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Faulty base requires road repair

A consultant's tests have confirmed that the limerock base used to build parts of the road does not meet county standards, Assistant County Administrator Tom Dick said.

By CATHERINE E. SHOICHET
Published October 19, 2006

Crews will tear up portions of County Road 486 that have been paved for months, county officials said Wednesday.

A consultant's tests have confirmed that the limerock base used to build parts of the road does not meet county standards, Assistant County Administrator Tom Dick said.

"They will be tearing up some of the road," he said.

But exactly how much of the road needs to be repaired or replaced had not been determined Wednesday. County officials, consultants and contractor D.A.B. Constructors will meet today to determine exactly what went wrong and how to fix it.

The county is not at fault and will not have to pay for the repair work, Dick said.

At issue are depressions in the road in the westbound lane between Reston Terrace and Forest Ridge Boulevard and the eastbound lane from McGee to Thatcher Avenue, construction manager Robert P. Rudd said.

Problems with the road came up in June, when cars began to drive on the newly completed lanes, he said. In some places, the road's surface started to crack. And parts of the road felt uneven as cars drove over it.

Since then, engineers and scientists have been trying to figure out what went wrong. An independent consultant's report pointed toward the road's limerock base, Dick said.

Even though fixing the road will be inconvenient for drivers, the county cannot ignore the problem, Commission Chairman Gary Bartell said Wednesday.

"It's an unfortunate situation, but it wasn't created by the county," he said. "It was created by the contractor."

D.A.B. Constructors vice president Bill Bachschmidt declined to comment Wednesday. He said he would know more about the issue after today's meeting.

In July, county public works officials said they were worried the road's limerock base contained too much plastic. That, director of Public Works Glenn McCracken said, means the road wouldn't be able to support the load of cars driving over it.

Rudd said the repair work won't delay the $21-million widening project. But he said the project will take longer than originally planned because it had expanded to include a stormwater pond and other improvements. Originally slated for completion in March 2007, crews are now expected to finish work a few months later, in the summer of 2007.

Crews tore up a portion of CR 486 earlier this year, after a county engineering inspector noticed problems with the limerock.

Paving had not yet begun, and crews removed material extending about 1,300 feet east from the Forest Ridge Boulevard intersection.

Dick said limerock used in the CR 486 expansion came from Crystal River Quarries mines, which are certified by the state.

As a result of the problems detected on CR 486, county engineers have started doing their own tests of rock at project sites, Dick said.

He said problems with the road do not pose a safety concern.

D.A.B. Constructors had agreed to foot the bill for repair work and provide a three-year warranty for CR 486, Dick said. And ultimately, he said, the contractor will decide what portions of the road to remove and replace.

Catherine E. Shoichet can be reached at cshoichet@sptimes.com or 860-7309.

[Last modified October 18, 2006, 21:14:57]