SR-71 is a major regional highway carrying traffic through Los Angeles, San Bernardino, and Riverside Counties, running from I-10 in the north to SR-91 in the south. It’s a connecting link for major east-west corridors passing through the area, and serves as an inland passageway for interregional freight traffic between San Diego and the eastern portion of the Los Angeles area. It also carries heavy commuter traffic between the communities of Chino, Ontario, and Pomona and employment centers in Orange and Los Angeles Counties.
Construction is currently underway in Phase 1 of two phases of this project, which will widen SR-71 with one mixed-flow lane and one High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lane in each direction between Interstate 10 and the Los Angeles/San Bernardino County line, converting the existing four-lane expressway to a full eight-lane freeway to accommodate the forecasted traffic volumes resulting from extensive development in the region.
Roadway excavation underway in Phase 1 to create new southbound lanes.
The work in Phase 1 begins at Mission Boulevard in the north and extends to State Route 60 in the south. The project is adding a total of 27 new lane miles, and removing all current intersections, which will allow for unhindered traffic flow between Los Angeles and San Bernardino Counties.
Working through the night, the OHLA crew lays down the lean concrete base for the new jointed plain concrete pavement
Caltrans District 7, with funding support from L.A. Metro, awarded the project to OHLA USA at the original budget of $85.9 million. Since the beginning of the project, $27.5 million in change orders have brought the project cost up to $113.4 million. The scope of work involves earthwork and grading for the new traffic lanes, new concrete pavement work, median barriers, retaining walls, new drainage systems, sound walls, electrical work, and landscaping.
The OHLA crew performs a nighttime placement of Jointed Plain Concrete Pavement in the southbound lanes.
Approximately 72,510 cubic yards of Jointed Plain Concrete Pavement (JPCP) are going into the project at a depth of 1.15 feet. Another 30,000 cubic yards of concrete are going into the Lean Concrete Base (LCB). Robertson’s Ready Mix in Pomona, just one mile from the project, is supplying the concrete. Machine pours are being performed using wet batch Super 10s, dumping in front of the paver or into the placer. A minimal amount of hand-pours are being done using Robertson’s mixers.
One of the structural wall construction pours taking place in Phase 1.
Much of the old asphalt concrete and aggregate base has been recycled, pulverized onsite, and mixed with the materials in the lower layers to create Class III base for the new sections.
The Gomaco GP 2600 smoothly paves a new lane of JPCP.
Gomaco equipment is being used on the project, with the GP 2600, GP 2400, Commander III, RTP500, and the TC600 doing the paving. Then to determine pavement smoothness before opening to traffic, a preliminary inertial profiler is being run. With the gathered data, a corrective grinding plan is put in motion, following Caltrans Standard Specification Section 42, running a PC-600 grinder with slurry tankers.
Diamond grinding of the new JPCP takes place in the southbound lanes during Phase 1.
Substantial completion is targeted for October 31st this year. Once Phase 1 is wrapped up, Phase 2 will continue the conversion of the expressway to a freeway north to I-10.
Coring of the new pavement takes place for crack analysis.
The OHLA Project Team includes Javier Castillo, Project Manager; Estefania Rodriguez, Project Engineer; Farid Azar, Project Engineer; Hayden R. Algra, Project Administrator; Jordi Cayetano, Construction Manager; Seve Loane, Civil Superintendent; Fernando Espino, Structures Superintendent; Melvin Mathew, Scheduler; Hather Reynolds, Environmental; Sean Young, Safety; and David Aguilar, Traffic Control.
Big thanks a tip of the hard hat goes to Project Manager Javier Castillo for all of his help with this story.