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Skanska USA Civil, Inc. Passes Midway Point on SR-60 Truck Lanes Widening Project By Brian Hoover, Senior Editor
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iverside County Transportation Commission (RCTC) and Caltrans are currently engaged in improving safety and traffic flow for commuters, trucks and travelers making their way to and from desert resorts on the 60 Freeway. They are accomplishing this by building truck lanes in the Route 60 Badlands in Riverside County between Moreno Valley and Beaumont. The State Route (SR) 60 Truck Lanes Widening Project will cover 4.5 miles from Gilman Springs Road to 1.4 miles west of Jack Rabbit Trail. Specific features include truck lanes in both directions, wider shoulders, flatter curves, and taller median barriers. Construction began in July 2019 and is currently scheduled for completion in April 2022. Skanska was selected as the low bidder and general contractor to manage construction on the SR-60 Truck Lanes Widening Project. Rafael Gutierrez is the senior project manager overseeing all aspects of construction on the job. “The first order of work was to locate a water source for this project. We found an Eastern 10
Municipal Water District hydrant on Gilman Springs Road around a mile southeast of the 60 freeway, and we ran a line from there to the job-site,” says Gutierrez. “We also drilled a 375-foot well within the limits of the project.” The total published cost for the SR-60 Truck Lanes Project is $138.4 million, with Skanska being responsible for performing approximately $99 million for the bid-build highway widening portion. Skanska’s work includes constructing a new eastbound truck climbing lane and a westbound truck descending lane. It also involves the widening of shoulders to standard widths of 12-foot exterior shoulders and 11-foot interior shoulders. One of the more interesting aspects of this job consists of the construction of two wildlife crossings. The project lies within mountainous terrain with a curving alignment and steep grades. Skanska is flattening roadway curves to improve motorist overall comfort and sight distance as part of the project design. “The original roadway was constructed in the 1960s, and the curves were not to the current standard,” says
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Gutierrez. “We are performing a complete remove and replace while realigning to make the curves smoother. The vertical curves were also designed and built to new standard specifications.” The area under construction on the 60 freeway was formerly a two-lane highway in each direction and lacked inside or outside shoulders. In late Aug. 2019, one westbound lane on SR-60 was closed for six months to allow Skanska the room to safely and efficiently begin the widening of the roadway. “The six-month closing of the westbound lane saved as much as one year in construction time. The existing slopes were only a few feet away from the travel lanes. The lane closure provided the necessary space to cut the slopes back on the westbound side of the highway so that we could begin construction of the new pavement section,” says Gutierrez. “1.4 million cubic yards of earth was excavated during this six-month lane closure and 2.2 million cubic yards total will be moved by jobs end. Once the lane was closed and the earth moved, we were C A LCO N T R AC TO R .CO M
