Town of Tazewell Route 61

T&L was selected by the Town of Tazewell to provide engineering services for this Locally Administered Project funded with Federal, State and Local money.

The purpose of the project was to improve safety and storage capacity on State Route 61 – a rural road in mountainous terrain – for approximately 0.93 miles. This was accomplished by:

• Widening the pavement from 20 feet to 36 feet;
• Provide a 12-foot center turn lane; and
• Raising the grade through a low area sag curve to improve sight distance at existing commercial entrances.

The project included redesign of commercial entrances to meet the current VDOT Access Management requirements.

Development of plans for the project included:

• plans for roadway,
• utility coordination/relocation,
• stormwater management,
• drainage, phased erosion & sediment control (ES&C),
• maintenance of traffic,
• sequence of construction,
• stormwater pollution prevention,
• pavement marking,
• signage
• environmental permitting for the project

The roadway typical section included:

Both shoulder and curb and gutter sections. Drainage design included both open and closed storm drain systems. A unique component of the drainage design consisted of “slip lining” a deficient bridge structure with a large diameter pipe which will help minimize disruptions to traffic during construction.

Other tasks included conducting a public hearing, meeting with property owners that were donating rights-of-way for the project, bidding and advertising and construction administration services.

T&L’s engineering estimate for this project was $3.8 Million, with the low and high bids ranging between $2.7 Million and $4.4 Million, respectively. The low bid of $2.7 Million was awarded by the Town; therefore the project is significantly under budget. This $2.7 Million project was completed in August 2017.

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