Chesapeake Energy – Full-Depth Road Reclamation Design

About

GTA provided design for reconstruction of over 450 miles of paved state, county, and municipal owned public roadways in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia that were damaged by Marcellus/Utica Shale related drilling traffic since 2010. Performed initial evaluations of pavement condition and distress (rutting, cracking, base failure, instability) to assess options to support drilling traffic. Pavement design was performed in accordance with the AASHTO design methodology and included full-depth reclamation with cement, base repair options, HMA structural pavement overlay, total reconstruction, and geogrid stabilized base courses.

Emergency winter repairs were necessary to stabilize roadways to support public traffic. These emergency designs included stabilization with quicklime and lime kiln dust, placement of aggregate, and base repair with HMA paving.

GTA also designed specialty slope and wall stability systems to support areas of slope instability affecting the public roadways. Stabilization methods included soil nail walls, micropiles, reinforced soil slopes, slope stabilization systems, block walls, and sub-drainage systems.

Our design services on these projects included collection and logging of soil and aggregate samples from test pits and test borings, and the necessary laboratory soils testing (moisture, USCS classification, moisture-density, CBR, and unconfined compressive strength of soil-cement samples).

Our services during the reconstruction of these roads consisted of full-time observation and testing, which consisted of roadway subgrade stability, undercut and replacement, base repair stability, chemical application and mixing (application rate, moisture and mix gradation), density testing of compacted material and fabrication of specimens for compression testing.

GTA provided wetland services including delineation, GPS location, and reporting for natural gas well pads and water impoundments. Additionally, performed wetland delineations for roadway improvements to support the heavy vehicular traffic associated with the natural gas industry. These services were provided at more than 50 locations throughout northern and western Pennsylvania.

Agencies that were involved in the design process included Pennsylvania DOT, Ohio DOH, West Virginia DOH, Pennsylvania DEP, and various county and municipal governments.