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Koss Construction Company’s asphalt and two concrete paving divisions teamed up in the summer of 2011 to complete a much-needed upgrade on 18 miles of US-50 West of Cimarron in Gray County, KS. Originally a 30’ roadway consisting of two 12’ lanes, 3’ shoulders and limited by-pass and turn lanes, Koss converted this corridor into a “super-two” facility, added two, one-mile long passing lanes with shoulders and constructed six new by-pass and turn lanes, including a center turn lane at Ingalls, KS. Work on the project began shortly after award of the contract in the spring of 2010. Subcontractors moved over 330,000 cubic yards of excavation and borrow while extending over 80 drainage structures more than 1300 feet. Let by the Kansas Department of Transportation with multiple surfacing options, the base bid called for nominal milling to correct cross slope and a 2” HMA overlay. All newly constructed widenings and shoulders called for 6” of fly ash stabilization. Koss utilized product alternatives that included 9” NRDJ PCC paving on a 4” cement treated base for the new driving surfaces. The adjacent 6” PCC shoulders were placed on a 7” granular base. All PCC paving was finished 2” above the milled surface to accept the new overlay. The existing shoulder improvements consisted of a relatively new product called roller compacted concrete (RCC), a plant mixed “zero slump” concrete placed and compacted to grade just like asphalt and in this case, to the top of the milled surface. Koss faced several challenges on the project with the biggest being traffic. All work was performed under traffic without closing any side roads or any portion of the highway with the use flaggers, pilot cars, lane shifts and barrier wall.

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This project was located on US-50 adjacent to the City of Garden City, KS. The project converted the existing two lane road and turning it into a safer, four-lane configuration with an interchange at US-83 as well as an overpass over the existing Garden City railroad. It also included four at grade intersections as well as an interchange for Big Lowe road which is the main access to the local processing facility. There were 8.5 miles of concrete pavement which included the main driving lanes as well as a new one mile long road to access the meat packing facility. The project consisted of 10” of concrete pavement in the driving lanes placed over fly-ash treated subgrade and cement treated base material. The shoulders were 8” of concrete pavement placed over granular base. In total the project consisted of 511,876 SY of concrete pavement, as well as 392,993 SY of cement treated base and 167,772 SY of granular base material. Koss Construction was able to get the first phase completed as scheduled. Construction started in the spring of 2010 and the first phase was completed and opened to traffic four weeks prior to the original opening date. This allowed the crews to get the second phase started early in order to get the paving portion of Phase two started in the spring of 2011. The paving and all associated work was completed and the project was open to unrestricted traffic on 7/1/11. This stretch of road is a main artery for access the western United States and is used by the large work force for access to the processing facility. The high volume of traffic was a daily issue for construction. Through partnering with the local Kansas of Department of Transportation, as well as local businesses and law enforcement, the construction was completed safely with minimal impact to the traveling public. The entire project was completed on time and with the quality and smoothness (13.2 in/mi on the 0.00 blanking band) that everyone involved can be proud of.

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Completed in November of 2011, these two projects span approximately 14.5 miles from the Reno / McPherson County line to just north of K-153. This reconstruction / realignment of K-61 consisted of over 720,000 combined SY of pavement. The roadway consisted of (2) 12’ driving lanes, along with 6’ and 10’ shoulders. The driving lanes were constructed of 8.5” NRDJ pavement, while the shoulders were constructed of 6” pavement. The driving lanes rested on 4” of granular base, and 6” of lime stabilized sub-grade.

In August of 2010, Koss began paving operations. All 720,000+ SY of pavement were completed by mid-October of 2011. In order to complete this large undertaking in such short order, (2) RexCon 12 CY Model S batch plants were utilized. Together, the projects included 5 at-grade intersections, 2 interchanges, and 1 overpass. Prior to the new construction, this stretch of highway was a heavily traveled and dangerous 2-lane roadway. Existing at-grade intersections were difficult to navigate due to the sharp approach angles. The new at-grade intersections have been reconfigured to allow for a near perpendicular approach to K-61. With the completion of these projects, the traveling public can now enjoy 4-lane travel from the Reno / McPherson County line to I-135.

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Completed in early summer of 2011, this project is located in LeFlore County, Oklahoma just south of the Kerr Reservoir Lock and Dam.  This project included grading, drainage, bridges, and surfacing on US Highway 59. This was the next extension of the US-59 reconstruction efforts south of Sallisaw, Oklahoma, extending 8.006 KM to the intersection of Highway 9 and US-59. The north bound lanes were constructed in 2010 while traffic remained on existing two lane US-59. The typical section consisted of lime treated subgrade, 17.8 m separator fabric, 200 mm aggregate base, 100 mm cement treated base, 175 mm variable depth shoulder, and 225 mm mainline concrete pavement. Once traffic was switched to the new northbound lanes, the Sooner Division left Oklahoma to pave in Kansas while pavement removal and grading resumed on the southbound lanes. Upon completing pavement removal on the southbound lanes, the existing road bed was found to be so unstable the Oklahoma Department of Transportation suspended subgrade modification in mid-December until a new typical section could be drafted to mitigate the poor soil conditions. Work resumed early January of 2011 with a new typical section requiring an additional 100 mm of aggregate base as well as 50,600 m² geo-textile materials. To construct the new typical section, two CMI Autogrades were employed to span 18.4 meters to place both aggregate base and cement treated base. This allowed for seamless construction of the cross section. In total, Koss Construction placed 256,000 m² separator fabric, 120,000 MG aggregate base, 194,000 m² cement treated base, and 179,000 m² concrete pavement.

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Koss Construction team completed the US-59, Franklin County, Kansas project in June of 2010. This Project consisted of 7.3 miles of four lane highway.  The project included 451,500 SY of 8.5” Concrete Pavement and 487,500 SY of Granular Base.  This project also consisted of 26 bridge approaches, 15 Ramps, and 1 weigh station parking lot. The Franklin County job included 8.5” Dowel Jointed pavement for the driving lanes and 6” Plain concrete shoulders, all on Granular base.

 

Koss Construction Company put a new Guntert & Zimmerman S850 paver and a new Rex Con Model S Central Mix Batch Plant to work on this project.   The new equipment and a talented team combined to make this job a success.  This project had an average profile index less than 13 inches per mile.  With this successful profile this job earned a smoothness bonus on nearly every segment of concrete pavement.

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Completed in July of 2010, this project is located in Dallas County, Missouri just south of Buffalo. (Approximately 25 miles North of Springfield.) The project is a new alignment of US-65 that stretched from the southern edge of Buffalo to 4.3 miles south.  It consisted of 142,500 SY of 9” Concrete Pavement that was 26’ wide.

Koss began paving in April of 2010 and was finished with the paving portion of the project in early June, despite the battle with the Missouri rain season.  The project had an overall smoothness of 13.6 in/mi, which was achieved with minimal corrective grinding. Prior to the new construction, this project contained the last remaining section of 2-lane highway from Buffalo to the Arkansas State Line. The traveling public can now enjoy the drive to Springfield on a safe and speedy 4-lane highway.  Koss, along with their subcontractors, are proud to say in the words of the Missouri Department of Transportation that this project was “Completed as Promised.”

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Since 1990, Koss Construction has completed the majority of the reconstruction of I-70 from Salina to Topeka with multiple contracts through several counties.  Work included significant grading, bridge reconstructions, drainage improvements and incidental construction.

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In the summer of 2009, Koss Construction paved 50,500 SY of 6” concrete pavement to reconstruct the runway at the Scott City Kansas Municipal Airport.  Faced with a tight schedule, the Koss team met this project head on.  The contract allowed for the runway to be out of service for only 60 days.  Alongside experienced subcontractors, the Koss team completed the project on time and accident free.  Through a value engineering proposal, Koss was able to save the City of Scott City enough money to complete additional taxiways and aircraft parking areas that were not included in the original budget.  The engineer and city officials felt fortunate that Koss submitted the low bid and was able to deliver a quality project faster than they had anticipated.  Koss Pride shows on the smoothest 5,002 foot long runway in Western Kansas.

View letter from Scott City, City Clerk

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Koss Construction has completed the widening and expansion of US-69 to a four lane expressway from the north Linn County line through the junction of US-54 in Fort Scott.   This much needed system improvement provides a four lane, controlled access highway, replacing a heavily traveled and dangerous two lane roadway.  Nine separate contracts included more than ten million cubic yards of excavation as well as 40 bridges and over 1,800,000 square yards of PCCP on treated sub grade and cement treated base were completed between 2003 and 2009.

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This project, completed in 2008, included the surfacing of more than 100,000 SY of PCCP in multiple phases as well as toll booths with access tunnels, retained earth, multiple bridges and a commercial building.  The pavement included two roundabouts.  When one roundabout pour was completed from beginning to end, a manager commented that some days it feels like we are chasing our tails, today we caught it.  A challenging project to start with, made more difficult with plan changes and two very wet construction seasons.