The inauguration ceremony marks the commencement of a new four-year term of a president of the United States. This year, Donald Trump’s inauguration will be held on Friday, January 20.
After the oath of office is taken and the president gives his inaugural address, there is a procession of the new president to the White House. Since Thomas Jefferson’s second inaugural on March 4, 1805, it has become a tradition for the president to parade down Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol to the White House.
Following the arrival of the presidential entourage to the White House, it’s customary for the president, vice-president, their respective families and leading members of the government and military, to watch the Inaugural Parade, which proceeds along 1.5 miles of Pennsylvania Ave. and features both military and civilian participants from all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Every four years, Fort Myer Construction has the opportunity to provide milling and paving work along Pennsylvania Avenue for the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) to prepare the route for Inauguration Day. This past November, they tackled the project again.
This time the opportunity came to the company because Fort Myer is a subcontractor to Capital Paving performing all asphalt operations under the National Highway Systems (NHS) routes contract, which contains a task order to resurface Pennsylvania Avenue every four years.
Fort Myer is a leading contractor in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area, focusing on an array of infrastructure construction disciplines. Founded in 1972 as a small masonry and concrete contractor, the company owns and operates two asphalt plants in the D.C. area and offers customers various federal and state approved mixes. Fort Myer’s plants service the Maryland, Virginia, and D.C. area with several hundred thousand tons of asphalt material annually.
“Fort Myer was contracted to do this job in conjunction with a multiyear contract with the District of Columbia for the maintenance of NHS routes,” says Bradley Gardner, general superintendent, Asphalt Division. “We have been either the prime contractor or subcontractor on this contract since 2008.
“Throughout the years we have developed a well-established process which consists of a strong maintenance of traffic (MOT) plan and precise timing of the milling and paving of the various areas of the job that had to be approved by DDOT,” he says.
Preparing & paving Pennsylvania Ave.
To begin the Pennsylvania Ave. project, the road was first milled using multiple Wirtgen W200i milling machines in an echelon fashion. After milling, brick crosswalks were covered with plastic, then covered with sand on top of the plastic. Curb and gutter were covered with sand prior to paving. This was done to preserve existing structures along the historical route.
Fort Myer used a 9.5mm PG70-22 warm mix asphalt for paving. “The mix was determined based on the thickness of the lift (1.25”) and the temperature during this time of year,” says Gardner. “Only one lift was done to complete this job.”
In total, the project required roughly 5,200 tons of asphalt and was paved using a 10-foot Caterpillar AP1055F track paver and two 8-foot Caterpillar track pavers (AP655E, AP655F) and one 8-foot rubber tire paver AP600D. All four pavers were working in echelon formation. The pavement was compacted using BOMAG BW161 rollers for breakdown and a BOMAG BW138 for finish rolling.
Traffic plans, weather & tight schedules
The challenge of all types of paving jobs is always due to the traffic plan and weather conditions in conjunction with meeting tight deadlines, says Gardner.
“This project was no different,” he says. “We had to reschedule night work due to rain and cold weather this year. This caused us to work additional hours at night.”
Since Fort Myer is the only company that owns two asphalt plants in the District of Columbia, it was able to provide its own asphalt for the job.
“This allowed the project to stay ahead of schedule and also enabled the team to schedule quick deliveries of asphalt due to weather changes,” says Gardner.
The project took six business days to complete with no weekend work.
