The Florida Transportation Builders Association (FTBA) recognized DRMP with the FTBA Construction Project of the Year award for providing engineering services to resurface, restore, and rehabilitate a portion of SR 597/Dale Mabry Highway – one of the busiest corridors in Hillsborough County, Fla.  

It was an honor to serve as the Project Manager and work alongside DRMP Professional Engineer Victoria Howard, PE, who led construction support services for DRMP, the project’s prime contractor, Preferred Materials, and Construction, Engineering and Inspection (CEI) consultant, K-Factor. 

This project is a prime example of how smoothly and successfully a project should go if you have good plans and a good contractor at the same time. Typically, there are some hiccups or unforeseen circumstances that happen with almost every project. However, in this case, there was a good set of plans and a good contractor, and virtually no change orders.

This was the second consecutive project DRMP worked on with Preferred Materials. Prior to this project, we had just completed a similar road improvement in Pinellas County, Fla., for SR 595 (Seminole Boulevard) with Preferred Materials, which went equally as smoothly.

State Road 597 is a heavily traveled 6-lane urban corridor located in the north Tampa area of Carrollwood. This corridor averages 70,000 vehicles daily. To successfully design and construct this size and complexity of a project to the satisfaction of stakeholders, is probably the excitement of this project and what makes it award worthy.

Improving Safety

The design of this project benefits the community by providing a safe means of cooperative transportation for motorists, cyclists, runners, and walkers.

DRMP’s services involved providing milling and resurfacing design for approximately 4.3 miles along SR 597/Dale Mabry Highway from North of South Village Drive/West Fletcher Avenue to South of Van Dyke Road.

The project included replacing damaged sidewalks, upgrading ADA deficiencies, drainage, and designing essential traffic safety improvements. It also involved a major redesign and upgrade to the Bearss Avenue intersection, which helped improve the intersection’s traffic operations by increasing pedestrian safety and driver awareness. Additional services included roadway design, signalization design, lighting, signing/pavement markings, pavement design, utility relocation/coordination and services during construction.

To improve pedestrian safety, we created a larger shoulder for bicyclists to travel on and fixed the ramps and crosswalks, as well as added pedestrian signals. Our upgraded drainage design will now prevent major flooding that was happening at the Bearss Avenue intersection.

DRMP’s design also will help ease traffic congestion with new signing, marking, and asphalt pavement.

Smooth Collaboration

DRMP began designing this project in October 2019 and completed it in October 2021. Construction started in November of 2021 and ended ahead of schedule last month.

My colleague, DRMP Professional Engineer Victoria Howard, PE, was responsible for day-to-day contact with the contractor and served as liaison with the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) District 7 to make the process go smoothly. Victoria played a key role in keeping everyone informed about progress, routing RFIs (request for information) and design reviews and being extremely responsive to the contractor and FDOT District 7. Preferred Materials, K-Factor, and District 7 were all complimentary of Victoria’s help and responsiveness, which helped move the project along. DRMP's Tampa, Fla., design team also supported the construction efforts with timely reviews, quick response times, and flexibility to meet the contractor in the field on short notice. 

The Maintenance of Traffic (MOT) of this project was complex and certainly tricky. The impacts of construction to the public were even more challenging. Our main concern throughout the entire project was to minimize the impacts to the traveling public.

Improving the Bearss Avenue intersection was a major component of this project, which required a strong (MOT) design to keep motorists safe. We closed an entire lane that served as a free-flow lane. That closure meant people had to use through lanes for a right-turn movement. Prior to construction, motorists did not have to wait for vehicles to turn right.

There also were some intersection closures, as well as some pedestrian detours in the busiest areas, which can frustrate motorists. To minimize frustration, Preferred Materials did a combination of night work, offered timely solutions to challenges in real-time, creative problem solving on unforeseen day-to-day obstacles, and had great communication.

I’m extremely proud of the tremendous teamwork that was put forth by everyone who was involved in this project. K-Factor did a fantastic job performing CEI, which was a key factor in the project going so smoothly. It is uncommon for a project to go this smoothly. Although there is no such thing as perfect plans or perfect contractors, this project came pretty close.