Incentives Help Accelerate Virginia 'Mixing Bowl' Work
Engineering News Record, May 14, 2001

by Aileen Cho

TWO MAJOR PHASES OF THE MASSIVE $585 million rehabilitation of Interstate 95 south of Washington, D.C., are moving nearly a year ahead of schedule. If all stays on track, the Virginia Department of Transportation and Shirley Contracting Corp. anticipate completing the work in mid-August. That could net the contractor $10 million, an amount the state says would be the largest early-completion bonus in its history.

Jon Harman, contract manager for Lorton, Va. Based Shirley, says the firm would receive $10 million if it completes the work on its combined $90-million contract by Aug. 18. The work, begun in spring 1999, is contractually set for completion in July 2002. Shirley would receive a $5-million bonus if it completes the work by Nov. 17.

The overall eight-year project, known as the Mixing Bowl, includes building 50 bridges, widening I-95 to up to 24 lanes and rebuilding loops and off-ramps for high occupancy vehicles near the town of Springfield. VDOT wanted the second and third phases done quickly to get a jump on the rest of the phases, and to minimize traffic impact on downtown Springfield, says Steve Titunik, an agency spokesman.

Shirley is replacing five old bridges with 15 new ones, including four flyovers on the I-95 connection with Route 644. The contract also includes work on 4 miles of downtown Springfield's arterial roads and 35,000 sq m of mechanically stabilized walls. Also included is moving 350,000 cu m of soil, laying 10,000 m of pipe and paving the bridges while maintaining rush hour lanes for 400,000 daily vehicles. Logistics of traffic management and site access where a huge challenge, Harman says.

Last November, Shirley also won the contract for the fourth phase, a $117-million A+B contract. Shirley plans to utilize jack-and-bore methods in conjunction with microtunneling for nearly 11,000 m of utilities. Excavation of some 220,000 cu m will provide the roadway base for the Capital Beltway outer loop and bridge approaches. That project is slated for completion in 2003.

Titunik says VDOT may consider bonus incentives for future contracts. The fifth-phase contract is already out to bid with an award expected by July for extending eastbound lanes of the Beltway crossing I-395 and for widening loops on the west side of the I-95/395/495 interchange.

Phases "six and seven might go out as one contract, which would be pretty hefty," Titunik says. "There might be some partnering." Those phases will involve $100 million in widening the inner and outer loops of the Beltway.