

15 miles of 12” concrete paving on the eastern plains of Colorado in one season is a challenge not for the faint of heart. Add to that a construction process known as FDR (full depth reclamation) where the existing asphalt roadway is pulverized into the existing subgrade and then recompacted for the full 15 miles and it becomes even more challenging.

That is the work that CRCC was the successful low bidder to CDOT on in December of 2018. The plan was to build median crossovers to move all of the I70 traffic in a head to head configuration and to allow entry and exit at both the Arriba and Flagler interchanges. That was accomplished in the late winter in early 2019 and then the plan changed.

CRCC with help from subcontractor ARS, Inc. began the FDR process and shortly thereafter it became apparent that the subgrade under the pavement was very unstable. To remedy that CRCC had to remove the FDR material from the roadway after it had been pulverized and recompacted and then remove the selected areas of unstable subgrade and replace them with suitable borrow embankment. This added over 100,000 cy of unplanned earthwork starting in July of the season that the 15 miles was to be completed.

All of this would have been very stressful for a lesser team than what was one the project consisting of CRCC, CDOT and Atkins (CDOT construction manager consultant). All of the team members used the principles of Project First (a CDOT initiative) to collaboratively solve all the problems that were thrown at it.