Skip to main content

Southern Ohio Veterans Memorial Highway ready for construction

Construction is about to start on the first public-private partnership highway project in the US state of Ohio. The Southern Ohio Veterans Memorial Highway, near the city of Portsmouth, will cost nearly US$228 million and is scheduled for completion in 2019, according to the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT). The Portsmouth Gateway Group will build the 25.8km, four-lane limited access highway from U.S. Route 23 north of Lucasville to U.S. Route 52 near Sciotoville. An ODOT statement said tha
April 13, 2015 Read time: 3 mins
Construction is about to start on the first public-private partnership highway project in the US state of Ohio.

The Southern Ohio Veterans Memorial Highway, near the city of Portsmouth, will cost nearly US$228 million and is scheduled for completion in 2019, according to the 7272 Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT).

The Portsmouth Gateway Group will build the 25.8km, four-lane limited access highway from U.S. Route 23 north of Lucasville to U.S. Route 52 near Sciotoville.

An ODOT statement said that the project “has been in demand for decades and using innovative P3 [public-private partnership] financing allows ODOT to build it now and pay for it over 35 years, while still building other important projects around the state”.

The ODOT said the Southern Ohio Veterans Memorial Highway is the department’s “largest, modern earthwork project to date”. Construction crews will remove about 19 million cubic metres of earth and rock and place another 19 million cubic metres of embankment.

Leading the joint venture Portsmouth Gateway Group is construction contractor 4761 Dragados USA, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Dragados, S.A., the construction arm of the ACS Group -- Actividades de Construccion y Servicios -- based in Madrid, Spain.

Dragados USA was set up in 2005 and has won several large transportation, marine, dam and reconstruction projects. These include the $1.2 billion East Side Access project in New York City and the $1.3 billion SR 99 Seattle Bored Tunnel in the northwestern state of Washington.

Other contractors include Beaver Excavating, one of Ohio’s largest heavy civil and highway infrastructure construction companies, and Ohio-based John R. Jurgensen, a specialist interstate and roadway construction and asphalt paving business

Lead engineering firm is the Ohio-based ms consultants, supported by specialised sub-consultants TranSystems, S&ME and Portsmouth area firms.

The project’s financing is accomplished through the use of $227.36 million in tax exempt private activity bonds with another $208 million provided through a Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act, or TIFIA, loan from the federal government in Washington. TIFIA Loans are low-interest loans for projects of national and regional significance.

The new highway will complete the Appalachian Development Highway System in Ohio and will improve safety in and around the city of Portsmouth and Scioto County by taking heavy truck traffic off city streets, the ODOT said.

Since 2012, “ODOT has been working to develop the project as a P3, which allows ODOT to accelerate the project by decades, and the department can avoid rising project costs by taking advantage of current competitive economic conditions”.

The ODOT said the Southern Ohio Veterans Memorial Highway is the department’s “largest, modern earthwork project to date”. Construction crews will remove about 25 million cubic yards of earth and rock and place another 25 million cubic yards of embankment.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Bertha ends her Alaskan Way voyage in Seattle
    December 21, 2017
    Seattle's State Route 99 viaduct is coming down. David Arminas was on site. Bertha, the world’s largest diameter earth pressure balance tunnel boring machine, with a cutterhead diameter of 17.5m, is no more. Her 2.7km journey underneath the waterfront area of Seattle finished on April 4 and the power went off for the last time on an extraordinary TBM that had finally completed an extraordinary job. “A small sidewalk job would have had more impact on city traffic than we have had,” says Brian Russell a v
  • Ohio DOT is only US state to receive APWA 2013 Snow & Ice Control Award
    April 9, 2013
    The Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) recently became the only US state department of transportation to receive the American Public Works Association (APWA) Excellence in Snow and Ice Control Award for 2013. “Our people do great things every day and it’s nice to be recognized for the superior level of service we are providing to our customers – the motoring public,” said ODOT director Jerry Wray. “Motorists are less tolerant of failure in snow and ice control than in any other highway function. Unles
  • New funding for 44 infrastructure projects
    December 26, 2024
    New funding awards escalate the launch of 44 major infrastructure projects.
  • Highway 99 revisited
    March 6, 2024
    David Arminas recently returned to Seattle for an inside look at some of the features of the now-complete SR99 tunnel that was a World Highways key project report in November 2017.