The city of Avon Park, Florida—named for Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom, and known as “the birthplace of William Shakespeare”—is not only the oldest city in Highlands County, but is also home to one of the county’s busiest intersections.
The intersection is where S.R. 64 meets U.S. 27. The Florida DOT (FDOT) officially embarked on a mission to make upgrades to the intersection when construction began on the improvements project in June 2018. This particular intersection sees a significant amount of truck traffic, as U.S. 27 allows for major goods to be shipped all the way from Miami to this more central Florida location. In addition, the busy intersection has historically been the site of myriad traffic crashes, which have resulted in injury or death to pedestrians, drivers, and passengers alike.
Randall James, Construction Engineer-FDOT stated, “We’ve got a lot of truck traffic at that intersection, so we’re trying to reduce the off-tracking of the intersection, widening the radius along that intersection, as well as eliminating the rutting. “Prior to construction, this was an intersection done in asphalt. So we were trying to address that rutting issue we were having in the intersection. And we did some improvements to the traffic and pedestrian signals.”
Ultimately, in addition to addressing rutting issues, a concrete pavement replacement was chosen for its durability to service a corridor with heavy truck traffic. The project limits of the nearly $8M-intersection improvements at U.S. 27 and S.R. 64 and is a major thoroughfare throughout the state of Florida. It bears an average annual daily traffic (AADT) count of approximately 32,000 vehicles in this area. S.R. 64 serves residents of Avon Park by providing a connection to the west coast of the state, including nearby communities in Hardee County. S.R. 64 sees approximately 10,000 vehicles in AADT.
The FDOT team and contracting firm Concrete Services Inc., constructed the improvements through 22 major phases of work along a limited right-of-way, thus requiring an aggressive work schedule and extensive coordination with local businesses affected by construction.
Major improvements: The major components of this project were a highly involved process—the project was divided up into 22 main phases in FDOT’s traffic control plan. The key objectives included:
- Replacing 3 existing roadways with concrete pavement
- Construction of an eastbound right-turn lane
- Upgrade to the southbound right-turn lane
- Replacement of traffic signals at the intersection
- Installation of new pavement markings and signage
- Installation of concrete curb, sidewalks, and a traffic separator
- Addition of 8 new streetlights
- Improved drainage
- James said, “We had to maintain two lanes of traffic on S.R. 64 and four lanes on U.S. 27, plus the turn lanes. So on S.R. 64, traffic was shifted onto existing and temporary pavement to build the south side, including the right-turn lane that we put in. And then the traffic was switched to the new concrete pavement and temporary pavement to build the north side on S.R. 64.”
On the six-lane-highway U.S. 27, construction started on the southbound side and worked across the road. The old road was removed, and the new concrete pavement was constructed one or two lanes at a time, depending on the contractor’s productivity. The team replaced roughly 1,600 feet of roadway on each approach to the intersection with 11.5 inches of portland cement concrete pavement. The material was class 1 concrete with 3,000 psi minimum strength at a 20-day break time.
Ahead of the game: The original target date for project completion was February 2020, but the team at FDOT ended up working ahead of schedule in order to ease construction impacts to the traveling public and local businesses. Stacy Hill, Project Manager FDOT said, “They worked 7 days a week—a lot of it being 24-hour work pulling shifts to be able to implement that concrete.”
In order to meet the goal of finishing up by October 2019:
- Some minor modifications were made to the maintenance of traffic plan
- Contractor combined phases in some instances
- Team put in many extra hours
- Incorporated innovative material substitutions: James said, “In order for us to move more quickly, the contractor elected to use class 4 concrete with a strength of 5,500 psi, with the same 28-day compressive strength break time. So all that concrete was used to help accelerate the project and get it done a little quicker.”
- Traffic management included temporary pavements = extra road width = allowed traffic to move through the work zones and maintain enough space for the work area
- Team implemented the use of low-profile concrete barriers to protect traffic from the work zone
- Most of the work in the intersection was completed in very small sections
- Worked day and night
- Worked over weekends when traffic volumes were the lowest
- Contractor used flagging personnel and off-duty law enforcement officers extensively during the work to provide direction and safety to the traveling public
Overall, the team faced minimal impacts to the work schedule, with one exception being at the end of the summer when the threat of Hurricane Dorian loomed over the southeastern U.S. and the Caribbean. Florida and surrounding states were under a state of emergency starting August 28, 2019 which shut the project site down for a week. Fortunately, the storm did not significantly impact the area.
Since the project was completed 4 months early—by October, 2019—FDOT has largely heard nothing but praise for the new pavement and the efficiency of the accelerated project schedule!! James elated, “Definitely everyone is excited that the intersection is open! They’re happy with our choice of concrete because there were, prior to construction, those ruts there that we would get occasional calls about. So with the selection of concrete, we heard good feedback about that.”
In his comedy As You Like It,
Shakespeare once noted, “Travelers must be content.”
With the completion of these intersection improvements, it appears as if the travelers of Avon Park—a namesake for The Bard’s hometown—now can be.
For the article titled “Concrete Pavement Replacement Serves Motorists Well at Key Florida Intersection”, please go to: https://www.roadsbridges.com/concrete-pavement-replacement-serves-motorists-well-key-florida-intersection
HOME PHOTO: The project cover just under half a mile, stretching from West Townsend Street to Batts Street on U.S. 27 and from Self Avenue to U.S. 27 on S.R. 64.