ENR Southeast 2023 Best Projects
Merit Highway/Bridge - Winston-Salem Northern Beltway
Photo courtesy Flatiron Constructors Inc.
Winston-salem Northern Beltway
Winston-Salem, N.C.
Award of Merit
Submitted by: Flatiron Constructors Inc.
Owner North Carolina Dept. of Transportation
Lead Design Firm HDR Inc.
General Contractor Flatiron Constructors Inc. - Blythe Development Co. Joint Venture
Subconsultant STV Inc.
A joint venture of Flatiron Constructors and Blythe Development Co. successfully took on the massive $183-million Winston-Salem Northern Beltway, a design-build highway project that will loop around the northern part of Winston-Salem.
The six-lane divided highway, which spans from east of US 52 to US 311 (New Walkertown Road), included seven miles of new roadway, new bridges, three new interchanges, drainage improvements, retaining walls, sound walls, signalization and ITS upgrades.
Construction called for moving 4.8 million cu yd of embankment; installing 68,000 linear ft of pipe; constructing 11 new bridges; building five reinforced concrete box culverts; and placing 275,000 tons of asphalt. The team worked with transportation officials to minimize environmental and traffic impacts. One of the major challenges of the project was dealing with legislation passed decades ago now deemed unconstitutional—the Map Act, which delayed compensation for right-of-way parcels while the law was debated at the federal and state level. Those parcels couldn’t be acquired until the ruling was settled.
This required the team to resequence work in some areas while legal determinations were made. Ultimately, the project acquired 337 right-of-way parcels, with 118 of those being subject to Map Act legal proceedings.
Construction was reduced from what could have been years of delays to only 379 calendar days of delay—and the owner provided a schedule extension.
