Harrodsburg Road Interchange

• Contract amount – $6,320,453.27
• Construction started June 6, 2011 and was completed November 15, 2011.
• First double crossover intersection in Kentucky.

The focus of the construction phase of the project was to complete this work without severe disruptions to the motorist and businesses that depend on this heavily used intersection as part of their daily lives.  The challenge was to completely reconfigure the flow of traffic, drainage, and signals while keeping a heavily congested area working as good as it always had.  ATS Construction personnel were required to work at night and long hours on weekends to perform mass excavation, installation of storm drainage, installation of new conduits for signal controls, pour concrete medians, pour concrete retaining walls, place asphalt pavement, and pavement striping.  This was especially challenging due to existing gas line, waterline, electric lines, and communication lines which were in the process of being relocated.  The Highway Department and utility companies became great partners to work with and determined ways to fit everything together while progressing the project at a good pace.

The biggest challenge of the project came during a weekend shutdown of Harrodsburg Road on August 12, 2011.  Harrodsburg Road remained closed to through traffic from Friday night at 8:00 pm until Sunday morning at 9:00 am.  During a 36 hour period of road closure over 2,00 feet of concrete curb was poured, 2,000 square yards of concrete median was poured, 6,000 tons of asphalt surface was placed, seven complete signal systems were activated/timed to control traffic, two large overhead signs were installed on the existing overpass, 300 linear feet of storm drain pipe/boxes were installed, and over 10,000 feet of pavement markings were placed to cross over and control traffic.  This required a small army of men and women, 80 pieces of equipment, and a lot of cooperation for people to move over while someone else’s crews were coming through.  The good news was that the work was completed prior to a severe thunderstorm late Saturday night.  Work was completed 24 hours ahead of schedule and allowed service to resume early Sunday morning.  This goes to show that short periods of road closures and good planning of crews and equipment allows for great accomplishments to be made without great disruptions to motorists and businesses.

ATS Construction appreciates all of the crews, subcontractors, and businesses that were involved and were endured the long summer of road improvement for this interchange.