2017 Featured Projects
14th Annual Day of the Dozer Another Success!
August 26, 2017 at the McLean County Fairgrounds from 10:00am until 4pm, over 700 kids got the experience of a lifetime to ride heavy construction and farming equipment!
In its 14th year, more than 10,000 kids have attended this one of a kind event. The kids were able to be in the driver’s seat and actually operate dozers, excavators, and other heavy equipment with a professional operator at their side.
Day of the Dozer supports the Stay4Project.org/ GreatPlainesLifeFoundation; a local initiative designed to address the high school drop-out crisis, and help low income students that demonstrate the ability to succeed, yet are at risk for dropping out. This years event helped to raise approximately $20,000!
Mark your calendars for next years event on August 25, 2018!
Special thanks goes to Dave Stark, Stark operators, employees, and family members who volunteered, along with all of the community organizations who participated, making Day of the Dozer the most successful ever! A sincere thank you to Stark event coordinators, Chris Ryan, Karrie Hilt, and Amy Bowen
Lancaster Road Project
In winter of 2016, Stark began tree removal on the $2,803,070 project for The Peoria County Highway Department, located west of Bartonville. Construction of the roadway and bridge started in Spring 2017.
Jeremy Livengood, Peoria Area Manager stated “Because of the rapid deterioration of the existing bridge, in Fall of 2015 county engineers had to increase the routine bridge inspections from once every three months to once a month. The bridge was closed to traffic in May 2016 which was approximately two years ahead of Peoria County’s budgeted plan for the project.”
This project involved removing the existing three span bridge, two piers, and two abutments, which will be replaced with a single span steel beam bridge. Phases to date: The bridge has been removed, storm sewer installed, pavement removal completed, seventy-five percent of dirt has been moved, rip rap has been placed, MSE wall started June 23, 2017, and water main work began June 26.
In this particular area, the shale was very high in elevation. When driving pile, the bottom tip elevation was about 20′ shy of what the designers had anticipated so the bridge office had to re-evaluate this prior to installing concrete abutments. On the East abutment we had to pre-core 24″ holes through the shale and fill the holes with bentonite prior to driving pile. It took nine hours to drill seven holes 10′ deep. The new bridge was designed to be longer than the original which took a lot of pre-planning and was our biggest challenge to maintain access for all homeowners to their driveways located directly behind the existing abutment.
Interesting, funny fact: “We had to install a cedar horse fence prior to executing any work due to a commitment the PCHD gave to a nearby homeowner. The homeowner claims there is a ‘Fairy’ tree on the premises and refused to let us disturb it because she thought it would bring bad luck,” stated Jeremy.
Project Team: Kevin Pribble, Scott Rakers, Nate Miller, Jeremy Livengood
Lincoln Avenue Project – Urbana
Stark was awarded the $2.59 million Lincoln Avenue project improvements in joint venture with the city of Urbana, Champaign County and IDOT. The project stretches 0.99 miles south of Olympian Drive in Urbana Illinois. This project is part of the Champaign/Urbana joint venture road expansion which involved the Olympian Drive extension to Lincoln Avenue, and then Lincoln Avenue south to allow an alternate flow for heavy truck traffic for local distributors in this area.
This job involved 39,855 CY of earth excavation, 22,520 CY topsoil excavating/placement, 2.75 acres of tree clearing, 23,630 CY of import fill needed to elevate the proposed roadway, 24′ wide concrete paving for 0.99 miles with 6′ asphalt shoulders – all of which is on a 12″ lime sub grade. We started moving dirt on February 27, 2017, and laying the 84″ concrete pipe on March 2, 2017 which was put in place in the Saline tributary to allow the road to be constructed across the tributary.
Superintendent, Todd Baker states “We have completed all mass excavation with touch-up of ditches and right-of-way remaining to be completed. The 6.5″ of rainfall the last week of April somewhat slowed us down. Rod Martin and his crew did an excellent job getting into the active tributary as well as getting the double barrel 187′ of 84″ pipe installed in March prior to the heavy rainfall. We had an 11′ on-site cut as our borrow source on site, which was challenging to say the least with all the different soil types that had been buried on site over the past 15 years. We uncovered all types of debris but mostly wet material that took time to process and dry to gain compaction to keep building 8′ fills in the proposed roadway.”
In early September, Todd Baker added “Nearly 90 percent of the 24′ wide paving job is complete and we anticipate our concrete to completed by mid-September. Once our paving is complete, we have subcontractors installing two mile of underdrain, asphalt shoulders and two asphalt connector roads that tie new pavement to the existing county roads for resident access. Our IDOT contract with our allowed working days, gives us until next May 2018 to complete this project. However, if the weather cooperates, this project will be complete by Thanksgiving 2017.”
Project Team: Jason Wissmiller, Todd Baker, Mark Aberle, Lucas Killian, Josh Martin, Anthony Pieper
McLean County Law & Justice Expansion Project – Bloomington
In January 2016, Stark was the successful bidder to the McLean County Public Building Commission for re-routing site utilities and mass excavating for the Law & Justice Expansion Project.
After completion of the project for the Public Building Commission, Stark Excavating was hired by River City Construction to execute the shoring and structural/foundation excavation for the expansion and remodel to the Law & Justice Center located at 104 W. Front Street in Bloomington beginning May 2017.
The building portion of the project being performed for River City Construction includes sheet pile installation to protect the existing parking garage and waterline during the mass basement and foundation excavation; backfill.
Matt Walk reported, “Since mid-August, we have completed sheet piling, mass excavation, and most of the foundation excavation, in addition to a portion of foundation backfill. The remainder foundation and basement backfills, slab subbase, sheet pile removal, and all site work will continue into the Fall/Winter 2017; site concrete work will likely extend into spring 2018.”
Challenges on this project include custom designed sheet pile installation with the assistance of a third party engineer and logistics/sequencing of the foundation excavation and backfill on such a tight sight footprint.
We were unable to drive sheet pile to engineered depth with a vibratory driver. After exploring multiple options including tie-backs, walers, etc., to support the sheets and ensure 100% safety in meeting engineered design, it was determined an impact driver was the best solution.
In 1976, Stark performed the excavation for the original McLean County Law Enforcement building for Felmley- Dickerson Company. This was the first major contract ever performed by Stark. In 1988, Stark performed excavation for the expansion of the Law Enforcement Center for River City Construction. “We are extremely proud to have been a part of each phase of this project,” remarks Dave Stark.
Project Team: Chris Ryan, Josh Martin, Matt Walk, Mark Yoder, Josh Hauter, Darrell Karr, Kevin Pribble
Washington Street Drainage Improvement Project Phase II – Champaign
The Washington Street Project is a drainage and site improvement project let by the City of Champaign April 5th, 2017. The project is located next to the Wirco Foundry and along Mattis Avenue and Washington Street.
After ultimately completing Phase I in 2015 and acquiring both early completion and minority work force participation incentives, Stark was the successful bidder and was awarded Phase II of this project.
Flooding has occurred in the Glenn Park area for many years as this area lies in the flood zone. The basins being constructed will alleviate the pressure on the storm structures and will help eliminate the floods. Also, the site will have decorative views, paths, and parks which will enhance the neighborhood.
This Phase II project includes 4 Stages:
Stage 1 included mobilization, tree removals, excavation of a dry basin, constructing rain gardens, paving road entrance, removals and paving of the Mattis Avenue and Glenn Park Drive intersection, work on water, sanitary, and storm systems. This phase has been completed.
Stage 2 is currently in progress and nearing completion. Stage 2 includes excavating a basin on the east side of the site, constructing a retaining wall and associated curtin wall for that basin, paving a roadway next to the Wirco building, installing decorative guardrails and fences by the basin, a waterfall feature in the basin, work on sub-terrain systems, and redistributing topsoil stored from early excavation.
Challenges: This project required extensive pre-planning including submittals and associated approvals for specialty items as well as coordination of specialty subcontractors.
Even before starting mass excavation, unsuitable soil existed at various locations throughout the job site that had to be disposed to a landfill. The process took several layers of testing, re-testing, and approvals which took an extended period of time on an already tightly scheduled project.
Approximately 15-18 trucks each day were used during mass excavation operations. Coordinating traffic on Mattis Avenue during peak hours was crucial for effective trucking.
The anchor tieback system is a very sophisticated and complex operation. There are approximately 200 anchor tiebacks and all had to be carefully checked, coordinated, and adjusted to ensure they don’t hit/conflict with the water or gas main lines behind it.
Project Team: Jason Wissmiller, Kenny Funston, Brad Jameson, Parthiv Brahmbhatt
