Freeway To Go

Feb. 21, 2003

In clearing land for the I-210, three endangered life forms had to be protected: the kangaroo rat, a plant called the woolly star and Sam Maloof.

In clearing land for the I-210, three endangered life forms had to be protected: the kangaroo rat, a plant called the woolly star and Sam Maloof.

An era has ended. First suggested in a 1924 traffic plan, the massive undertaking that became the California freeway system is finally complete. Construction of the I-210 freeway (also known as the Foothill freeway) adds the final 28.2 miles of roadway to a system that boasts some 900 miles of freeways in Southern California alone. Connecting the city of La Verne in Los Angeles County to the city of San Bernardino, this last segment is an eight-lane freeway with 49 new structures, 14 local street interchanges and one freeway-to-freeway interchange. This is the last freeway to be built on virgin land; no more new freeways are planned in Southern California (although existing freeways will continue to be expanded and upgraded).

"This project has been a long time coming," explained Norm King, executive director of the transportation commission for the San Bernardino Associated Governments (SANBAG). "And completing the I-210 could not happen at a better time. Los Angeles International Airport is about to undergo a planned expansion, and Ontario International Airport is going to become much, much busier. The already overcrowded I-10 freeway would have had to carry an even greater burden. Now, the I-210 becomes an absolutely critical component in the Southland freeway system. And like any freeway built in this area, it is going to have several roles.

"One of those roles is the movement of goods. Taking some of the pressure off of the I-10 freeway and State Route 60, the I-210 freeway will improve commerce in the area simply by improving traffic flow. That's true for people movement as well. Access to the region's airport and other attractions becomes much easier with the opening of this freeway. And emergency personnel now have a freeway option if there's an accident on the I-10 freeway."

Comprising eight lanes (two carpool lanes and six mixed-flow lanes), the freeway connects with I-15. The inside shoulders of I-210 followed the same design specifications as the mixed-flow lanes, so the highway could expand to as many as 10 lanes in the future. Because the I-210 crosses seven cities--La Verne, Claremont, Upland, Rancho Cucamonga, Fontana, Rialto and San Bernardino--it could only be developed through a partnership between SANBAG and the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans).

"We're seeing extremes of traffic volume as population and development continue to expand in the Inland Empire," explained Tim Watkins, a spokesman for Caltrans. "This freeway provides another critical east-west option. The I-210 will remove 43,000 vehicles per day from local arterials. In the next phase of this project, we'll connect to State Route 30 in San Bernardino at the intersection of the I-215. Ultimately, you'll be able to travel all the way from the I-10 in Redlands to Pasadena on a single freeway."

While this may be the last freeway to be constructed on new land, new does not mean unoccupied. And environmental concerns became one of the most interesting challenges of this freeway project. While most highway projects around the country have to deal with environmental issues, this was more than a little different.

"Let's talk about the San Bernardino kangaroo rat. It looks like a mouse with long hind legs and a long tail. Think of a mini-kangaroo," remarked Keith Fullenwider, the resident engineer on the project for DMJM+Harris. An architecture and engineering firm, DMJM+Harris, Orange, Calif., provided construction management and engineering for Segments 1-4 of the project. "That peculiar little creature is an endangered species. So the kangaroo rat and its habitat had to be protected. Because the kangaroo rat occupies several isolated areas, we had to develop measures that would protect a substantial acreage.

"First we installed opaque, 4-ft-high fences, and placed them deep into the ground. That kept the rats from escaping beneath the fences. Then the rats were carefully trapped and relocated.

"Things were much easier when it came to protecting the woolly star and its habitat. But none of these measures compared to what had to be done to preserve Sam Maloof's house."

The protection of natural habitats and endangered species is a challenge that many project teams face. And moving people and their residences usually raises few eyebrows on any project. But then there is Sam Maloof, winner of a MacArthur Foundation "genius" grant for his exquisitely crafted rocking chairs and arguably the greatest living American woodworker. Maloof's sprawling house and workshop compound--eligible for inclusion in the National Historic Register and thus stringently protected by federal law--sat squarely in the I-210's right-of-way. Because this was not your normal house or compound by any measure, the moving of such a collection of fragile and historically important buildings became a project unto itself.

"Mr. Maloof's house had to be moved in two phases," said Maloof relocation project manager Ann Kovara, an architect with DMJM+Harris. "First we constructed a new residence in a style and with materials that were similar to his own historic residence. He would live and work there while we moved his residence and his workshop compound to their permanent locations. 

"In the second phase, we disassembled and moved his main house. A 10,000-sq-ft building that had been built over the course of 50 years, this complex structure had to be moved in 11 segments. We had a contractor, a building mover and a structural engineer study the problem for a year before we let them take the house apart and move it. This had to be done because of the piecemeal way the house had been constructed; it wasn't exactly your typical square, prefabricated suburban house. We carved the house into seven sections and the workshops into four sections. In addition to the overall complexity of the structures, there were historic architectural elements inside the building--cabinets, doors, trim, etc. Maloof had personally created the woodwork that gave the house its unique interior character.

But moving Maloof's house was not the only unusual aspect of the project. Several of the communities along the right-of-way had very specific concerns for their segments of the freeway. Structure Representative Doug Franco of Vali Cooper and Associates explained.

"For me the most interesting aspect of the project was the Euclid Avenue overcrossing in Upland. First of all, the structure is wider than it is long. And Euclid Avenue is a pretty old thoroughfare; it's been around for 150-200 years. Like the Maloof compound, the area is eligible for inclusion in the National Historic Register, so protection of the location was driven by federal law. It's got a nice median where the people of Upland go to enjoy an evening stroll; it's a community gathering place and they wanted to keep it that way. The resulting design is like a giant planter on the overpass.

"The overpass bridge is covered 5 ft deep with material--dirt and sod--and there are 45 or 50 trees planted on top of it. When you drive over this structure, you don't even know that you're going over the freeway. And that's the point. They were more than willing to have the freeway go through, as long as they could make the overpass part of their community. SANBAG worked very closely with them to make that happen."

Thickening pavement

While the project certainly has its unique and historical features, it also applied some of the most advanced technology available to create this latest generation of efficient freeways. A great example of this is the road surface itself. Caltrans, SANBAG and their private consultants designed the I-210 using extra-thick portland cement concrete (PCC) pavement. It is one of the newer, longer-life pavements. According to Fullenwider, 290 mm of PCC was placed on top of 125 mm of lean concrete base. Those two layers sit on 95% compacted dirt.

The mix consisted of 25- and 37.5-mm aggregates and sand, 340 kg of cement per cu meter, of which 20% was fly ash, and air and water admixtures. The minimum cure time was 10 days.

Epoxy-coated rods called low-transfer dowels (38 mm diam., 460 mm long) were inserted into the mix to tie the sections of concrete together. The bars were placed approximately every 4 m in the pavement. No. 4 epoxy-coated tie bars (18 mm in diam., 750 mm long) also were used. This entire process kept the sections from shifting and displacing. Having experimented with different formulas, Caltrans believes that this approach will provide a smoother-riding, longer-lasting freeway.

To put that roadbed down, the construction team brought in one of the largest concrete paving machines in the world. Known as the Gomaco 4000 (Circle 931), this paving machine also is one of the fastest. Paving up to 3,000 ft per day, the machine inserted the low-transfer dowels at transverse joints in a way that allowed them to slide horizontally on the road, rather than vertically. This made for better ridability when the pavement sets. The work on the I-210 was done using an IDBI attachment. Coffman Specialties Inc., San Diego, Calif., a subcontractor to Yeager Construction, Riverside, Calif., handled this paving assignment. Sapper Construction, Spring Valley, Calif., also paved a portion of I-210.

The I-210 represents the end of an era. With the primary design and construction work now part of its lengthy, convoluted past, Southern California's freeway system is a testament to the future. But the I-210 also signifies many other things. Providing a new, much-needed east-west corridor, the I-210 will relieve its host communities of huge volumes of both local and intercommunity traffic. And the project itself serves as an example of how a public works undertaking can be completed so as to benefit every stakeholder.

In clearing land for the I-210, three endangered life forms were protected: the kangaroo rat, the woolly star and Sam Maloof. Of course, that doesn't even take into account all of the other lives that were bettered by the success of this new, last freeway.

About The Author: Schurr is a New York-based freelance writer.

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