July 2020 Edition

Just south of Madera, crews are making finishing touches on several bridges to open them up to traffic by this summer. At Avenue 15, joint seals, a highly compressive plastic, are being installed to allow for the expansion and contraction of the bridge during hot and cold weather, and in case of an earthquake.

Crews have finished cutting and installing expansion joints at Avenue 10 and have also completed paving and striping. This bridge is close to completion and will be open to traffic this summer.

Avison Construction, a small business and Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) located in Madera County, is laying fresh asphalt at Avenue 7, just north of the San Joaquin River. A roller truck is also being used to ensure the new asphalt surface is compacted and smoothed.

Work is continuing at the Hanford Viaduct. Near Grangeville Avenue just north of Hanford, contractors have moved to the next phase of the build out by tying rebar and pouring concrete to form the bents of the viaduct. A bent is part of the substructure that provides support for the superstructure. A total of 84 bents are needed for the entire viaduct.

Crews are now pile-driving concrete production piles just north of Lacey Boulevard where the Hanford Viaduct will begin to cross over State route 198. More than 7,000 production piles will be needed for the foundation of the Hanford Viaduct.

At Avenue 88 in Tulare County, crews are finishing up forming the last substructure located to the east of the existing BNSF tracks and State Route (SR) 43. Crews will pour concrete for the substructure in the next few weeks. The Avenue 88 overcrossing will take traffic over the future high-speed rail line, BNSF freight tracks, and SR 43.

Crews have completed hauling dirt to form the slopes of the future overcrossing at Idaho Avenue. While the slopes settle, a temporary road has been built around the overcrossing to serve as a detour route while crews begin hauling fill to begin construction on an overcrossing to the south at Jackson Avenue.

At Kansas Avenue in Kings County, crews are nearly complete with an inlet in preparation to relocate the West Fork Canal. The canal is located to the east of the Kansas Avenue overcrossing, taking traffic over the high-speed rail tracks.

Crews are hard at work relocating a telecommunications (AT&T) line at Mountain View and Chestnut avenues in Fresno County. Work is being conducted by LASAR Construction and Leo Tidwell Excavation Corporation, two of more than 500 small businesses working on the high-speed rail project.

Crews are working and close to completing work on the Melga Canal near the future Jackson Avenue overcrossing. Earlier this month, crews poured more than 200 cubic yards of concrete to form transition ends which include wing walls, head walls, and concrete lining. Once the concrete culvert is complete, it will achieve both sustaining consecutive water flow and having embankment dirt placed overhead.

At Poso Creek just north of the city of Wasco, carpenters are building and erecting falsework bents that will later support the construction of the Poso Creek superstructure. Crews are hard at work installing bridge soffits, wall forms, steel reinforcement and post-tensioning elements as well as formwork for wingwalls.

On the east side of the Wasco Viaduct, ironworkers and carpenters are working on the steel beams and forms for the edge girder of the pergola section. The edge girders will support the precast girders that are expected to be set during the summer. Crews will set more than 70 girders from east to west on the pergola section over the BNSF railroad.

At the northern portion of the viaduct, crews are erecting the falsework that will support the box girders, linking the abutment with the pergola section just to the south.