ForConstructionPros.com

The new four-lane Highway 49 Bypass in Northern California begins a little south of historic Sutter Creek and ends just north of Amador City. The bypass is 4 miles long and involved the building of two major bridges.

Primary contractor on the project was Viking-Stimpel, a joint venture between road builder Stimpel-Wiebelhaus Associates, Redding, CA, and bridge builder Viking Construction, Rancho Cordova, CA.

The project site presented unexpected challenges for Stimpel-Wiebelhaus. Not only was it very hilly, it was full of greenstone, a dense, igneous rock. Much more of this rock was encountered during excavation than expected.

"We had bid the job very aggressively," says Bill Wiebelhaus, operations manager. "I believe we were about $2 million below the closest bidder. The job required about 700,000 tons of off-haul. We knew we could make quality road base from the rock excavation. But we were limited on stockpile room in the highway right-of-way - such that we could only make about half of the 120,000 tons required."

What to do with all that rock?
The question became what to do with the excess shot-rock excavation. Potential waste sites on properties adjacent to the job were in use for agricultural purposes.