Laboratory Testing
Hundreds of soil samples tested using various consolidation and shear tests
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The Challenge
- Largest construction project in Virginia’s history
- Provide quick turnaround on hundreds of samples
The Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel Expansion is the largest construction project in Virginia’s history. The project’s total budget is $3.8 billion, making it also one of the largest infrastructure projects in the country. The current I-64 Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel (HRBT) is located on the southeastern coast of Virginia. It is a 3.5 mile facility with two 2-lane immersed- tube tunnels connecting artificial islands, with trestle bridges to shore. This corridor is one of the most congested in the region. To ease congestion problems in this area and enhance travel time reliability, new twin two-lane tunnels will be built west of the existing eastbound tunnel to carry all eastbound traffic.
The project will also include approximately 14,000 feet of new marine bridges and the reconstruction or replacement of more than a dozen bridge structures. The new expansion will support emergency evacuation, improve safety, increase capacity and update transportation management systems.
The Solution
Coordination between GTX, HDR, and Mott MacDonald was necessary to setup the most effective prioritized testing program between the two sites and sample sets. Results were issued on a weekly basis based off priority scheduling with the client’s immediate needs. Testing included large quantities of index and automated testing:
- Consolidation testing following VDOT testing parameters
- UU Triaxial
- CU Triaxial
- CD Triaxial
- Direct Shear
- Direct Simple Shear
- Swell Testing
- Constant Rate of Strain (CRS)
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