Four Times the Effort: Big Blue River Bridge Project

摘要

Projects for the Kansas Department of Transportation, Geotech Section are usually pretty straight forward. The geology section has a great working relationship with our design squads. Design changes are usually minor, such as small alignment corrections, right-of-way needs, or minor adjustments to a bridge span. However, one particular project was not that simple, the Big Blue River Bridge replacement and realignment of US-77 highway. The geologic setting is the Flint Hills Region of Kansas with approximately 200 feet of topographical relief and an extensive gypsum mining operation. This project went through 4 alignment changes. Some of these changes moved the roadway as much as 3/4 of a mile, others only a couple hundred feet. The Geotech Section was given 3 months to complete the investigation. After completion of the field work the alignment changed to eliminate an 80 foot rock cut slope. Other alignment shifts were put into place, always after the field work had been started. The final alignment shift was begun by a local landowner. He had a better plan than our design squad. What started out as a simple project now had consumed 1 year of field time, involved numerous design revisions, had major utility impacts and resulted in alterations to two Kansas highway alignments.