Custis Trail Work – 8/22/16

@Tim Kelley 144533 wrote:

This work is in connection with an investigation of the pavement settling / buckling that is occurring on the south side of I-66 between N Veitch St and Spout Run Pkwy.

*happy dance*

@Tania 144534 wrote:

Oh man! Is that mogul run? I enjoy those. Plus, heading west right after you cross 66 and turn right (at the new MOM’s) and start heading downhill, there’s a frost heave/rooty bump that I hit with speed and use to catch some air (“WHOOOOOP!”).

Sad face.

And I though it was just me that tried to time them right. They need a geoengineering company to figure out that the soil back fill under the deadmen links between the upper and lower walls was not properly compacted? The soil settled, the deadmen did not and we get a set of woop de dooz.

@Vicegrip 144567 wrote:

And I though it was just me that tried to time them right. They need a geoengineering company to figure out that the soil back fill under the deadmen links between the upper and lower walls was not properly compacted? The soil settled, the deadmen did not and we get a set of woop de dooz.

Are you saying there are bodies buried there? Maybe Jimmy Hoffa?

I thought I identified the Custis mogul fix in this post?

@Tim Kelley 144570 wrote:

It has been replaced twice in the past 15 years with the same effect, so they want to see what’s going on. I think the issue was discussed at the most recent BAC meeting so there may be more details in the notes.

My bet, by looking at the structure that was built is the original contractor did not back fill and compact properly or with the proper compact-able fill. In the contractors defense the entire width of the path and likely the entire depth of the wall from the bike path surface to Rt 66 surface was back filled and this was not compact able via large format equipment. That much fill without the dead men and the path would simply settle a bit and the side walls seem to grow. The dead men that tie the upper/inner and lower/outer walls will never move at all so all the soil settling shows up as saggy pants asphalt hammocks.

Tie footers into the inner and outer walls, back fill and compact a bit, pour concrete slabs onto the pined to the walls footers then top with asphalt. Strong, frost resistant and no more saggy hammocks, ever. No worries abut pressure on the lower outer wall and added stress on the dead men. The added slabs don’t need to be VDOT level thickness, would rest on heavy solid existing structures and add very little weight % to the existing structure. I suspect this is a money thing as tied in slabs would cost more that jack hammering the existing surface out, adding yet more dirt and a new bike thin layer of tarmac. Dirt and asphalt are cheap.

@Vicegrip 144590 wrote:

Tie footers into the inner and outer walls, back fill and compact a bit, pour concrete slabs onto the pined to the walls footers then top with asphalt. Strong, frost resistant and no more saggy hammocks, ever. No worries abut pressure on the lower outer wall and added stress on the dead men. The added slabs don’t need to be VDOT level thickness, would rest on heavy solid existing structures and add very little weight % to the existing structure. I suspect this is a money thing as tied in slabs would cost more that jack hammering the existing surface out, adding yet more dirt and a new bike thin layer of tarmac. Dirt and asphalt are cheap.

Yeah, my thought was that replacing the surface every couple of years is probably way cheaper. Don’t know why they’re even bothering with a study unless 1) they’re concerned the wall is going to collapse or 2) because of wacky government money it’s easier to get a couple million at once than a couple thousand every few years. Luckily I don’t go that way often, so I have no worries about 1).

I think the best alternate route for when the real work begins would be for the closure of one lane of Lee Hwy and the creation of a two-way protected cycletrack from Lyon Village to Uhle St. Then, when the work is done, everyone realizes that traffic on Lee Hwy hasn’t gotten any worse, so the cycletrack might as well just stay where it is…