Sound walls rise along I-75 in Bradenton

When officials from the Florida Department of Transportation held a public meeting last fall about construction for the interchange of State Road 70 and Interstate 75 and the widening of I-75 around it, nearby homeowners had plenty of questions.

But the topic that always seemed to bubble to the surface: When is the sound wall coming?

East County residents on either side of Interstate 75 have anxiously awaiting for sound relief, and FDOT contractor Sacyr Construcción has responded by expediting sound barrier wall construction, FDOT project spokesman Brian Bollas said.

Work on the first section, located on the west side of I-75, but east of Creekwood and north of State Road 70, started in November 2018 and should be complete within a month. Three more sections remain to be built, Bollas said.

They will be erected on the west side of I-75 in front of the Tara Preserve and River Place communities and on the east side of I-75 in front of Willowbrook. Bollas said construction of those sections has not yet started, but contractors are clearing the sites and preparing the ground for work.

“Actual construction of those noise walls should commence summer 2019,” Bollas said.

The construction process is fairly simple.

Much like a traditional fence, each sound wall is made up of a concrete support, called a pile, with panels in between. The walls and panels themselves vary in length, depending on the scope of the project and the location of utilities, among other factors, Bollas said.

To install them, contractors first lay a template on the ground to mark where the sound wall will go. Then, crews use a rotating auger to dig a hole to a specific depth. Piles, much like a grooved post, are then inserted into the holes, generally about 11.5 feet apart.

Crews can install one pile every 30 minutes and the holes in which they sit are filled with concrete. After seven days, the curing process is complete. Contractors then can slide the wall panels into a groove in the post, much like tongue-and-groove flooring.

The bottoms of the panels are exposed to drivers-by now, but eventually the bottom 1 foot will be buried.

Bollas said two subsections of the sound walls will be bumped out from the main wall, with panels located closer to the interstate. The design, which actually will be a shoulder barrier wall with a noise wall on top, works around the presence of a Florida Gas Transmission gas main, but also provides the intended sound relief.

The sound barrier wall projects are part of FDOT’s larger $80.8 million project to rebuild the interchange of S.R. 70 and I-75 into the configuration now complete at the State Road 64 and I-75 interchange. The design replaces loop ramps in the northwest and northeast quadrants with a single loop ramp in the northwest quadrant.

The project includes widening a 6.75-mile section of Interstate 75 from north of University Parkway to south of State Road 64 to four lanes in each direction. It also widens State Road 70 to include sidewalks and buffered bicycle lanes from east of Tara Boulevard to west of 87th Street East, a distance of 1.5 miles.

FDOT Interstate Construction Project Manager Marléna Gore said the first 25% of the project is done, but that does not mean the project is 25% complete from a timing standpoint.

“The upfront 25% is quick,” she said, noting total project completion is anticipated in 2021.

Gore said over the summer, contractors will focus on building the northbound bridge over State Road 70, shifting northbound I-75 traffic onto the new bridge and starting demolition of the southbound I-75 bridge.

“That’s going to be the most noticeable thing,” Gore said.