Client Solutions / Case Studies / Transportation

Transportation

Project:

Name: T-REX Transportation Project
Client: Colorado Department of Transportation and Regional Transportation District
Location: Denver, Colorado

Client Benefits:

Kleinfelder completed its work on budget and within the 22-month time allotted, helping the overall project eventually finish more than a year ahead of schedule.

Trusted Advisor in Transportation

Over the past 20 years, the metropolitan region of Denver, Colorado has experienced remarkable growth and faced increased travel demand and congestion along the Interstate 25 corridor. In an effort to mitigate congestion along the corridor, the Colorado Department of Transportation and the Regional Transportation District initiated a $1.67 billion transportation expansion project.

The massive project, known by the appropriate moniker "T-REX," entailed adding 19 miles of light rail and improving 17 miles of highway through southeast Denver and surrounding communities. All this had to be done with minimal disruption of traffic and within an ambitious five-year design and construction schedule.

T-REX owners recognized the potential impact the large-scale project could have on the motoring public and entrusted Kleinfelder with the handling of geotechnical evaluations and earthwork designs associated with the construction of 15 bridge structures, 4 light rail stations with parking structures and other transit facilities, 2 cut-and-cover tunnels, 52 retaining walls, 20 noise walls, drainage facilities, park-and-ride facilities, arterial and local roadway modifications, 5.3 miles of highway mainlines and light rail alignment, ramps, signage and lighting.

Along the way, Kleinfelder encountered and overcame a number of unexpected conditions, including an abandoned landfill found under the roadway and contaminated groundwater, both of which required specialized engineering solutions. Kleinfelder completed its work on budget and within the 22-month time allotted, helping the overall project eventually finish more than a year ahead of schedule.

T-REX was constructed using a design-build delivery system, meaning that the entire team came together and designed the project as a whole. This required swift communication among team members. To facilitate this, key personnel from the various design teams were co-located into a single building in Centennial, a suburb of Denver. Kleinfelder had six engineers assigned to the office, joining several hundred colleagues as well as the project manager and key government officials. "The office arrangement allowed for excellent collaboration and real-time decision-making," said Lawrence N. Perko, geotechnical engineer and Kleinfelder's design-build program manager who served as geotechnical project manager for the company's T-REX team.

Flexibility was key to the successful management of the T-REX project. "The Kleinfelder team exhibited flexibility in its approach and that is what design builders need from their design teams," Perko said. "From a management perspective, Kleinfelder started out set to go at high speed. As the job progressed, it was realized that some of the design should be deferred to enable direct real-time communication with the civil design team. This required Kleinfelder to meet completion on a date after the originally scheduled completion. Working with the design partners, Kleinfelder was able to modify manpower loading for the job and extend services through the end of the design period at no additional cost."

The company's expertise in working on heavily trafficked roads during peak hours proved invaluable, but ultimately, it was a spirit of teamwork and common goals that helped make the project such a success.