Project: Highway 54 Expressway

Location: Miller County, Missouri

Project Background & Description

Bloomsdale Excavating Company, Inc. was awarded a contract to complete the grading work for the construction of a 1.7 mile corridor of the Highway 54 Expressway. The project needed to be completed in accordance with MoDOT plans and specifications.  In exchange for the pre-graded stretch of Highway 54 Expressway, the General Contractor would receive the excess material from the site to use as fill on an adjacent commercial development site.

To complete the project, Bloomsdale needed to clear and grub 39 acres of timber by the March 31 Indiana bat tree deadline, a rule that restricts the felling of trees between April 1 and September 30, while the endangered Indiana bat gives birth under the loose bark on large trees. Bloomsdale also had to excavate 1,587,681 cubic yards of earth and rock, compact 561,571 cubic yards of embankment in roadway fills and place 1,020,000 cubic yards of excess fill into the development site

“Bloomsdale is a quality contractor. This is reflected not only in their end product but in the way they approach their projects through diligent production, sound workmanship, and reliable project management.”
-Patricia Lemongelli, Missouri Department of Transportation.

The high profile nature of this project with the public drove the demand for an aggressive project schedule. Bloomsdale completed the project ahead of schedule by optimizing its resources, managing subcontractors and safely handling traffic concerns. The developer utilized MoDOT’s traditional project delivery method, design-bid-build, for this project. In an effort to assist MoDOT in meeting the project budget, Bloomsdale engineers reviewed and provided assistance in evaluating the feasibility of leaving a portion of the existing rock intact within a proposed ramp. MoDOT approved the concept and the design was modified, which resulted in a cost savings to the project and compressed the overall schedule.