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Accountability and teamwork

The project not only is the biggest in the Florida Department of Transportation’s (FDOT) history, but it also is the largest project Anderson Columbia has worked on, according to Rick Dunn, the company’s Joint Venture Project Director.

Anderson Columbia, one of the larger highway construction firms in the southeast and based in Lake City, FA, has built or rehabilitated thousands of miles of highways, roadways, and streets in Georgia, Alabama, and Florida. It will be doing the earthwork, grading, and base work on the I-75 project.

The I-75 Mega Project also is the first time Anderson, which is celebrating its 90th year, has worked with Ajax, Dunn says. “The opportunity just presented itself,” he says. “So, the key people got together and decided it was a good chance for them to get a nice piece of work if they collaborated.”

Ajax’s Reid says Anderson Columbia’s experience with grading makes the firm a perfect fit for the project. “They are a natural partner. They normally do most of the grading in north Florida and the Panhandle,” he says, “and we have asphalt plants at both ends of the job.”

Anderson Columbia and Ajax chose Omaha, Nebraska-based HDR Engineering, Inc., to handle the project’s design. The design portion accounts for $25 million of the contract and is being broken into six segments. Reid says it would be impossible to wait for all of the design documents to be completed to begin work, so the firms opted for a phased approach.