New Photos - Route VA-288 Construction - January 2005
Scott M. Kozel
Richmond, Virginia, taken in January 2005.
"Route VA-288 Construction - January 2005" -
http://www.roadstothefuture.com/VA288_Construction_Jan05.html
which is accessed by hyperlink from -
"Route VA-288 Construction - Western Section"
http://www.roadstothefuture.com/VA288_Construction_Western.html
The final section of Route 288 opened to traffic on November 19, 2004,
the 3.7-mile section between Lucks Lane and US-60 Midlothian Turnpike.
The 27 January photos are of this section after it opened to traffic.
The main article above has updated information about the resolution of
the $236 million PPTA section of the project, and more information about
public-private partnerships.
The $236 million APAC-Virginia PPTA project section of Route 288 was
completed on-budget. This included building the 10.4 miles of Route 288
new 4-lane freeway between the Chesterfield County / Powhatan County
line and Interstate I-64, plus the ultimate mainline roadways where
there are collector-distributor (C-D) lanes on the VDOT-managed Route
288 projects, at the interchanges of Route 76 Powhite Parkway, Lucks
Lane and US-60 Midlothian Turnpike, plus the ultimate 2-lane parallel
roadway for Lucks Lane where it crosses Route 288. Record levels of
rainfall in 2003 and 2004 caused the original schedule of completing the
PPTA project section of 29 months, to take 41 months to complete. The
PPTA agreement had a heavy penalty clause that specified damages of
$25,000 per day, up to a maximum of $5 million, if the project was not
"substantially complete" by Oct. 31, 2003. At the end of the project,
the contractor team had a pending request for $10.6 million in
additional compensation, citing a clause in its contract that addresses
"significantly abnormal weather conditions". VDOT decided to forego its
$5 million due for the project being 11 months late, in return for the
contractor forgoing its request for the $10.6 million in additional
compensation.
Incidental construction is still underway for landscaping, seeding and
other roadside work, on the $58.3 million Vecellio & Grogan, Inc.
project, the 4.5-mile-long segment of VA-288, between 0.5 mile south of
Charter Colony Parkway and the Chesterfield/Powhatan county line,
including the US-60 Midlothian Turnpike interchange and the Woolridge
Road interchange. The contract award amount was $47.6 million, and the
final cost will be $58.3 million, a $10.7 million increase in cost.
Construction began in spring 1999 on the $25.2 million 2.8-mile-long
section of VA-288 between 0.9 mile south of VA-76 Powhite Parkway and
0.5 mile south of Charter Colony Parkway in Chesterfield County, and
completion occured in November 2002, with opening to traffic of the 0.9
mile of VA-288 between VA-76 and Lucks Lane (actually on the collector-
distributor roadways, as the mainline roadways north of VA-76 were not
open at that point). This project was completed at $30.8 million, or a
$5.6 million increase in cost.
So the total award cost of the three projects was $308.7 million, and
the final cost was $325.1 million, a 5.3% increase in cost, well within
the 10% in the budget allowed for contingencies. The two smaller
projects were each over the 10%, but the $236 million PPTA project,
which comprised 76.4% of the cost of all three projects, was completed
on-budget at $236 million.
Public sector contracting typically has 10% allowed for contingencies.
'Contingencies' refers to additions and revisions to the contract during
construction, and the usual industry standard is that 10% be allowed for
contingencies on a highway project; for example, if the engineering
estimate was $10.0 million for a particular project, that the project
would be budgeted for construction in the TIP at $11.0 million, with up
to $1.0 million budgeted for possible change orders needed during
construction. This shows that even the best project engineering
estimates have a significant amount of uncertainty acknowledged as part
of the process of heavy construction contracting.
All mainline roadways and ramps and C-D roadways are open to traffic.
This completes my monthly photo updates for the 17.5 miles of Western
Route 288 projects built 1999-2005; the monthly photo updates have been
released every single month since August 2001.
PPTA is a Virginia procurement process, the Public Private
Transportation Act of 1995.
The Public-Private Transportation Act of 1995 is the legislative
framework enabling the Commonwealth of Virginia, qualifying local
governments and certain other political entities to enter into
agreements authorizing private entities to acquire, construct, improve,
maintain, and/or operate qualifying transportation facilities. Passage
of the Act, which took effect July 1, 1995, followed a year-long
collaboration among the General Assembly, representatives from the
private sector, and the transportation agencies.
PPTA has a fine record so far with respect to successfully delivering
huge transportation projects, with respect to schedule and budget.
These are the ones that have been completed --
Route 895 Pocahontas Parkway, a 8.8-mile-long freeway built 1998-2002;
92% private funding, the project was awarded at $324 million, to be
completed in 44 months, and they completed it at $314 million, which is
$10 million under budget, and in 49 months, by Fluor Daniel/Morrison
Knudsen, LLC (FD/MK).
Route 288 Richmond beltway, a 17.5-mile-long freeway built 1999-2004;
100% public funding, the largest section of the project was awarded
under PPTA in May 2001 at $236 million, to be completed in 29 months,
and they completed it at $236 million, which is on budget, and in 41
months, and the extra time is reasonable given that near-record levels
of rainfall occurred in 2003 and 2004. By APAC-Virginia, Inc.
Dulles Greenway (built under the Highway Corporation Act of 1988, a
one-time version of what later became PPTA), a 14-mile freeway built
1992-1995; 100% private funding, completed six months ahead of schedule,
and on-budget of $350 million, by Kellogg Brown & Root, Inc.
Someone may argue that three out of three successes doesn't prove that
all will be as successful, but I think it is a darn good track record
for three huge highway projects.
The Route 288 example shows that PPTA can be used for a 100% public
funded project, and they built a lot of freeway on-budget for a
reasonable cost.
--
Scott M. Kozel Highway and Transportation History Websites
Virginia/Maryland/Washington, D.C. http://www.roadstothefuture.com
Philadelphia and Delaware Valley http://www.pennways.com