Construction on the Corridor X interchange at I-65 continues Fri., Nov. 18, 2011 in Birmingham, Ala.
(The Birmingham News/Bernard Troncale)
BIRMINGHAM -- Work on the interchange linking Corridor X and Interstate 65 --the largest road project in Birmingham-area history -- is expected to be completed by its original target date of Oct. 15, 2014, according to the Alabama Department of Transportation.
The $168.6 million project began on Aug. 5, 2010. While 30 percent of the project's time frame has elapsed, the work was 18.9 percent complete as of last week.
ALDOT division engineer Brian Davis said the first phase of the project required blasting away and removing rock before construction could begin. That work typically takes longer than the actual construction, Davis said.
The blasting has to be done in daylight and when it's not raining. The explosive charges have to be strong enough to destroy rock, but weak enough to keep from damaging nearby buildings.
"You know you're going to get behind (during blasting), but we're basically on schedule. We're almost to the items where you can get ahead," Davis said.
In the coming weeks, columns protruding from the ground at the north Birmingham work site will begin looking more like bridges, Davis said.
"It's like an assembly line," Davis said of the upcoming work that will add girders and bridge decking to those columns. "Once you get to that, it starts to look like a bridge."
The finished project -- roughly 1.5 miles with 14 ramps and 14 bridges -- will all but complete Alabama's roughly 96-mile portion of the Birmingham-to-Memphis interstate that will be known as Interstate 22.
The work, which is being performed by the Atlanta-based Archer Western, is the most expensive contract ALDOT has ever awarded, although past contracts might equal that amount if adjusted for inflation.
Future phases will include building "collector/distributor roads" -- basically service roads -- that will divert traffic from I-65 to keep from disrupting traffic as workers rebuild that stretch of interstate. Davis said a date has not been set for when that work will be performed.
The finished product will be a four-level, 85-foot-tall interchange that ALDOT officials have said will be similar to the I-459/65 interchange in Hoover.
Bids will be invited in June for a related project that will build a 3,000-foot stretch of road linking I-22 to U.S. 31 in north Birmingham, with work expected to start in August, said ALDOT spokeswoman Linda Crockett.
That work, which ALDOT has estimated will cost between $15 million and $20 million, should also be completed in 2014.