Cincinnati Northern Kentucky Int. Airport/KY 20

Location: Boone County, Kentucky

Project Value: $15,702,154.00

Project Completion Year: 2003

Relocation of State Route 20 (0208)

A massive expansion at the Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport made necessary the relocation of Kentucky State Route 20 around the facility. E. S. Wagner served as the prime contractor on this schedule critical project. Beginning in August of 2002, E. S. Wagner was permitted only 400 calendar days to complete all phases of work on this 1.3 mile road relocation which also included over 700,000 cubic yards of excavation much of it blasted rock, two 120 precast I-beam bridges and over 7,000 feet of 24 sanitary sewer with an average depth of over twenty-five feet. However, the obvious center piece of the project was a 550 foot long auto tunnel capable of accommodating four lanes of traffic through it and the load of a commercial aircraft above it.

With construction beginning in the fall of 2002, the tunnel rests on approximately 3,400 lineal feet of thirty and thirty-six inch drilled shaft foundations and 1,500 cubic yards of footing concrete. All told, the visible portion of the tunnel structure consists of approximately 10,000 square feet of Mechanically Stabilized Earth walls, 2.3 million pounds of reinforcing steel, and nearly 20,000 cubic yards of structural concrete. The majority of the concrete volume was used in the tunnels eighteen top slabs. The average volume of each of these pours was 1,000 cubic yards and fit in to the classification of mass concrete. E. S. Wagner was forced to maintain the concrete in a plastic state for the duration of each of the pours and strict internal temperature monitoring and control was conducted for a period of up to two weeks after the pour was complete.

The entire tunnel was constructed during the winter months of 2002 and 2003, one of the worst on record for this part of the state. The adverse weather and non-negotiable completion date forced E. S. Wagner to apply innovative approaches to ensure that the finished product was delivered on time and in accordance with rigid Federal Aviation Administration specifications. Upon its completion, the project was rewarded with the Excellence in Design award by the Kentucky Ready Mix Association.