The Phase II project includes completion of the SR 303L directional ramps to the south of I-10 and the construction of the SR 303L from its current termination just north of McDowell Road, to Van Buren Street.

Major scope includes excavation, aggregate base, PCCP, asphaltic concrete pavement, and the construction of six cast-in-place post-tensioned box girder concrete bridges.

Pulice also served as the prime contractor for Phase I of the work, valued at $151.5M, which constructed the five-level interchange connecting I-10 and SR 303L to the north.

There were no serious safety incidents throughout the project. The project worked for over one year without a safety incident. The overall project incident rate was 1.44%, 70% better than the industry standard.

This project was successfully completed while surrounded by three other simultaneous projects. There were significant issues with the amount of the borrow needed for the project, but with open lines of communication and a proactive team, Pulice was able to complete this stretch of freeway on time and under budget.

The borrow is a difficult number to calculate as no one can precisely determine where the millions of excavated cubic yards of borrow will go and how they get compacted into the embankments. This difficulty, combined with the fact that the project’s borrow source was in the middle of another active project, made the borrow particularly difficult to calculate.

We were proactive in bringing this to ADOT’s attention, ensuring there was a plan in place to get the material. ADOT was informed at the preconstruction conference of our concern with the accuracy of the borrow number and the amount of error that was built into the assumed numbers. Ultimately, the project had a 75% overrun (over 250,000 cubic yards) on borrow needs. In an effort to obtain the most accurate number, our team performed a preconstruction topographic survey of the entire project to determine the initial condition, then performed an intermediate topographic survey of the constructed project to determine the net result of the borrow needs for the job. Several approaches were taken to obtain the additional borrow:

• Pulice imported borrow from one of the local material pits.

• ADOT redesigned drainage basins to allow for more on-site excavation to meet the needs.

• We worked with the other neighboring projects to take their leftover materials to build our project with no impact on the overall completion date. We worked with ADOT on the cost-sharing aspect of transporting the borrow, ultimately resulting in no cost to this project, as the other projects already had costs associated with the moving of the borrow.

Throughout the project, Pulice made partnering a priority by keeping communication lines open. From issue resolution on the Jobsite to informing, educating, and engaging the public, Pulice maintained a consistent exchange of information between all stakeholders. The project team adhered to Pulice’s organizational belief that formal partnering is critical to the success of every construction project, as it fosters timely decisions and enables issues to be resolved at the lowest possible level within the project organizational structure. The staff on this project were very experienced and were empowered to make “best for project decisions” at the job-level. The goal was to resolve all issues at the project level without having to escalate any issue beyond the Project Management Team.

The project has economically benefited the community and region in that local industrial, commercial, and residential interests are again commencing construction on long-delayed or new projects. The SR 303L is a major conduit connecting an established major interstate (I-10) to the south to the suburban cities of Surprise, El Mirage, Sun City, and Glendale. As I-10 is currently the sole east-west corridor into downtown Phoenix, the completion of the SR 303L will provide for significantly improved mobility for residents moving between the downtown Phoenix core economic center and the major west valley cities. Additionally, the SR 303L provides reduced travel time to existing facilities such as the Wildlife World Zoo, White Tank Mountain State Park, and associated library, as well as existing industrial, commercial, and residential facilities.

Together, from project development through construction, the Team successfully worked across multiple agencies and stakeholders in executing this unique and innovative project. Design, environmental clearances, and construction were delivered on time, and ahead of schedule. The I-10/SR 303L System Traffic Interchange Team won the 2015 AGC Build AZ Award.