Grading, Drainage, Bridges, and Roadway Construction
CDIA # AF99-031, #AF07-020, #AF08-005, #LD09-0009
E.S. Wagner Company, a highway road construction company and contractor, was honored to contribute to the dramatic expansion at the Charlotte-Douglas International Airport.
E.S. Wagner’s first package of work called for the construction of 8.5 million cubic yards of embankment for a new 9,000 foot runway and connecting taxiways. E.S. Wagner also installed 52,000 lineal feet of storm drainage ranging in size up to sixty inches and excavated approximately 300,000 cubic yards of rock. 3,766 feet of cast in place box culvert were installed and a staggering 505 acres were cleared.
The initial contract included a 720 calendar day interim completion. This interim was in place to ensure that the necessary amount of grade would be ready in advance of concrete and paving. This amounted to approximately 90% of the earthwork on the site over a period of two years. E.S. Wagner utilized as many as five high production earthwork operations simultaneously, and excavated in excess of 50,000 cubic yards in a single shift. By essentially completing the required earthwork significantly early, E.S. Wagner attained the maximum available early completion incentive of $2.5 million.
As the earthwork subcontractor on the road construction project and paving at the airport, E.S. Wagner was responsible for over 400,000 cubic yards of excavation, over 1 million square yards of fine grading, 148,000 tons of aggregate base placement and over 75,000 lineal feet of underdrain.
E.S. Wagner next took over as the bridge contractor to complete bridge construction on two large taxiway bridges that connect the new runway and associated taxiways to the existing airfield. After securing the contract, E.S. Wagner worked directly with the airport and the civil design engineers to offer some alternatives that would reduce cost and save valuable time. The final design still included over 4 million pounds of structural steel, 3 million pounds of reinforcing steel and 13,000 cubic yards of structural concrete. Despite the complications of tremendously wet weather and footing elevations below the water table elevation, this work was also completed significantly ahead of schedule. As the contraction contractor, E.S. Wagner was proud to be a part of a North Carolina construction project that was finished 74 days and 131 days prior to their respective completion dates.
The combined early completions of the runway and bridge construction projects allowed for the opening of the new portions of the airfield well in advance of any of the airport’s initial projections.
E.S. Wagner also completed the relocation of West Boulevard which is a roadway that follows the existing southern perimeter of the airport’s property. This road had to be relocated to allow for the future construction of an intermodal facility – which is located in the very first borrow pit E.S. Wagner excavated for the construction of the runway and taxiway embankments. As was the case with the taxiway structures described previously, this project involved a bridge over a railway. It also required approximately 275,000 cubic yards of earthwork.
