October 2007 Marin St, Oak Park
THE CHALLENGE
The City of Oak Park was renovating its downtown shopping district. The renovation consisted of a new street, street lights, and water and sewer mains. Two existing utility manholes and a multi-duct package were in the way of the street construction. Our task was to remove the existing manholes and replace them with one precast manhole and one poured-in-place manhole. We were also required to relocate the existing duct package and place new duct between the new manholes. It was imperative that we finish in a shortened timeline in order for retail shops to be open for the start of the holiday season in November.
COMPLEXITY
Crossing utilities occurred every few feet. This made it extremely difficult and unsafe to place the new manholes and relocate the duct according to the original prints. Multiple contractors and the short time frame added pressure and made the job even more difficult and dangerous. Ultimately, due to the number of underground utilities in the area we devised an alternative plan which allowed us to relocate the customer duct to a shallower depth in order to avoid existing utilities.
The last problem was the shallow depth of the infrastructure. To protect it we decided to lay steel plates over the new, relocated duct for protection and then back fill. Our customer approved this strategy and we worked around the clock, finishing the job in 17 days. Our customer work was completed to specifications with no safety incidents and the Oak Park shops were able to open on schedule.
CASE STUDY GALLERY
