The Carolinas AGC 2012 Pinnacle Award for Best Highway Project was bestowed on P&J for the Interstate 40 Slope Stabilization and Rock Slide Removal project we performed in Haywood County, NC. Visit the Carolinas AGC website to read more about the 2012 Pinnacle Awards.

Dudley Orr, VP; Randy Jordan, Executive VP & COO, and Edd Satterfield, Asst. VP

About the I 40 Slope Stabilization and Rock Slide Removal project:

This project involved tackling 75,000 cubic yards of rock and debris that slid onto I-40 at the North Carolina-Tennessee mountain border. Remediation crews were tasked with stabilizing the massive, and dangerous, 900 foot high slope. This challenge was captured in two separate contracts, both of which went to Phillips & Jordan. The first 45-days consisted of round-the-clock work to remove the loose mass of boulders, trees and soil that had slipped from the mountainside. It was performed under an emergency purchase order agreement.

Meanwhile the NCDOT, knowing time was critical, placed a 60-day intermediate completion time in the contract to stabilize the remaining slope. Liquidated damages were set at an astounding $20,000 per day. Phillips & Jordan chose Janod, Inc., a highly experienced Canadian slope stabilization contractor, to lead the slope remediation efforts. As it turned out, even Janod with its 40 years of such work, had never attempted the task required for this project.

The team had planned to drill and install tensioned bars to hold the slope together. But, they ended up having to use Janod’s proprietary rock drill to bore as much as one hundred feet deep-while maintaining a consistent four-inch diameter to accommodate the specified anchors and bolts. Never before had the team drilled such large diameter holes to that depth.

The nature of the slope stabilization meant that all workers, plus machinery, had to climb the mountainside just to reach the working area. In some cases, this was 900 vertical feet above I-40. A heavy-lift helicopter ferried supplies, rock bolts and incidentals up the mountain. This helicopter eventually logged over 120 hours of usage on the project. Its use allowed rock bolt bars to be installed, on average, every 5 minutes.

Workers faced extreme mountaintop conditions. The governor had declared a state of emergency in western North Carolina 10 days before work began. Sub-freezing temperatures, snow, ice and wind were daily personal and safety challenges. In fact, a second smaller rock slide occurred during the project as well. Early on, it became apparent that neither the rock strength test results nor actual geological conditions provided or anticipated at bid time were representative of the true site conditions. In reality, rock at the site was much weaker than anticipated. As a result, scarifying the surface so that the bearing plate could successfully sit on competent rock became a huge struggle. Crews literally dug by hand at some stages to reach that competent rock.

Clearly, safety was top priority throughout. Every action contemplated had to be considered in light of its potential for new falling debris, attachment point failure,
struck-by hazards, and even another catastrophic slope failure.

In just 66 contract days, the Phillips & Jordan team succeeded in stabilizing the slope so this vital transportation route could be re-opened. Not only had this closure cut off the main commercial and public connection between North Carolina and Tennessee, it had also essentially cut off the community of Mount Sterling. For these citizens, the only other road access was a narrow gravel forest service road that made a 30-minute run to Waynesville take up to 3 hours. Phillips & Jordan opened a special twice-daily travel lane for a short list of Mount Sterling residents to pass through the jobsite. This special measure was just one example of 18 supplemental agreements signed during the life of the project.