Construction Continues Along U.S. 35

HENDERSON, W.Va. — With the section in Putnam County ready to open for traffic, construction of U.S. 35 in Mason County continues to move along as well.

Construction on Phase II of the eight-mile section began March 1 after Kokosing Construction was awarded the contract in December, according to project coordinator Clifton Farley of the West Virginia Division of Highways.

“The dirt is moving,” said Charles Lanham, co-chairman of the U.S. 35 Committee. “It is really great to see them working on the road.”

Farley said that the 3.8 miles that Kokosing is working on is expected to be completed by Oct. 6, 2010. By that time, about 3.5 million cubic yards of earth will have been moved to make way for the four-lane highway.

“A lot of material will be moved by the fall,” Farley said. “Then all next year we will be able to pave and finish the roadway.”

Farley said construction on Phase II includes four bridges as well as two arch culverts, one box culvert and 14,800 feet of drainpipes.

“This project will be making life a lot easier,” he said.

Phase I began last July with Bizzack Construction clearing trees and moving dirt for the start of the new highway that runs from Coast Guard Road to Five Mile Road. Kokosing will be working from Upper Five Mile Road to Upper Nine Mile Creek, with a connector between the new highway and the existing road being built near Cornstalk Road.

Farley said there also are a lot of firsts in this project. Kokosing of Fredricktown, Ohio, has the bigger of the two phases and will have 11 sub-contractors. Mason County is the first bid-build portion of the project for the company.

But the company, too, has completed a lot of firsts in the state for this project. It’s the first company to use and complete the design-build method for the Putnam County portion of U.S. 35, and it also is the first to use new technology such as GPS that allows the company’s headquarters to monitor progress of the construction.

Farley also said the company is using one of the largest trackhoes ever built, which has the capability to move at least 30,000 yards of earth a day. It took 21 tractor-trailers loaded with pieces of the machine to transport it to Mason County, where it was put together on site. The trackhoe has an estimated cost of $2.5 million.

Farley also added that crews are using a fellerbuncher, which is a machine that grabs a tree and has a saw to cut the tree near its base. The machine then places the log in a neat stack for pickup. He said this method is easier, faster and safer than using chainsaws because the operator sits inside an enclosed cab.

Currently, crews are working Monday through Friday during the day with Saturday as a make-up day in case of bad weather. This summer, they will add a night shift to continue with the progress of constructing the roadway as well as 32 ponds for storm water collection.

Lanham said he is very excited to see the construction under way, adding that he always is worried about accidents that occur on the current highway.

Phase I and II will connect near Jim Hill and Five Mile roads, as fill dirt begins to even the projected roadway for the construction of a bridge over the road. Bizzack will move the dirt for fill-in as Kokosing will construct the bridge, Farley said.

Matt Crum, DOH project coordinator with Phase I, said that portion of the road is about 35 percent complete. Two of the three bridges in that project are under construction, with one of them being 40 percent complete and the second one being 20 percent complete.

“The public is not getting to see the construction here, but we are still moving dirt,” Crum added.

As the two phases progress, the next part of the project is to find funding for the 13-mile stretch from Cornstalk Road in Mason County to the Buffalo Bridge in Putnam County.