As ADOT’s largest CMAR to date, this project constructed five miles of new urban divided freeway between Peoria Avenue and Mountain View Boulevard with overpass structures at Cactus Road and Waddell Road, and an underpass at Greenway Road.

This project is a major part of the Maricopa County Regional Transportation Plan commitment to support the communities in the greater Phoenix area. Pulice and ADOT coordinated with multiple governmental agencies including the City of Surprise, Maricopa County, and the Federal Highway Administration to incorporate their maintenance of traffic needs with respect to intermodal transportation requirements during the construction of this SR 303L segment.

Additionally, Pulice worked closely with ADOT and the project’s two designers over a period of six months during preconstruction to conduct constructability reviews, value-added analyses, and cost modeling to ensure the best value and competitive costing for the overall project. A value analysis workshop facilitated by Pulice resulted in saving ADOT $3.6M.

In 2014  Pulice won the Arizona Transportation Partnering Excellence Award and 2013 AGC Build AZ Award.

The project’s most critical team builder was co-locating both the Pulice Project Manager (Jim Meadows) and the ADOT Transportation Engineering Specialist
(Mark Wheeler) in the same office on-site. Both Jim and Mark had a special connection to the 303L – they had
both been a part of the team that had constructed the original two-lane roadway in the 90’s. These two, building on their decades-old relationship, set the tone for the camaraderie that resonated on-site and between all stakeholders throughout the project. Not a single day went by without Jim Meadows and Mark Wheeler touching base.

Pulice hosted incentive programs for their employees including Supervisor Safety Audits. Whoever had the top score at the quarterly audit won a $250 gift certificate. Job Safety Audit competitions were also held for the entire crew. The team with the highest JSA at the end of the quarter received shirts/hats/mugs, etc. The winners of both audits were recognized in the “Pulice Report” newsletter, which is a quarterly newsletter that is sent out to all employees and posted on the company website.

In fall of 2013, Project Superintendent Vince Smith won Pulice’s Top Gun Award for ensuring that the project was constantly on track to meet the goals. The Top Gun Safety Excellence Award is a way in which Pulice is able to recognize employees who put safety first, and in turn drive the safety culture in their area of the company. It is awarded quarterly to one employee who exemplifies these qualities.

Teamwork on this project was built on the previous working relationship of our Management Team and fostered by the mutual respect that was carried through from the top down. Every person, no matter what their role on the project, was treated as part of the Team; every person’s opinion counted. 

Scope. The CMAR delivery method allowed the entire Team to evaluate areas during preconstruction where value-added ideas could be implemented to save time and money. An ADOT Resident Engineer was on-site throughout the project’s entirety, which saved a great amount of time and money, as necessary decisions could be made immediately and no time or information was lost in communication.

Schedule. The project was completed on schedule. The start date was delayed due to negotiations and plan finalizations, and because of this, 90 days was added to the contract time. The original project completion was 730 days, including change orders. All major tasks were complete by August 2013.

Even with an additional $1.2M in owner-requested change orders, the final cost was just $35,000 over the original budget. Pulice’s track record of developing innovations for Construction Manager at Risk projects enables the use of industry “best practices” in a collaborative environment. The Team worked closely with ADOT and the project’s two designers over a period of six months to conduct constructability reviews, value-added analyses, and cost modeling to ensure best value and competitive costing for the overall project. The value analysis resulted in saving ADOT $3,629,000.