MADISON COUNTY, MS
Neel-Schaffer helps smooth out those trips to the ‘Rez’
Neel-Schaffer provided design and construction engineering and inspection services for a $1.3 million project to rehabilitate and repave the Upper Spillway Road at the Ross Barnett Reservoir just northeast of Jackson.
The existing pavement showed significant signs of deterioration and over 1,300 square yards of base failures along the 2.69-mile project limits. In lieu of digging out the base failures, a 4-foot milling machine capable of milling 1-foot deep was used to remove the base failures. Asphalt base was then constructed in lifts to fill the voids. After each base failure was excavated, it was filled up, and all lanes were re-opened at the end of each work day to keep traffic flowing.
This process proved to be substantially faster and much cleaner than the traditional method for base failure removal.
After the base failures were addressed, the roadway received a 2-inch mill and 4-inch overlay, and the separate bike lane also received a 2-inch overlay. The joints in the existing dam structure were cleaned and sealed properly, aimed at controlling future pavement cracking.
A final MRI smoothness test was performed on each lane and analyzed using FHWA ProVal software to ensure the contractor’s work had met the necessary ride smoothness.
