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Herzog Joint Venture Awarded I-85 Rail Bridges Project

The North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) awarded the $300M I-5719C I-85 Rail Bridges Construction Manager/General Contractor (CM/GC) project to a Flatiron Herzog joint venture (FHJV).

 

This project will remove and replace three rail bridges and one vehicular bridge, each spanning I-85.

I-5719C is a critical enabling project for future construction projects to widen and expand I-85 in Gaston County near Charlotte in North Carolina. The FHJV team will remove three rail bridges – a NCDOT Rail Division Bridge in the Piedmont and Northern Railway (P&N) corridor, a Norfolk-Southern Railway (NS) bridge adjacent to East Ozark Avenue, and a NS bridge adjacent to Groves Street. The vehicular bridge to be removed is the Groves Street Bridge. Each bridge that will be removed will be replaced with a new bridge structure. The interior bents at each of the current bridge locations sit adjacent to outside travel lanes of I-85, preventing any widening work until the bridges are replaced.

For the bridge in the P&N corridor, a temporary bridge and shoofly with turnouts will be constructed east of the current bridge structure. Temporary track embankments will be built on the northern and southern approaches and will extend for several hundred feet in both directions. FHJV will coordinate a service outage with the NCDOT Rail Division to connect the turnouts to the shoofly. While the new P&N bridge is under construction, all Charlotte-Western rail traffic will use the temporary bridge.

The NS bridge adjacent to East Ozark Avenue is the project’s most complex and challenge to demolish and rebuild. Both NS and Amtrak train traffic will need to be maintained during all phases of construction.  The bridge features significant work in the I-85 median. Vehicular traffic will be shifted to outside lanes to provide a safe work zone for crews working in the median. The existing west bridge spans and tracks will first be demolished and reconstructed. New tracks will then be installed on the west spans. The process will then be repeated for the east bridge spans and tracks.

The Groves Street Bridge and the adjacent NS bridge are located in close proximity to each other. The Groves Street Bridge must be demolished first for adequate access to the NS bridge. The Groves Street Bridge will be rebuilt adjacent to the current bridge structure. The NS bridge will then be demolished and rebuilt. I-85 median access will be required for demolition and construction of both bridges. Groves Street will be closed for approximately 18 months to allow for construction.

At each bridge location, FHJV will be responsible for associated cutovers, roadbed, sub-ballast, and trackwork. Additional scope includes clearing and grubbing, paving, utility investigations and relocations, and coordination with railroads.

“Herzog is proud to partner with NCDOT, all the stakeholders, and our Joint Venture partner Flatiron to build this exciting project and improve Transit and Transportation in North Carolina,” Scott Norman, Executive Vice President of Construction, National Construction, said.

As a CMGC project, pre-construction phase service activities (constructability reviews, value engineering, schedule development, pricing, and risk mitigation) begin this spring and will continue into early 2026. Construction on the project is expected to begin April 2026. Final completion is anticipated in late 2028.