The Riverside Freeway (S.R. 91) in Southern California is an essential part of the complex freeway system that carries beachgoers, workers, residents and students to their various destinations.
Granite Construction photo
S.R. 91 works with its close neighbors, the Costa Mesa Freeway (S.R. 55) and Orange Freeway (S.R. 57), along with its big brother, Interstate 5, to enable travelers to get where they need to go.
Granite Construction is now replacing the Lakeview Avenue Bridge in Anaheim, which will help alleviate congestion and enhance safety in this busy region. The job is part of the SR-91 Improvement Project led by the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) and the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans).
In addition to replacing the bridge, the Granite team will add a new direct ramp to the Costa Mesa Freeway and improve connections to S.R. 91.
The work is planned for completion in 2027. The cost of the project will be slightly under $80 million.
Michael Kuhns is Granite's project manager for the job. He outlined the need for the work on this portion of the Riverside Freeway.
"During peak travel periods, local and regional traffic demands exceed the freeway's capacity," he said. "Those demands are expected to increase. In addition, weaving and short merging distances via Lakeview Avenue causes congestion and delays."
Granite Construction photo
Kuhns and his team intend to recycle and repurpose much of the material from the excavation. The concrete and asphalt will be processed or crushed and used as fill for the construction of the new freeway on-ramp and off-ramp.
Concrete Plans
Lakeview Avenue Bridge is concrete, built with prestressed, precast concrete girders. When finished, the bridge will be 324 ft. long, 113 ft. wide and will carry three lanes of traffic in each direction. The bridge will carry traffic over S.R. 91. Granite's construction team has poured two of the three footings and is scheduled to pour the concrete columns and abutment walls before the end of the year.
Building a bridge in a high-traffic environment like this requires carefully staged construction.
The construction team will shut down the freeway for three weekends to complete the building project. At that time, the eastern half of the bridge will have been built and traffic moved over to the newly built bridge. After the demolition of the existing bridge, the western half of the new bridge will then be built. The western and eastern halves of the bridge will then be joined with a concrete deck closure pour.
Granite Construction photo
The construction team also will build a drop ramp for S.R. 55 off the western half of the new bridge. Finally, workers will build the pavement for the new bridge and open it to traffic.
In addition to the bridge work, the Granite team and subcontractors will build new pavement and retaining walls. The construction team will use approximately 26,000 cu. yds. of concrete, 18,000 tons of asphalt and some 2 million lbs. of reinforced steel.
Safety Emphasized
Granite will emphasize safety as workers will be moving in a busy area with multiple freeways nearby. Important safety measures will include:
• Nighttime closures will reduce disruptions and risk during peak hours.
• Temporary concrete barriers and crash cushions will direct live traffic away from work areas.
• Portable message signs will monitor traffic and alert drivers of disruptions to their normal traffic patterns.
• Granite and Caltrans are working closely to establish clear communication with police, fire and EMS personnel to ensure emergency access and rapid response to emergencies.
• Community outreach has been updating the public about safety protocols and construction timelines.
The Granite team is focused on important areas like safety and excellence in the basic day-to-day construction operations. The team has been helped through 3D modeling that is downloaded to the heavy equipment.
The 3D modeling has proved especially helpful to the crews for grading and building proper subgrades. The 3D modeling also has helped the team meet specifications while building the lean concrete base, jointed concrete pavement, hot-mix asphalt and rubberized asphalt sections.
Granite Construction photo
Granite has worked to create unity among its transportation partners.
"By fostering a strong partnership from OCATA and Caltrans, we have been able to make significant progress and actually be one month ahead of schedule," Kuhns said.
The Granite team rolled out an impressive array of equipment to build the project. Granite used the normal workhorses of the fleet including bulldozers, articulated trucks and wheel loaders.
The construction team also used a steel pile driver crane (Link-Belt HC-218A) and an 80-ton crane (Link-Belt RTC 8080). The team used water trucks, motor grader (Cat 14M blade), skip loaders, Cat 950M wheel loader, backhoe loaders, large vibratory roller compactor (CAT CS56B) and a forklift/telehandler. CEG
