Corridor X - 28 Design Services

CTE designed and developed contract plans for a section of Corridor X, a part of the Appalachian Mountain Highway System that when completed will provide a multilane controlled access expressway between Memphis, Tennessee, and Birmingham, Alabama. CTE performed the geometric design, hydraulic design, erosion control design, sequence of construction, and traffic control design for the section which included four miles of 4-lane divided highway, two miles of 2-lane cross roads, and one diamond interchange. The hydraulic design included software design and analysis of culverts, energy dissipaters, median inlet spacing, closed pipe networks, and roadside and median ditch linings. CTE prepared and submitted all information calculations required to obtain the stormwater permit through the Alabama Department of Environmental Management. Corridor X runs through a part of Alabama that was once heavily mined for coal. This posed a unique challenge to the design because of the types of soils encountered in this area. CTE had to deal with unsuitable material, muck, mine spoils, and retention ponds. Because of the high acidity of the soil, one portion had to be bridged with earthen fill to ensure that none of the existing soil or ground water was disturbed. This required coordination with the Alabama Mining Commission and the Alabama Department of Environmental Management to ensure the integrity of the existing mitigation permits were not comprised.