Utah Demonstration Project: Geosynthetic Reinforced Soil Integrated Bridge System on I-84 near Salt Lake City

Federal Highway Administration2014PDFTech ReportRaghunathan, DeepakSadasivam, SuriMallela, JagannathApplied Research Associates, Inc.United States. Federal Highway Administration. Office of InfrastructureZirlin, JulieFlom, EwaUnited States. Federal Highway AdministrationUnited StatesUtahDemonstration projectsGeosyntheticsSoil stabilizationLateral supportsInnovationJulie Zirlin;Ewa FlomFinal ReportAs part of a national initiative sponsored by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) under the Highways for LIFE program, the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) was awarded a $1 million grant to demonstrate the use of proven, innovative accelerated bridge construction technologies to deliver this $5 million project in substantially less time than conventional construction. The project involved replacing twin bridges located on the westbound and eastbound routes of I-84 over Echo Frontage Road in Summit County. The structure to be replaced was constructed in 1971 and carried a designation of D-783 in UDOT\u2019s bridge management system. The project limits extended approximately between milepost118 and milepost120. The innovative construction techniques adopted were as follows: \u2022 Use of the geosynthetic reinforced soil-integrated bridge system (GRS-IBS) method of design and construction. \u2022 Use of prefabricated bridge elements and systems (PBES). \u2022 Use of a lateral bridge slide. This was the first GRS-IBS project in Utah and also the first GRS-IBS project on an interstate in the U.S. It was also the first GRS-IBS project in the U.S. to incorporate a lateral bridge slide. On this project, UDOT used a price + time or price + time + lane rental bidding process. To estimate the cost savings for the GRS-IBS method, the total costs were computed for both the as-built and baseline (castin-place) scenarios by adding the agency costs and user costs (delay + safety costs). The results indicated around 7 percent cost savings during the as-built scenario compared to the baseline because of significantly reduced user costs.104