ALDOT I-59 Shoulders Trussville, AL


A.G. Peltz Group, LLC placed 128,000 SY of Roller Compacted Concrete on I-59 interstate shoulders for ALDOT in 2021.  As the pilot project with RCC for shoulder reconstruction, ALDOT elected to utilize Roller Compacted Concrete due to its advantages including durability and speed of construction.  The existing HMA shoulders were deteriorated and edge drains were installed about six inches below the existing pavement.  The drains limited the depth of the new pavement to five inches and ALDOT needed a solution which could be installed quickly, meeting interstate drop-off requirements while having an adequate structural capacity for anticipated traffic (including temporary truck traffic).  Per ALDOT Construction Engineer, Gary Smith, “RCC worked well for our requirements.  The planer cuts the shoulder down five inches with the RCC equipment following right behind….so there’s no drop off when the construction is complete.   They can do the entire 5-inch lift with one operation.”

A.G. Peltz placed the 5″ thick RCC ranging from widths of 5 ft. on the inside shoulders to 10 ft. on the outside shoulders along the nearly 8-mile stretch of roadway.  This presented another unique challenge for AGP as typical RCC paver screeds require a minimum of 8 ft. paving widths.  AGP was successful in modifying the paver to a width of 5 ft. for the inside shoulders without impacting the quality of the placement process.  Also, this was AGP’s and ALDOT’s first use of Portland Cement Limestone (PLC) from Lehigh Hanson, a greener cement alternate to conventional concrete mixes. PLC reduces the amount of clinker and associated emissions required to produce cement, lowering the carbon footprint by about 10%.   AGP is contracted to complete a 2nd phase of I-59 shoulder reconstruction soon.