Challenging Highway Project Improving Traffic Flow, Safety in Arizona

 |  Civil & Transportation, Self-perform

 

Cordes Junction
An aerial view of the new Cordes Lake Bridge over I-17 showing the recent installation of the precast concrete girders.

Sundt and joint venture partner Vastco, Inc., are reconstructing Arizona’s busy Cordes Junction traffic interchange at Interstate 17 (I-17) and State Route 69 (SR 69), about 65 miles north of downtown Phoenix. The 50-year-old interchange is used by approximately 40,000 vehicles per day, most of which are just passing through on their way to smaller towns in northern Arizona.

In order to alleviate congestion and improve safety, the Heavy Civil project will:

  • create two separate interchanges: one that has a high-speed off-ramp from northbound I-17 to northbound SR 69 for through traffic, and a diamond interchange that has a system of on- and off-ramps designed for slower, local traffic;
  • realign, widen and pave several local streets associated with the interchange;
  • construct seven new bridges, including one of Sundt’s specialties: a post-tensioned, cast-in-place concrete structure that will be the most challenging aspect of the project. In order to avoid road closures, it will be built over live traffic on I-17. Vastco/Sundt’s expertise with this kind of road and bridge construction is a major reason the team was chosen for the job.

The $51 million, Construction Manager at Risk project will be complete in the summer of 2013.