Southwest Anthony Henday Drive, Ring Road – Detail-Oriented Maintenance of Critical Infrastructure
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Lafarge has a 30-year contract with Alberta Transportation to maintain and repair the Southwest Anthony Henday Drive, which is a portion of Edmonton's massive ring road. The company also has similar contracts for managing the southeast and northeast parts of the ring road, given its expertise and history of excellence in such projects.
The southwest portion of the massive roadway receives an average daily traffic of 125,000 vehicles and includes:
- 280 lane km of roadway
- 31 bridge structures
- One bridge culvert
- 58 sign structures
- Three systems interchanges
- Ten interchanges
- 15 signalized intersections
- 16,000 m of sidewalk
- 2,217 street light fixtures
The performance-based contract includes year-round maintenance, repairs, and emergency management. Lafarge's specialized operations and quality management teams have a deep and thorough understanding of safe highway maintenance in urban areas, making it one of Western Canada's foremost roadway maintenance contractors.
THE CHALLENGE
The Southwest Anthony Henday Drive operations and maintenance contract was similar to the work Lafarge has done on previous projects, but it presented distinctive challenges due to its location. The team was attentive to the specific concerns and highlighted the core elements requiring special planning.
Resource allocation and mobilization were critical concerns for this project for two reasons: plow routes and the long-term project duration. The part of the route needs to be plowed frequently during winter, so planning needs to consider plowing schedules.
There was also a need to keep the year-on-year costs in mind to maintain a systematic process flow.
Quality assurance has always been Lafarge's strength and played a critical role during the project. During the execution stage, the team realized that the lighting structure was varied and would require rework to meet the quality standards required by the client.
This rework was not part of the initial estimates but was still critical because it would affect the final results.
THE SOLUTION
The name of the road changed midway through the project. Lafarge's quick responsiveness ensured that the team accommodated the reclassification of the Southwest Anthony Henday Drive Ring Road in 2016.
When the roadway classification changed to AAA (75,001 to 125,000 AADT), clean-up after a storm event was reduced to within 24 hours. This change required additional staffing and equipment to meet the higher performance requirement. The project team met this challenge by collaborating with their construction group to obtain two additional loaders that were used for bridge deck clearing.
The team implemented a stand-by retainer system for loader operators to assist with bridge deck clearing and general clean-up requirements and met all the new classification performance requirements.
Lafarge adopted plow route optimization, which allows a maximum of two-hour cycle times, including mobilization to and from the salt shed. This method was successful for the expansion of the addition of four interchanges on Southwest Anthony Henday Drive in 2011 and has helped make collaborations seamless.
Lafarge integrated its seasonal construction fleet for winter maintenance to reduce costs and allow flexibility in equipment requirements. This strategy has allowed the company to staff 13 plow trucks with an on-staff crew of five operators.
The team worked with the client, presenting them with new estimates to cover the cost of pole restands during winter. The team leveraged vendor relationships and worked with an electrical subcontractor to ensure this planning and execution did not affect project timelines.
They set up a temporary steel post configured to fit multiple bolt circumference diameter bases. It allowed them to meet the contract deliverables and minimized pole inventory requirements.
THE RESULT
Lafarge’s work on the Southwest Anthony Henday Drive has consistently considered the client and stakeholders' needs and achieved excellent results. The team maintains and repairs the road, keeping it safe for public usage.
