{"id":1094,"date":"2013-10-07T15:24:16","date_gmt":"2013-10-07T15:24:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theflatironblog.com\/?p=1094"},"modified":"2016-07-28T16:45:31","modified_gmt":"2016-07-28T16:45:31","slug":"new-frontiers-northwest-405-project-underway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flatironcorp.com\/news\/new-frontiers-northwest-405-project-underway\/","title":{"rendered":"New Frontiers in the Northwest: I-405 Project Underway"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"1-405<\/a>

Crews work on an operation to widen and retrofit an existing bridge as part of the I-405 project near Seattle, Washington.<\/p><\/div>\n

Work is well underway on Flatiron Construction\u2019s first\u00a0project in the Northwest \u2013 the Interstate 405 project in Washington.\u00a0Flatiron is widening and installing express toll lanes from Bellevue\u00a0to Lynnwood, Washington, a major artery running along the east\u00a0side of Lake Washington near Seattle. The $155.5 million design-build<\/a> project will relieve congestion along 17 miles of the interstate\u00a0by adding tolling infrastructure and an additional lane in each\u00a0direction. Crews are also constructing a braided ramp bridge to\u00a0separate vehicles entering and exiting I-405 at the interchange\u00a0with state route 522, further easing congestion and increasing\u00a0safety<\/a>. Other work includes a new Intelligent Transportation\u00a0System network, widening and retrofitting an existing bridge,\u00a0adding noise walls, upgrading barriers and resurfacing much of\u00a0the existing freeway.<\/p>\n\"I-405<\/a>\n

The project is intersected by State Route 522, which cuts it in half.<\/p>\n

\u201cNorth of 522, we\u2019re installing tolling infrastructure and doing\u00a0some repaving,\u201d explained deputy project manager Shawn Marvin.\u00a0\u201cSouth of 522 we\u2019re also widening the roadway by adding a lane in\u00a0each direction, and repaving the entire roadway.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crews are building ductbank, foundations, overhead structures\u00a0and signage in preparation for tolling equipment which will be\u00a0installed under a separate contract. The system will use dynamic\u00a0tolling, charging drives based on traffic volume\u2014more during rush\u00a0hour, and less in off-peak times.<\/p>\n

\"transportation<\/a>Along the entire corridor, crews are also retrofitting the roadway\u00a0with advanced storm water treatment systems \u2013 essentially new\u00a0ditches that include filtration media to capture pollution in runoff.\u00a0Crews will install 15,000 linear feet of new media filter drains, and,\u00a0for the first time on a WSDOT project, 10,000 linear feet of a more\u00a0advanced version called a compost-amended biofiltration swale.\u00a0Flatiron is also performing extensive wetland and stream mitigation\u00a0work, part of an effort by owner Washington State Department\u00a0of Transportation<\/a> to improve water quality and restore salmon\u00a0habitat throughout the state. As part of this effort Flatiron recently\u00a0rehabilitated a portion of Yarrow Creek adjacent to the project.<\/p>\n

\u201cWSDOT\u2019s upped the ante on what they do environmentally. All of\u00a0our design had to meet their new criteria, and if we found existing\u00a0deficient systems, we had to update or retrofit them,\u201d said Shawn.<\/p>\n

\"WSDOT\"<\/a>Flatiron\u2019s offices are co-located with the team from WSDOT and\u00a0designer URS.\u00a0 The design phase of the project is now about\u00a095 percent complete. Flatiron is partnering closely with WSDOT,\u00a0which Shawn credits with helping to overcoming some unforeseen\u00a0design challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs far as the collaboration process and getting things done, it\u2019s\u00a0much more efficient. We do a lot of over the shoulder design and\u00a0are able to schedule impromptu meetings when needed. We were\u00a0able to resolve many design issues early in the process\u2014it went a\u00a0lot smoother than most people anticipated. We all worked together\u00a0to make this thing successful,\u201d said Shawn.<\/p>\n

Flatiron and designer URS incorporated some innovations into their\u00a0design that were critical to winning the project. For example, the\u00a0WSDOT plan allowed for one full closure, while Flatiron proposed\u00a0completing the project without any full closures.\u00a0 The team was\u00a0also able to propose slightly shifting toll zones in either direction\u00a0so dual toll structures could be installed, further driving down\u00a0construction costs.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne innovation was that the original design had a giant cut wall in\u00a0an area with an historic slide,\u201d said Shawn. \u201cWe changed both the\u00a0alignment of WSDOT\u2019s project design and the future Master Plan\u00a0design to eliminate the need to build a wall and excavate 200,000\u00a0cubic yards of material.\u00a0 We were the only bidder to eliminate the\u00a0wall and we think it was one of the biggest changes we made at\u00a0bid time to lower our price and get the job.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Flatiron<\/a>Flatiron has about 40 employees on the job, the company\u2019s first\u00a0in the state. Shawn sees a lot of potential for growth for Flatiron\u00a0in the area, both in traditional bid-build<\/a> work and on design-build\u00a0projects. \u201cWe\u2019re looking at a few other transportation infrastructure\u00a0projects coming out in the area in the next year,\u201d said Shawn.\u00a0\u201cWSDOT is very sophisticated in the use of design-build. They\u2019ve\u00a0been using it for the past 10 years or more. They were one of\u00a0the first public owners in Washington to adopt it, and other\u00a0transportation owners look to WSDOT\u2019s program as a model.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition, Washington\u2019s highway tolling system is in its infancy\u00a0and WSDOT plans an additional 25 miles of tolling facilities\u00a0under Design-Build procurements in the near future.\u00a0 Flatiron\u2019s\u00a0experience on this project makes us uniquely positioned amongst\u00a0other contractors in pursuit of this work.<\/p>\n

\"I-405<\/a>The I-405 project officially started in February 2012, and\u00a0construction began the following July. The new toll lanes are\u00a0slated to open at the end of September 2015, but the majority of\u00a0Flatiron\u2019s work will be complete in late 2014. A smaller crew will\u00a0then provide support to the toll equipment contractor through\u00a0the installation and testing phases and then restripe for the\u00a0toll lanes, open the braided ramp and complete other finishing\u00a0touches on the job.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Work is well underway on Flatiron Construction\u2019s first\u00a0project in the Northwest \u2013 the Interstate 405 project in Washington.\u00a0Flatiron is widening and installing express toll lanes from Bellevue\u00a0to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1095,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[143,181,225,231,468,396,418,428,442,448,458],"class_list":["post-1094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-project-news","tag-design-build","tag-flatiron-construction","tag-i-405-project","tag-intelligent-transportation-system","tag-roads","tag-state-route-522","tag-tolling-infrastructure","tag-transportation-infrastructure","tag-washington-state-department-of-transportation","tag-water-treatment-systems","tag-wsdot"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flatironcorp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1094"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flatironcorp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flatironcorp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flatironcorp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flatironcorp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.flatironcorp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1094\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flatironcorp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flatironcorp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flatironcorp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flatironcorp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}