Project Summary/Scope:

The Erie County DPW had a completely reconstruct nearly 2 miles of Lake Avenue located in Orchard Park, New York, just outside Buffalo. This road, originally constructed in the 1970s, had poor subbase materials and subgrade drainage that led to degraded asphalt. Erie County has very thick standard pavement sections and they wanted to avoid deep undercuts for this 2-mile project.

A two-layer multi-axial geogrid design was proposed to address the issues of soft subgrades and optimize the pavement design. The base layer of geogrid was used to stabilize these very soft soils and helped the county avoid expensive and time-consuming excavation and removal of these soils. The upper layer of geogrid helped reduce the overall pavement section thickness and provided an extended life expectancy of the road.

The Erie County DPW won the 2015 Transportation Project of the Year award given by the American Public Works Association.

Performance Monitoring:  As of February of 2022, the asphalt still looks like new after nearly six of some of the harshest winters in the United States, and it hasn’t been resurfaced once.

Cost Information:  Costs were reduced by approximately $1 million compared to traditional construction methods.

Case History Author/Submitter:  Kyle Lowery

Project Technical Paper: N/A

Date Case History Prepared: February 2022

Case History Prepared By: Kyle Lowery