S.W.COLE provided construction materials testing services on a $15M culvert replacement project under US Route 5 in Ryegate, Vermont. The design-build project is a Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTRANS) project.
Inside the new culvert. (Photo credit: VTRANS)
The culvert was in need of replacement because it had deteriorated, was prone to clogging and was undersized. Two new, cast-in-place, reinforced concrete arched culverts with 32-foot spans replaced the former failing culvert.
This was a challenging project because the new culverts were placed up to 80 feet below both a roadway and railroad. Both of these elements needed to be maintained and passable for the duration of the project. To do this, the contractor drove steel sheeting around the culverts and used hundreds of tieback anchor supports to build a large cofferdam around the new culverts, creating one of the deepest mechanically supported trenches ever excavated in Vermont.
S.W.COLE was retained again in 2014 to perform construction materials testing and inspection of concrete, soil and hot mix asphalt. While S.W.COLE’s work on the project is complete, work by others is expected to be completed by the fall of 2016.
