ACPA Announces 2021 Project Achievement Award
Veterans Parkway — Rice Street to Interstate 90
Irving, Texas – August 20, 2021 – The American Concrete Pipe Association (ACPA) ACPA) announces the winner of the association’s 2021 Project Achievement Award. The project, Veterans Parkway – Rice Street to Interstate 90, is a 6-lane divided highway being constructed to help move large volumes of traffic through the east and south side of Sioux Falls.
“We are thrilled to honor such an innovative project where the use of reinforced concrete pipe had a tremendous impact on the construction outcome,” says Doug Dayton, P.E., ACPA President. “We hope this encourages others to consider durable, resilient infrastructure solutions such as RCP.”
For Veterans Parkway, Riley Brothers Construction worked with ACPA member company Hancock Concrete Products out of Sioux Falls, SD, using more than 17,000 feet of Class II, III, IV and V RCP, 680 feet of 60-inch Class IV and Class V RCP jacking pipe, 382 feet of box culvert with a 90-degree bend, and more than 150 precast inlets and junction boxes. Many other concrete products were used on this project, and the surface of the highway was concrete, placed by T&R Contracting of Sioux Falls, SD.
With a project this size the challenges are plenty and the solutions require innovative designs to accommodate site conditions, such as jacking twin 60-inch RCP under the interstate to save time and not disrupt traffic. Another location had a historic wood truss railroad bridge that needed to be protected from erosion, so the box culvert was constructed with a 90-degree bend to collect multiple outlet pipes from the detention pond and release them in one location. That same run of five pipes had to be specially designed and embedded in flowable fill because of the 64 feet of fill over the 36- and 42-inch Class V pipe.
To combat surface drainage from a large area north of Interstate 90, the design directed water to flow through twin 60-inch reinforced concrete pipes (RCP). The twin pipes were jacked under the interstate to allow traffic to continue without disruption, as this section of I-90 carries more than 25,000 vehicles per day.
Hancock Concrete Products supplied the pipe, box culvert, and precast inlets for the project. HDR Engineering was the engineer of record. Collaboration among SDDOT, HDR, and Hancock Concrete led to innovative designs and cost savings on multiple aspects of the project. All three working together found solutions for the best way to construct a 90-degree bend for the box culvert, the most cost-effective ways to connect pipes to the walls and bulkhead on the box culvert, and the best solution for construction of the pipe “gallery” that had a large amount of overfill on top of the pipe.
“The adaptability and dependability of the reinforced concrete pipe on this project provided a way to solve complex drainage solutions, and Hancock Concrete Products is proud to have contributed to its success,” says Ray Pierson, Hancock Concrete Products. “By choosing concrete pipe, SDDOT has provided taxpayers with a drainage solution with long-term strength, longevity and durability, that’s also produced locally and supports our region’s economy.”
The purpose of the ACPA’s Project Achievement Award is to recognize agencies which have demonstrated creative and innovative accomplishments through projects that utilize precast concrete pipes or boxes. The goal is to promote public awareness of the activities and contributions of public agencies, the ACPA, and ACPA members.
Project Information
Owner: South Dakota Department of Transportation
Designer: HDR Engineering
Contractor: Riley Brothers Construction, Inc.
Pipe Producer: Hancock Concrete Products