Northeast of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, the junction of a pair of provincial trunk highways (PTH) were not originally designed with elegance. Commonly known as the “Perimeter Highway”, the intersection of PTH 59 and PTH 101 had a crossroads that never quite lined up and relied on a pair of traffic lights to keep traffic in line. As with other aging pieces of infrastructure across the country, the interchange’s major problem required a major fix. Diana Nicholson, Project Manager-Nelson River Construction Inc. said, “This interchange was kind of an anomaly. The magnitude of this project was massive for Manitoba, relatively speaking. That’s one of the busiest intersections in the province. There’s lot of heavy truck traffic on the Perimeter and the communities just outside the city have really grown, so there’s a lot of people commuting into the city. ”
Before the 2018 completion of the redesign, drivers heading east were forced to loop around Winnipeg’s ring road, then to come to a complete stop, turn right, briefly drive south, and then turn left just to continue in the same direction—causing the antiquated set-up to often slow traffic to a crawl. Meanwhile, the ever-increasing traffic volume on the two roads, now averaging 70,000 vehicles a day, only worsened the bottleneck. In the warmer months, cottage traffic heading north along PTH 59/Lagimodière Boulevard only compounded the issue.
Overhauling the juncture was a difficult task for the construction team and had a long list of challenges along the way. After just over three years of construction, a modern interchange that includes 11 bridges and incorporates more than 70,000 cubic metres of concrete began a phased reopening fall 2018.
PLANS FOR THE NEW INTERCHANGE:
• Replace obstructive pair of traffic lights with a slightly modified cloverleaf
• Exchange full stops for a series of ramps so vehicles have continuous movement in all directions
• Pave with concrete as opposed to asphalt to add longevity to the interchange
According to a provincial spokesperson, “Manitoba typically uses concrete pavements in high traffic scenarios. Concrete was used at the PTH 59 and 101 interchange project, as this interchange sees some of the highest traffic volumes in the province. The biggest issues involved staging the concrete construction in a manner that allowed traffic to continuously move through the project site meant construction had to be broken down into many small parts.”
Manitoba builder Flatiron Construction Canada Ltd. and paving subcontractor Nelson River were responsible for about 240,000 square meters (150 sq mi) of concrete roadway, plus asphalt shoulders and certain bridge decks. The project began summer 2015, but with unaccommodating, wet weather through much of the first two construction seasons, crews faced an uphill battle.
The intersection is vital to the overall Winnipeg-area road network which posed the major obstacle in that the road-building crews were required to keep lanes open at all times throughout construction—four of PTH 59 and two of PTH 101—to ensure commuters and truck traffic could still make their way in and around the city. So, before the initial demolition, crews paved a significant number of temporary roads for an east-west detour. In total, the project involved about 15 separate phases and traffic switches that confused and aggravated drivers.
A CONDENSED SCHEDULE: After the first two seasons of weather-related delays that hampered much of the prep work, the majority of the concrete paving needed to be put on hold. Nicholson said, “It was very compressed and we ended up having about two years of concrete paving in one season.”
Lafarge concrete and aggregates supplier came into the project during its second year, transporting concrete to the site during the 2016 and 2017 seasons from its ready-mix plant about 10 km (6.2 mi) southwest of the interchange. Unfortunately, the concrete trucks became caught up in the gridlock around the construction site, and often tied up in traffic jams. But, things changed the following spring when Lafarge brought an on-site batch plant for the final season of the job, substantially cutting round-trips to keep up with the demanding schedule tightened into 2018 by the earlier delays.
“This not only allowed us to provide superior service to the project but also benefited the rest of our business by lowering the truck demand required for the pours due to the short turnaround to our on-site plant,” said Jason Ryz, Sales Manager-Ready-Mix Concrete, Lafarge, Winnipeg. “We were regularly supplying 1,000-cubic-meter pours or more daily with an average of 10 service trucks.”
Throughout the 2018 construction season:
Lafarge provided ready-mix for the paving and bridge decks
Lafarge provided 250,000 tons of road base
Lafarge provided precast concrete bridge girders
Nelson River ran two concrete paving crews with more than two dozen workers combined ahead of the concrete crew
Nelson River ran two base crews with more than two dozen workers combined ahead of the concrete crew
NOT THE TYPICAL MANITOBA JOB: The project was of a large scale and the interchange design was complex, particularly when it came to pouring the concrete. Nelson River wasn’t accustomed to using non-standard lane widths and types of steel required for this project. Nicholson said, “We were not able to just have a big open space to lay gravel and concrete very efficiently, as it was done in funny shapes all over the place. We had to constantly move our pavers and change paver widths, which took quite a lot of time.”
The paving teams would have normally packed up for the season as the days of fall 2018 got shorter and Winnipeg’s weather turned colder, but they remained on the job. A provincial spokesperson said, “With Winnipeg’s short construction season and climate proving challenging, long work hours and temperature control means were used to increase production.”
On particularly cold days, as the pavers rolled forward, workers were sent back to cover freshly-poured concrete with insulating tarps designed to keep some of the heat in the concrete. And in contrast, during high-heat days months earlier, crews were forced to add ice to the concrete because the tight schedule didn’t allow for any lost time. Lafarge was also forced to change up their mix due to the weather. Ryz points to a Winnipeg stipulation that requires no fly ash be used in concrete when the temperature drops below -5 C. When a chill set in, the concrete mixes contained “straight” concrete powder.
By September 2018, the interchange was reopened to traffic in stages—although some of the finer details remain on the docket for spring 2019: Nelson River will diamond grind about 80,000 square meters of concrete pavement and some pave asphalt on a few smaller sections. As of last fall, Manitoba remained under budget on the project, having spent approximately $250 million of the initial allotted $275 million.
THE PROVINCE IS PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE: Currently, PTH 101 spans four lanes through the interchange, with two in each direction. The realignment infrastructure is in place to expand to six lanes when necessary. Infrastructure rarely ages gracefully. The nearly-completed interchange’s concrete surface and enhanced design are expected to provide the durability to age more gracefully over the next 30-50 years than the dysfunctional, bottlenecked infrastructure it replaced.
For the OnSite Canada’s Construction Magazine article, please go to: https://www.on-sitemag.com/features/on-the-perimeter-major-winnipeg-project-brings-concrete-solution-to-longstanding-bottleneck/
Home photo: Nelson River