Colorado Highway Team Goes for the Gold Award
Clear Creek Canyon Bridge Completed Under Budget
- in Just 12 Days
Austin, TX/September 14, 2005 —The National Partnership for Highway
Quality (NPHQ) announced today that its 2005 Gold Award will go to the Colorado
Department of Transportation and contractor Edward Kraemer and Sons, Inc. for
the rehabilitation and reconstruction of three bridges on US 6 through Clear
Creek Canyon in “record time, illustrating another quality practice focused
on the customer.”
Announcing the award was Bob Templeton, executive director of NPHQ, a partnership
among federal, state, and roadway industry leaders and officials whose advocacy
of “customer-centered” practices has produced better, safer, more user-friendly
roads and bridges that are completed faster, last longer, and minimize congestion
and inconvenience.
The Colorado team, after extensively researching the three 54-year-old bridges
that needed extensive rehabilitation, decided to fast-track the entire project—similar
work usually averages about 90 days of construction time--in order to minimize
both motorist inconvenience and the economic impact on two major Colorado mountain
tourist destinations, the gambling towns of Black Hawk and Central City.
Keys to accomplishing the goal for the team included precise pre-construction
scheduling, more than adequate contingency planning, a pro-active design approach,
and, perhaps most important, a teamwork mindset that enlisted as CDOT partners
the contractor, both towns, local businesses, and numerous other interested
stakeholders.
Public information also was a vital component in making “teamwork” work, right
from the planning stages. As construction neared, the Colorado team and the
communities affected released useful information about upcoming closures, utilizing
variable message and static highway signs, news releases and advisories, local
newspaper advertising, and even direct mail.
The result: three 54-year-old bridges successfully rehabilitated in a record
12 days, considerably under budget as well. “The fast-track reconstruction and
rehabilitation concept used by the Colorado team will serve as a national model,” said
Templeton, “and stand as one more
dramatic example of the application of quality practices for customer benefit.”
NPHQ is composed of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the American Association
of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), the Texas Transportation
Institute, the Foundation for Pavement Preservation, the National Institute for
Certification in Engineering Technologies, the American Highway Users Alliance,
The Associated General Contractors of America, the National Ready Mixed Concrete
Association, Kiewit Corporation, and the URS Corporation.
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