The Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT)’s $64 million eastern portions of the new 4-lane US 24 Fort to Port Highway project was awarded to the joint venture team of Mosser Construction and Beaver Excavating (Mosser/Beaver). The project included construction of 6.5 miles of four-lane, divided highway with two interchanges, 10 bridge structures, 8 mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) walls, and two box culverts.

Shortly after the bidding stage, this project quickly took on the feel of a collaborative design-build undertaking despite being sold as design-bid-build delivery as the Mosser/Beaver team found opportunities to reduce costs using ODOT’s value engineering (VE) change proposal process. The proposals required the involvement and cooperation of many project stakeholders including the ODOT, consultants, residents and the public, utility companies, and railroad companies.

The first VE proposal took advantage of limestone available on ODOT’s property adjacent to the project right-of-way to change the roadway typical sections and adjust the profile grades to minimize earthwork cuts and fills. This proposal resulted in improved pavement structural values decreased the required earthwork materials, and more durable haul roads to support construction operations.

The second proposal involved re-phasing the maintenance of traffic plan and making significant changes to the proposed new interchange where the existing US 24 merged with the new alignment. The original interchange design included two separate at-grade precast tunnel structures and MSE walls to carry business US 24 traffic into the village of Waterville and rail traffic to a nearby factory. The proposed interchange design utilized one cast-in-place structure by shifting the alignment of Ramp D vehicle traffic toward the rail spur. Beyond cost reductions, benefits of this proposal included a structure design with increased life expectancy, lower long term energy usage for structure lighting, decreased traffic congestion and local road repairs by using the structure to carry 400,000cy of earth over the existing highway during for construction of the eastern side of the interchange.

Despite the significant changes associated with these proposals, the existing construction schedule was met and the project realized a cost savings of nearly $2,000,000 from the original amount of the bid!