Ditchmen • NUCA of Florida Ditchmen • May 2017 | Page 4

I-4 ULTIMATE RECONSTRUCTION PROJECT by Sarah Matin, PE Rinker Materials, Technical Promotions Engineer The I-4 Ultimate Reconstruction project is the largest Infrastructure Project the Florida Department (FDOT) has ever constructed. It is located in Central Florida within District 5 of the FDOT. The project includes 21-miles of reconstruction from west of Kirkman Road in Orange County to east of SR 434 in Seminole County with four new tolled express lanes (two in each direction) 13 widened bridges, 74 replaced bridges and 53 new bridges. The project is being funded via a Public Private Partnership (P3). FDOT didn’t have enough funding available for the I-4 Ultimate project. FDOT procured half of the $2.3 billion needed for the project in 2014. Due to inflation and increases in fuel efficiency, FDOT is unable to keep pace 4 DITCHMEN • MAY 2017 with growing demands on the statewide interstate system. The P3 funding mechanism allows FDOT to bring this project to the public now to meet current needs. It would take 27 years to complete this project via traditional funding sources. By using the P3 procurement method, the design and construction will be done in less than seven years. The FDOT’s schedule shows the project to be completed by 2021. The project is currently the largest construction project in the Southeast. The project contract has a financial set up with a concessionaire, I-4 Mobility Partners, the constructors of the project are SGL (Skanska, Granite and Lane Corporations). The concessionaire will be keeping ownership of the project for 40 years. At that point, the ownership will be transitioned back to the FDOT. The grand task of construction and maintenance requires dependable and durable material selection. SGL chose to use concrete pipe solely on this project, as it will be maintaining ownership of the 21 mile stretch of roadway for 40 years. Rinker Materials is supplying the project with over 400,000 linear feet of concrete pipe, sizes ranging from 15” to 96”, which equates to over 5,000 truckloads of materials. The material cost for concrete pipe is approximately $16 million dollars. Rinker Materials is excited to be part of such a groundbreaking project for Central Florida, the Florida Department of Transportation and the underground infrastructure community. The I-4 Ultimate project reaffirms concrete pipe’s rigid, rugged, and resilient properties, while showing that concrete pipe is able to perform under the most adverse conditions for the most demanding clients without compromising long term performance. • • •