S&ME was contracted by the North Carolina Department of Transportation to provide construction engineering and inspection as well as construction materials testing, supporting the upgrade of the oldest unimproved section of I-440.
Project Scope
The project addresses severe congestion along a section of the Raleigh Beltline, between Walnut Street in Cary and Wade Avenue in Raleigh, which had remained a four-lane divided roadway section while adjacent sections were upgraded with additional lanes.
The improvements, which include adding travel lanes, replacing bridges and improving interchanges, will help to alleviate the bottleneck by adding capacity and improving traffic movements through interchanges.
U-2719
The U-2719 project consists of improvements to approximately five miles of I-440, adding through lanes and rebuilding interchanges to improve traffic flow along an older section of I-440 that suffer from reduced capacity compared to adjacent sections of I-440, both north and south.
U-4437
The U-4437 project consists of reconstructing the intersection of Blue Ridge Road and Hillsborough Street from an at-grade intersection to a grade-separated intersection, which also involves upgrades to the rail lines that run parallel to Hillsborough Street.
Site Background
Built in the 1960s, this segment of I-440 was not designed to handle the traffic volume of today’s Raleigh and includes many outdated design features such as narrow shoulders, poor site lines and short merges. While adjacent sections of I-440 have been upgraded over the years, this section has remained a bottleneck.
The Blue Ridge Road and Hillsborough Street intersection has been a sore spot for many years, largely due to the at-grade roadway intersection with an at-grade rail crossing, with drivers frequently experiencing long delays at all times of the day and greatly impacting events at the nearby State Fair Grounds, Carter-Finley Stadium and the Lenovo Center.
The Approach
The work includes lowering Blue Ridge Road and building new bridges for Hillsborough Street, multiple rail lines, and Beryl Road to reduce traffic and train conflicts. A new connector will link Blue Ridge Road and Hillsborough Street.
Since January 2020, S&ME has provided multiple personnel in key roles, including a Lead Erosion Control technician and technicians who perform density testing on ABC stone base and asphalt using nuclear gauges. In addition to these specialized duties, S&ME technicians:
- Tested soil density and concrete
- Inspected grading operations and curb and gutter placement
- Completed daily work reports
- Collected materials received documentation
- Trained many less experienced technicians on testing and inspection processes
S&ME partnered with WSP to perform CEI inspection and contract administration.
