Productivity aspects of urban freeway rehabilitation with accelerated construction

Over the last 5 years the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) has completed three experimental long-life urban freeway rehabilitation projects by utilizing a fast-track (accelerated) construction approach of around-the-clock operations under extended closure. This paper presents the fast-track rehabilitation approaches and the as-built production rates of major rehabilitation operations monitored at the three experimental projects. The monitoring results show that the contractor's production rates varied considerably depending upon the construction logistics, material delivery and hauling methods, lane-closure tactics, and/or pavement designs being implemented. A higher production rate and a noticeable "learning-curve effect" were observed when full-width rehabilitation was compared with partial-width rehabilitation, when continuous lane reconstruction was compared with random slab replacements, and when full roadbed closures were compared with partial lane closures. Findings in this study suggest that Caltrans should evaluate project-specific conditions and constraints, which might restrict use of a preferred rehabilitation scheme, by taking production rate variances into account when establishing schedule baselines of construction staging plans and incentive/disincentive contracts for urban freeway rehabilitation projects.