Hubbard Construction has worked on numerous highway projects throughout the state of Florida.

Premier Business Partners:

Sullivan Brothers Inc. Bonn-J Contracting Inc. of Florida

In June 4, 2007, Hubbard Construction ’s Orlando Division started the largest job in its history: section 211 of the SR 414 John Land Apopka Expressway. Hubbard was awarded the job by being the low bidder among four heavy highway contractors.

The expressway is being rebuilt in three sections with three contracts underway simultaneously.

Hubbard’s portion is situated on the eastern section of the work, which involves rebuilding 1.6 miles of roadway and bridges.

The portion of the work will take 24 months to complete and is expected to be finished in July 2009. The scope of work, which will cost $89 million, includes three bridges that will span more than one mile; 340,000 cubic yards of excavation; 690,000 cubic yards of embankment work; 137,000 square feet of mechanically stabilized earth walls; 32,000 cubic yards of concrete; and more than 7 million pounds of reinforcing steel.

One of the most complex elements of the project is the amount of concrete work involved. To meet the cost of this portion of the work, Hubbard is utilizing a form system it acquired from EFCO Forms.

Complex Elements
Project Engineer Antoine Golle says EFCO provided a modular system that comes in pieces as different-sized columns and caps. This modular system work like a gigantic puzzle: The different elements can be assembled to serve difference functions, thus providing cost savings for both the contractor and the owner. Another benefit of this plate girder system is that it provides for a high-quality finished surface, which limits the patchwork once the forms are stripped.

The fact three projects were let at the same time and are in progress simultaneously makes scheduling difficult. Hubbard must also maintain traffic on the existing roadway at a large intersection on the eastern end of the job of U.S. 441.

To keep traffic moving, Hubbard is doing the work by raising the four-line highway in sequential phases while keeping traffic moving on the opposite side. This work is slated to finish toward the end of the project’s life, and Golle says Hubbard is about three months ahead of schedule on the phase-related work.

“The solution was given to us in the plans from the engineer, which gave us all the plans, except for aesthetic arches that we designed,” Golle says. “They made the requirements on how to build the phase work and help us enhance the schedule and keep costs to a minimum.”
 
Dealing with Groundwater
When Hubbard began the project, it was confronted with a complex challenge: having to deal with the high water table on the project footprint. By working with the owner and relying on the strong communication that exists with the adjacent projects, the project team came up with an innovative solution and overcame the challenge.

With such a complicated project and numerous challenges arising, Hubbard benefited from its strong relationship with the owner, Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority, and the owner’s representative, Metric Engineering.

“They do most of the quality tracking for the owner and the day-to-day troubleshooting with the plans,” Golle says. “We worked with Metric Engineering in the past, and we’re fortunate to have them on our team again.”

With its largest project ever going smoothly, Hubbard further understands the value of preplanning before breaking ground on projects. Golle says the planning for this project was particularly well done.

“All the planning pays off on a job like this, and if it is not done, then you are constantly behind the eight ball,” Golle says. “We had good preparation for two months, which was a great help for us.”
 
About Hubbard Construction
Founded in 1920, Hubbard Construction says it is Florida’s largest heavy civil construction company with annual revenues of more than $300 million. The company performs highway projects, surveying, reclaimed asphalt pavement, hot mix sales and bridge building as a design/builder, bid/builder, public/private partner and design/build financer.

The company says it also values:

• Safety
• Its customers
• Its people
• Quality
• Integrity
• Leadership
• Accountability
  

Numerous Locations
Along with its headquarters in Orlando, Hubbard has construction and paving divisions in Jacksonville, Tampa and West Palm Beach, Fla. Hubbard is a subsidiary of Hubbard Group of Orlando, and its parent company is Eurovia, which operates through a network of 330 agencies and 770 production sites in 17 countries around the world.

Primarily operating in Europe and North America as a subsidiary of the VINCI Group, Eurovia has 38,500 employees in almost 1,000 industrial and commercial entities in 16 countries. It is structured in four business lines: roadwork, material production, “quality of life” development and infrastructure-related services.