South Main Street Reconstruction

In January 2015, the City engaged HMH to prepare PS&E for pavement reconstruction, sidewalk repairs, accessibility upgrades and traffic signal improvements on a very accelerated schedule.  To meet funding deadlines, HMH prepared plans, specifications and estimates for the 1.2 mile long project in approximately six weeks, using expedited submittals and “over-the-shoulder” reviews to accomplish City approval for advertising.

An important design challenge was lowering the crown of the street to reduce excessive cross-slope.  The center of South Main Street includes old concrete pavement overlaid with layers of asphalt concrete over many years, such that shoulder grades were up to 10% at certain locations.  HMH developed a solution to grind off all the old asphalt concrete, and replace it with a much thinner “sandwich” section of pavement mat between two asphalt concrete lifts, which substantially reduced the height of the crown and the cross-slope.