This $158 million, high-priority design-build initiative for Talbot, Queen Anne’s and Caroline counties widened 11.3 miles of MD Route 404 from a two-lane roadway to a four-lane divided highway from U.S. 50 to the Denton Bypass.
New service roads and shared driveways reduce the number of entry and exit points along MD 404. Acceleration and deceleration lanes and unprotected left turns were replaced with J turns and Maryland T intersections, with access roads constructed to reduce the number of dangerous or traffic-impending intersections. KCI served as the construction manager, provided inspection services and oversaw adherence to the project’s quality control plan.
The project was broken into three sections and the schedule reduced from 36 to just 18 months, approximately half the typical time required for a design-build project of this size and complexity. In addition to saving an estimated $20 million, the compressed schedule allowed for an aggressive incentive program and associated milestone dates to be implemented in the contract. By increasing the rate of construction activities, the state could accelerate the delivery of needed safety improvements, enhance operations and reduce traffic congestion to the MD 404 corridor, a route that has suffered increased congestion from high seasonal peak traffic to and from summer resort areas.
KCI used our proprietary Mobile Field Services (MFS) application for all inspector electronic documentation on this project. This software package offers a fully auditable Inspectors’ Daily Report (IDR) in an efficient, consistent and reliable platform that allows inspectors to capture, validate, store and generate the data points necessary to complete their reports. Over the duration of the project, 20+ inspectors used the MFS to track more than 700 individual work items and submitted 4,000+ IDRs, each formatted to match Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration requirements. The technology improved quality assurance of inspection reporting by standardizing the data collection process, enabling the project managers to approve IDRs in real-time, and providing cloud documentation storage that supported auditing and summary reporting.
