Atkins designed I-4/Lee Roy Selmon Expressway Connector opens in Tampa

Atkins designed I-4/Lee Roy Selmon Expressway Connector opens in Tampa

Feb 26, 2014  | Civil engineering 

Atkins designed I-4/Lee Roy Selmon Expressway Connector opens in Tampa
(Photo by: Atkins)

After nearly four years of construction, the Interstate 4/Lee Roy Selmon Expressway Connector—one of the largest construction projects in the history of Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) District Seven—opened to traffic in January 2014

Atkins served as lead engineer on the $420 million project, and as the primary designer of the Connector’s southern portion, which comprised 80 percent of the overall construction effort.  Starting in 2006, Atkins provided a wide range of professional services, including roadway, bridge, and drainage design; surveying; architecture; and landscape design.

The project connects two roughly parallel, major transportation corridors (I-4 on the north and the Lee Roy Selmon Expressway on the south) to relieve traffic congestion in the Tampa suburb of Ybor City, streamline area commuting, provide an additional hurricane evacuation route, and improve business opportunities at (and freight access to) the Port of Tampa.

“Our ability to mobilize the structural staff to support this project enabled us to complete alternate bridge designs three months early—in an already aggressive design schedule,” said Joe Boyer, Atkins CEO, North America.

The project is an elevated, four-level, directional interchange system on the east side of downtown Tampa. The roadway is up to 12 lanes wide, and features a series of north/south toll ramps to and from I-4, the Lee Roy Selmon Expressway, and 20th Street in Ybor City.

The new Connector also features an innovative toll gantry that will save FDOT an estimated $10 million in capital and maintenance costs; the gantry enables all 12 travel lanes to maintain highway speeds while toll equipment is being serviced overhead.

A unique feature of the project is its truck-only lanes, which greatly improve freight access to the Port of Tampa and keep through traffic off of surface streets in historic Ybor City.

“Atkins invested 350,000 staff hours in project design—which included several bridge superstructure alternatives,” noted Atkins principal technical professional Amir Kangari, PE. “Six Atkins bridge teams and 16 subconsultants collaborated to prepare the project plans, specifications, and estimates. This approach enabled FDOT to mitigate large fluctuations in materials prices and improve its competitive bidding process.”

FDOT, in conjunction with the Port of Tampa, unveiled the new Connector to the public with a ribbon-cutting ceremony in December 2013. The ceremony included speeches from local, state, and federal highway dignitaries, including Secretary of the Florida Department of Transportation Ananth Prasad, Tampa Port Authority President and CEO Paul Anderson, and U.S. Federal Highway Administration Deputy Administrator Gregory G. Nadeau.

After the ribbon-cutting ceremony, a 5K run was held on a portion of the new Connector, which gave runners a one-time opportunity to view Tampa from a unique perspective.

Project facts

The I-4/Lee Roy Selmon Expressway Connector is comprised of:

  • About 1.5 million square feet of precast bridge deck (2,765 segments)
  • 23 unique bridge ramps 
  • 33 lane miles of bridge construction 
  • 104 segments erected via the balanced-cantilever method
  • 45 segments erected span-by-span via an overhead gantry
  • 300 piers 
  • 1,162 drilled shafts 
  • Straddle bents (multicolumn piers with extremely wide column spacing) in some locations 
  • 289,000 square feet of mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) walls
  • 9 million pounds of post-tensioning steel 
  • 19 million pounds of reinforcing steel 
  • 125,000 cubic yards of concrete.

Via Atkins
Image,video ©: Atkins