ASCE Los Angeles Section

San Bernardino, CA

SANBAG, in cooperation with Caltrans, the City of San Bernardino, and the Federal Highway Administration improved 7.5 miles of 1-215 through the City of San Bernardino. AECOM was selected by SANBAG and Caltrans to prepare the final design plans, specifications and estimates for Segments 1, 2 and 5 of this reconstruction and widening program. Skanska-Rados Construction was awarded the construction contract for Segments 1 and 2. The project broke ground in late 2009 with construction completed in early 2014.

The I-215 Reconstruction and Widening project was a unique and complex project with an innovative design. The project included 15 new bridges, including one temporary bridge, 20,8151f of cast-in-place concrete retaining walls with a combination of spread footings and footings on piles, 2,368 linear feet of mechanically stabilized embankment walls, 3,208 linear feet of sheetpile shoring to support an existing railroad, 80,250 cy of concrete pavement, 88,600 tons of AC pavement, a storm drain system with pipe sizes ranging from 8 in diameter to 96 in diameter, landscape and irrigation, and freeway and city street electrical systems. The project required completion within 1,000 working days.
This section of highway represents a major corridor in Southern California that was used by 83,000 vehicles per day on average in 2003, and is projected to carry 135,000 vehicles per day by 2030. The project’s design increases traffic flow, eliminates fast-lane entrances and exits, widens freeway bridges, aids traffic merging by adding auxiliary lanes, improves air quality, reduces noise with sound walls, and enhances access to both the east and west sides of the city.
Construction had an emphasis on sustainability. The team used Skanska’s carbon foot printing tool to conduct a preliminary carbon footprint, which determined that the project reduced carbon emissions by over 16 percent by incorporating recycled aggregates rather than sourcing virgin materials off site. The project’s carbon footprint was reduced from 79,807 tC02e to 66,859 tC02e by reusing waste concrete and asphalt materials on site.
The project team issued website information and Twitter feeds to notify stakeholders of the project’s progress, timeline and possible public disruptions. The team held monthly business stakeholder meetings to inform and discuss the project with local businesses and how the project would affect them. Project presentations were also offered to interested organizations.
The project team also worked to reuse as much of the waste concrete and asphalt materials from the site and sent less than 5 percent of the project’s waste to landfill. In total, approximately 150,000 tons of base and aggregate material was produced from recycled materials from the project, which accounts for around 30 percent of all materials used on the project. The project saved approximately $1.8 million by reusing waste project materials (estimate based on 150,000 tons of reused waste material and US$ 12 savings per ton). The design also incorporated new urban drainage systems, which have larger storm water retention capacity and is designed to deal with a 100-year storm event.

A key early element was the preparation of the Geometric Approval Drawings (GAD) for Segments 1 and 2. A number of challenges needed to be addressed during the preparation of GADs, particularly to minimize exceptions to Caltrans design standards. In Segment 1 these issues included the horizontal and vertical alignment of the 5th Street overcrossing, the alignment of the 5th Street southbound off-ramp, site distance issues relating to the 2nd Street off-ramps, providing the required vertical clearance at the Redlands Loop overhead and the 5th Street overcrossing. Another challenge the team faced was developing an acceptable vertical profile for 5th Street, given the close proximity of H Street to the 5th Street/1-215 Interchange. In Segment 2, these issues included the interchange layout at Base Line Road, the profile for 9th and 16th Streets and the 1-215/SR 259 freeway to freeway interchange. Additionally, the GADs needed to be coordinated with Segment 3, which was designed by Caltrans staff.
The construction of each segment was staggered by approximately four months to comply with Caltrans’ contracting procedures. However, all construction on all segments was essentially proceeding at the same time. This required the development of a well thought out and coordinated construction staging plan.
While Caltrans had overall responsibility for the development of the Traffic Management Plan (TMP), the AECOM team was working closely with Caltrans staff on all points of coordination. The design of these segments of 1-215 is truly as team effort between the AECOM team, Caltrans team and SANBAG. Design was completed in 2005 for Segment 1 and in early 2006 for Segment 2 with construction to be completed by early 2014. Skanska-Rados Construction constructed all of segments 1 and 2 and the work was substantially complete in January 2013 at a final construction value of $171 million.

See attached documents for project articles and photos.

SANBAG, in cooperation with Caltrans, the City of San Bernardino, and the Federal Highway Administration improved 7.5 miles of 1-215 through the City of San Bernardino. AECOM was selected to prepare the final design plans, specifications and estimates for Segments 1, 2 and 5 of this reconstruction and widening program. Skanska-Rados Construction was awarded the construction contract for Segments 1 and 2. The project broke ground in late 2009 with construction completed in early 2014.

SANBAG, in cooperation with Caltrans, the City of San Bernardino, and the Federal Highway Administration improved 7.5 miles of 1-215 through the City of San Bernardino. AECOM was selected to prepare the final design plans, specifications and estimates for Segments 1, 2 and 5 of this reconstruction and widening program. Skanska-Rados Construction was awarded the construction contract for Segments 1 and 2. The project broke ground in late 2009 with construction completed in early 2014.

Reconstruction and Widening project was a unique and complex project with an innovative design. The project included 15 new bridges, including one temporary bridge, 20,8151f of cast-in-place concrete retaining walls with a combination of spread footings and footings on piles, 2,368 linear feet of mechanically stabilized embankment walls, 3,208 linear feet of sheetpile shoring to support an existing railroad, 80,250 cy of concrete pavement, 88,600 tons of AC pavement, a storm drain system with pipe sizes ranging from 8 in diameter to 96 in diameter, landscape and irrigation, and freeway and city street electrical systems.

This section of highway represents a major corridor in Southern California that was used by 83,000 vehicles per day on average in 2003, and is projected to carry 135,000 vehicles per day by 2030. The project’s design increases traffic flow, eliminates fast-lane entrances and exits, widens freeway bridges, aids traffic merging by adding auxiliary lanes, improves air quality, reduces noise with sound walls, and enhances access to both the east and west sides of the city.