Rebuilding the I-4/408 Interchange

PCL Civil Constructors Entering Final months of of Major Interchange Redo

By Debra Wood

Traffic has begun flowing on some of the ramps as PCL Civil Constructors of Tampa completes the balance of the $123 million Interstate 4/State Road 408 interim interchange improvement project in downtown Orlando.

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“It will eliminate and take all of the I-4 eastbound traffic out of that merging mess that is currently at the 408 ramp,” says Loreen Choate, project manager with the Florida Department of Transportation, the agency responsible for the project. “The only traffic that will be left on the existing ramp is westbound I-4. It will be an easier merge.”

Total project cost, including right-of-way, design and construction engineering and inspection services, tops $228 million, with the FDOT and the Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority, owner of SR 408, sharing the cost. The work will facilitate traffic flow from eastbound and westbound SR 408 to I-4 eastbound. It also will create a 3,000-ft-long exit ramp from I-4 eastbound to downtown.

A downtown environment

PCL began construction in April 2006 and had 900 days to complete the six-phase project, which includes 13 new bridges and ramps and modifying two city streets to accommodate two-way traffic.

The contract provides the opportunity to earn an additional $6.5 million through incentives. The company is working two shifts and has already earned some of the bonus dollars. A $25,000-per-day early completion incentive remains on the table, and Gary Dale, senior project manager with PCL, says the company is pursing that money.

“It’s been a tight schedule,” Dale says. “The team has worked together to mitigate problems and keep us moving.”

The company received a $2 million incentive for not affecting parking below ramp D, from SR 408 westbound to I-4 eastbound, and $87,000 for converting South Street, a surface road, to accommodate two-way traffic. 

It’s difficult to keep the interstate traffic and other traffic in and around downtown Orlando moving, says Rhett Leary, senior project manager for HNTB of Lake Mary, Fla., which is providing construction engineering and inspection services. PCL has maintained three lanes in both directions on I-4 during the day. Lane closures are allowed only at night.

In some places, construction has taken place within a dozen feet of existing buildings. Also many utilities ran along the corridor.

“Every time we put a shovel in the ground, we had to make sure there was no conflict, and if there were conflicts, we had to have them engineered and relocated so we could complete the alignment of our bridges,” Dale says.

The new Orlando Utilities Commission headquarters was rising simultaneously and adjacent to the highway project, necessitating coordination with its contractor, Skanska/JCB, a joint venture between Skanska USA Building in Orlando and JCB Construction of Orlando.

“They are higher, and they had a big tower crane,” Dale says. “If you took the tower crane and swung it, it was out over our work. They had loads of material swinging over our people, so we had to have close coordination so we had safety precautions in place.”

Sitework for the new Orlando Events Center also took place adjacent to the I-4 project. A new entrance ramp, one block from that new arena, will allow people leaving the venue to quickly access westbound I-4.

Bridge work

All the foundations and substructures are complete.

Orlando Interchange Joint Venture, a partnership between HNTB and URS Corp. of Orlando designed the project with half concrete piles and half steel piles, but because of rebound issues or elasticity the project wound up using about 193,000 lin ft of 14-in., steel H pile and 7,000 lin ft of concrete pile.

“We were finding steel was going in the ground really well, and they were getting a lot more capacity than anticipated,” FDOT’s Choate says. “We made the decision to switch everything that was left from concrete to steel. It pushed the contractor forward. Steel is easier to get the length you need. You can weld and cut it off. With concrete you have to wait for it to be made. It was a win-win for everybody.”

Most of the girders are steel—box, plate and beam girders—but the job also called for concrete Florida U-beam and AASHTO girders.

“Some of it is due to span lengths,” Dale says. “Whenever you have a longer span, maybe the concrete is not feasible. It depends on the placement of piers and utilities and those things that may preclude steel vs. concrete.”

Landscaping, acorn-shaped lanterns, uplighting of hammerhead piers and columns decorated with city of Orlando icons will improve the interchange’s aesthetics. The color palettes consist of light and dark tans to contrast with dark green beams.

More interchange improvements will take place when FDOT widens I-4. Those plans are under design but no date has been set for construction to begin and money has not been allocated.

“The department is looking at different ways to get the funding,” Choate says. “We want to do this as quickly as possible because it is needed.” 

I-4/408 Interchange Project Team:

Owner: Florida Department of Transportation
Contractor: PCL Civil Constructors, Tampa
Engineer: Orlando Interchange Joint Venture, a joint venture between HNTB, Lake Mary, Fla., and URS Corp., Orlando
Construction Engineering and Inspection: HNTB, Lake Mary, Fla.