Relief is in sight--$1.67 billion worth of it. Construction begins this summer on the Southeast Corridor project that will add up to four lanes to I-25 and introduce 19 miles of light rail that will run parallel to the corridor. Before the new lanes and rail line can increase capacity and ease traffic, however, the real-world trials of building a major infrastructure project--the tearing up of existing roads, the temporary closing of bridges, the occasional blocking of interchanges--are going to usher in seven years of even worse congestion.
That's a challenge, and it isn't happening only in Denver. The Southeast Corridor project is one of several multi-billion-dollar, multi-year mega projects being built across the country, as states and cities repair aging infrastructure and, in fast-growing locales, expand commuter capacity. But these big projects aren't just about laying down asphalt and creating new rail lines. There is growing recognition that more than the construction itself has to be managed: so does the inconvenience and disruption such projects create for a city at large and commuters in particular. Without congestion- management plans--and the public support that they can engender--an important project can end up a political albatross.
Colorado is all too aware of the political ramifications of the disruption factor. On the theory that each mega-project has lessons to teach the next, the state is looking to the congestion-management approaches of at least three projects that have track records to share. What it is learning--and incorporating into its own plans--from Utah's Interstate 15 project, Boston's Big Dig and Virginia's Springfield "mixing bowl"--are ways to keep open and constant communication with the public, to assist drivers in avoiding construction-congested routes and to speed up construction so that the public's misery is shorter-lived.
Denver was particularly interested in Utah's experience. Its I-15 project, which was close to completion in May, is similar in size and character to the plans for the Southeast Corridor: Utah has been turning 17 miles of a major six-lane highway into a 10-lane roadway, introducing carpool lanes, rebuilding 144 bridges and, in a separate project, adding light rail. What is even more intriguing about the Utah experience is that the state is completing the project in record time.
Utah's main goal was, in fact, speed. In part that was to cater to Utahan sensibilities to get it over with quickly. "The public," says Tom Warne, executive director of Utah's Department of Transportation, "would rather endure more inconvenience over a shorter time." But there was an even greater motivator for cutting the estimated 10- year project schedule in half. At the time construction was getting under way--in 1997--the city was staring at a 2002 deadline. That's when the Winter Olympics will take place in Salt Lake City and the city couldn't host millions of visitors while rebuilding its main artery.
To speed things up, the legislature approved the use of design-build, a largely private-sector method in which one team both designs and builds the project, as opposed to design by an architectural team followed by construction bids. Design-build's greatest asset for Utah was that it could shrink project schedules by allowing construction of some parts to begin before all design elements for the entire project were complete.
It also taps into the private sector's more entrepreneurial approach. Warne views the public sector's adoption of design-build as a valuable tool in moving away from decade-long projects. "We can streamline government processes if we capture the innovation and full resources of the private sector," he says. "We can provide transportation infrastructure projects faster than we could before."
That certainly proved to be the case. The state managed to finish the project in just 4 1/2 years. The shorter schedule also saved Utah nearly $500 million, bringing the I-15 piece of the project in at about $1.59 billion. (Light rail was a separate contract and budget.) Road construction managers were also able to consider contractors' proposals for easing traffic congestion in awarding the contract.
Among the communication lessons learned from the Utah experience was the importance of working closely with the trucking industry. Utah's DOT sent out a steady barrage of information, including about 1,000 faxes each week to commercial truckers alerting them to bottlenecks and helping them revise their route on any given day.
Colorado's Department of Transportation is also looking to techniques honed by Boston's Big Dig that have helped keep traffic moving around what is one of the largest public works projects worldwide. The $14.1 billion Central Artery/Tunnel completes the original National Highway System with the extension of Interstate 90 to the city's Logan International Airport via a third Boston Harbor tunnel. The project also calls for razing the rusted, elevated Central Artery and reconstructing and expanding it underground.
Big Dig engineers had a set of unusual challenges around which to construct 161 lane miles--half of them in tunnels. Much of Boston is built on historic fill, making the ground unstable. Hundreds of old water mains, gas lines and steam pipes needed to be moved out of the way. The city's subway had to be dug around. And the elevated Artery had to be supported--and used by traffic--while the earth below was hollowed out to depths of 120 feet.
The project was sorely needed, however. The old Central Artery was designed to carry 75,000 vehicle trips a day. Instead, some 200,000 vehicles a day were rumbling over it--at an ever-slowing pace. And that was before the first shovels and tractors and cranes arrived at the site. "The greatest success of this project, far and away, is the ability to keep the city alive" during construction, says Michael Lewis, the Big Dig's project director.
How did this huge project in the heart of the city manage to keep from totally bottling up Boston's traffic? For starters, some $3.4 billion was earmarked to keep interstates, streets and sidewalks open during construction.
The project uses some unique engineering feats to complete some construction pieces off-site and shore up existing highways temporarily. Sections of the tunnel, for instance, are being built in a dry dock and floated out to rest in a channel before they are joined together; temporary tunnel walls are being created from clay and water and these double as supports for the elevated highway; and earth around the tunnels has been frozen to stabilize it. These steps, plus lots of night construction and the use of temporary travel lanes--some in place for as many as seven years--have made it possible to hold rush hour to four hours (rather than a feared eight) during both morning and evening traffic.
But despite this innovative engineering and successful traffic management, secrecy and allegations of fraud have threatened to undermine the project's public credibility during the past two years. After an overrun of more than $2 billion was revealed, key members of the Big Dig's staff were fired, including the chairman of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, the agency in charge of the project. Since then, the project's management team has adopted an open-book policy, revealing financial statements and holding monthly public meetings to review cost and schedule estimates. And that has been another important lesson in construction management. "We've really benefited from opening up information," Lewis says. "People recognize how complex this is, so they're more willing to be supportive."
Big Dig construction began in 1991 and is expected to be finished in late 2004, with pieces of the new roadways opening during 2002 and 2003.
With an eye on the Big Dig, the Virginia Department of Transportation recognized the political difficulties of a long-term project when it began planning the reconstruction of its most dangerous and congested interchange in the early 1990s. Dubbed the "mixing bowl" by locals, it's where three major highways--Interstate 95, Route 395 out of Washington D.C. and the Capital Beltway--butt up against each other in Springfield, Virginia, about 15 miles south of the nation's capital. Daily, about 400,000 vehicles attempt to pass through the confusing spaghetti strands of ramps, bridges and local roads. Few drivers make it through without jamming on the brakes, making an unexpected lane change or swerving to avoid a confused driver. The area is notorious for jackknifed tractor-trailers backing up traffic for hours. The $585 million reconstruction project will create about 50 bridges and separate the interchange into 24 logically directed local and through lanes.
The project was originally slated to extend over 12 years, but that got officials nervous. "As we got closer to construction and were saying `10 to 12 years,' we realized it was clearly unacceptable. It wasn't going to fly," says Joan Morris, a department spokesperson. VDOT tightened its plans and trimmed the timeline to eight years. The project kicked off in 1999 and has targeted a finishing date of 2007.
Two years in, the reconfiguration is on schedule, thanks in large part to a construction-management version of the carrot and the stick. Carrot-wise, the state is offering its contractor a $10 million incentive if it can finish project phases two and three--there are seven altogether--by this August, even though the contract stipulates that those phases don't have to be completed until June 2002. On the stick side, for each day the work is later than the June 2002 date, the contractor will be fined $30,000. VDOT plans to continue the use of its incentive-disincentive program through the rest of the project.
The state is pouring another $28 million into its congestion- management program. The challenge of rebuilding while keeping cars on the road and moving is, says Morris, "like remodeling a house while having a party in the living room."
The congestion-management program began in 1997, two years before ground was broken. "People were expecting the worst," recalls Charles "Chip" Nottingham, VDOT's commissioner. "Quite frankly, we were planning for the worst." Teams composed of members from VDOT, area police and fire departments and county transportation staff divided traffic management into four areas. One group looked at local roads and the small improvements that would keep cars there moving. A second team planned for management of accidents. The third group mapped out plans for public information, and the fourth covered commuter options.
One unusual approach the public-information team has come up with is for VDOT to operate its own store in a shopping mall near the mixing- bowl site. The store was originally designed to dispense construction updates, but in the past year it has become a hub of sorts. Commuters gather at the store to check traffic reports, purchase transit passes and pick up maps designed to highlight alternate routes.
As to commuter options, the team conducted a phone survey of area commuters to learn what changes they might make in their commuting routine in light of the construction. "The discouraging news was that they were likely to do nothing," Morris reports. But the calls did reveal that high-occupancy vehicle, or carpool, lanes were the state's best shot at diminishing the number of cars coming through the interchange's regular lanes. "The HOV lanes are a godsend," Morris says, noting that the lanes have seen 48 percent growth outside the Beltway, and 18 percent inside, since 1998.
Since it can be tough for people to carpool without a place to park their cars and meet other commuters, the project set aside funds to build four new park-and-ride lots. Initially, the commuter-options team estimated that the project would need to create about 1,200 new park-and-ride spots (in addition to the 10,000 that were already available). It turns out that that was quite an underestimate. The new spots have been in such demand that VDOT added another 2,500 new park- and-ride spaces and has plans for an additional 2,100.
Commuters are using the park-and-ride lots for more than vanpooling. Ridership on Virginia Railway Express, a commuter rail from the outlying Northern Virginia suburbs to downtown Washington, D.C., has increased by 20 percent in the past year. The lots have also been converted to serve the Washington, D.C., Metro system. Buses have been added to shuttle passengers to nearby subway stops.
Virginia has also found that some disruption-management plans are ad hoc. One night when there was a lot of noisy work going on at the construction site, the loud sounds carried to three nearby hotels. Project team members bought earplugs and brought them to the hotel guests. "We're willing to do anything reasonable," Morris says, adding that before the project began, many local businesses were fearful that the construction would shut their businesses down, but that now that concern has dissipated.
Six years of construction remain, but so far citizen representatives and traffic watchdogs are actually praising VDOT's management of the mixing bowl project. "We knew going in that a project of that magnitude would have some kind of impact," says Tony Howard, public affairs manager for the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce. "VDOT has done a pretty admirable job of mitigating the impacts." And Elaine McConnell, a Springfield district supervisor who served as part of the congestion management planning team, says she's heard few complaints from constituents, something she attributes to VDOT's continuous public information campaign.
As to Denver's I-25 project, the public overwhelmingly approved bond issues worth more than $1 billion in 1999 to finance it, and $3 million of the present project budget is targeted for Transportation Demand Management strategies. According to Larry Warner, the Southeast Corridor project's director, controlling quality, costs and construction schedule is of vital importance but not the first priority. "Our number one goal," he says, "is to minimize the inconvenience to the public."
To reach that goal, Colorado is also using the design-build approach that worked so well for Utah. Colorado's DOT estimates that the use of bond financing and design-build shaves about 10 years off the construction schedule.
The demand-management funds will cover communication, additional resources to manage accidents and subsidies for alternative commuting options, such as vanpooling. Management in the Southeast Corridor flows from the project team, including employees from both the state's transportation department and Regional Transportation District and housed in offices outside both agencies. It's a unique partnership for two agencies more accustomed to battling each other for budget dollars. But it's enabled the team to be creative in the congestion solutions it offers the public.
"The primary way to minimize impact is to communicate, all the time and when folks want it," says Amy Ford, a spokesperson for the project. Accordingly, the state plans to use available technology to spread the most up-to-date project information. A Web site will display live camera images of traffic around construction sites and construction warnings. A subscriber service will deliver real-time construction and accident information, as well as transmit personalized alternate routes to cell phones and pagers of drivers who request the service. Electronic message systems on the highway itself will warn motorists of delays and full park-and-ride lots.
Technology alone won't cover every driver. The state also plans to use more traditional means of communication, such as radio and TV traffic reports, newspapers and meetings with communities and civic groups.
A large part of keeping traffic moving during construction is to have less of it to move. The state is emphasizing alternatives, such as vanpooling and public transit, to individual commuters. It has also enlisted the help of three transportation-management associations in the Denver region to work with employers. And businesses have been receptive to the overtures. "They're saying, `It doesn't matter what you do, just do something,'" says Brendon Harrington, transportation program manager for the Downtown Denver Partnership. Some of the options being pitched to employers are alternative work schedules, telecommuting and creating amenities, like day care, on site.
While the state can't say yet how successful the alternatives will be at reducing the number of cars on the highway, Harrington thinks that they carry a lot of potential--with the use of some incentives.
Even without that data, other crowded Colorado regions are scrambling to sign up for new or expanded highways similar to the Southeast Corridor project. "The question isn't anymore, `Do these solutions work?'" Amy Ford says. "Everyone is asking, `When are we next?'" And when their number comes up, they'll be keeping a close eye on Denver, and the lessons it has to teach about managing the traffic mess that comes with construction.
