The Challenge

High-level stakeholders shared concerns about Route 18’s aesthetics and traffic congestion. These concerns for this major thoroughfare led The City of New Brunswick, Rutgers University, and Johnson and Johnson to look to Conti for help. Local city planners had sought to relocate the community to an improved riverfront park instead of its original, heavily trafficked location, while the university looked to benefit students with increased traffic flow and a new riverside performing arts facility. Johnson and Johnson also favored the relocation of Route 18 because the highway was too near its offices.

The Solution

The Conti Group alleviated stakeholders’ concerns through the successful completion of this major $154 million highway reconstruction project. Overall, Conti used 39,000 cy of I-3 granular base, 50,000 CY of Recycled Concrete Aggregate (RCA), and 185,000 tons of asphalt to construct and modify various structures on Route 18. Value engineering was also a key part of the project, as the original plans called for 21,000 lf of reinforced cast-in-place concrete parapet, but Conti saw an opportunity to change a majority of the parapet to precast concrete. This ultimately provided the client with higher quality and stronger final cure strength, as well as a significant impact on compressing the schedule.

Scope of Work