We support cleaner air and less traffic with Bronx highway foundation design

Summary

• The Hunts Point Produce Market estimates that it supplies 60 percent of New York City’s fresh fruits and vegetables. This food hub draws nearly 80,000 vehicles to its South Bronx neighborhood every day — which means large trucks clogging small streets and polluting local air.  
• To provide better access to the market and ease impacts on the community, the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) planned to widen part of Interstate 278, locally known as the Bruckner Expressway, and add new exit and entrance ramps as part of the second phase of a three-phase interchange realignment project. 
• As a crucial transportation corridor, the highway had to remain open during construction, as did local streets. Project teams had to work in busy city streets next to two railroad lines, avoiding services disruptions and coordinating with multiple agencies. And engineers had to contend with highly variable geologic conditions, from shallow rock to filled land liable to settlement.  
• A construction joint venture team convened to tackle the geotechnical challenges of this design-build project, including local contractors El Sol Contracting and DeFoe and design firm Greenman-Pedersen. Haley & Aldrich won contracts for multiple project phases through our no-frills approach to design, which was also highly collaborative and adaptable enough to incorporate the joint venture’s preferred construction methods. 
• With a team that built careers on New York infrastructure projects, we also brought extensive experience performing subsurface explorations in city streets and a long history with NYSDOT. 
• We developed the foundation design concept and shepherded it through execution, and also conducted subsurface explorations and monitored construction. Our design incorporated a range of foundation solutions to address the varied subsurface, including drilled rock-socketed micro piles, driven end-bearing piles on rock, and driven friction piles where firm bedrock was very deep.  
• Ultimately, we delivered the stability the project required while minimizing disruptions to locals, who, as part of the project, also received two new parks and improved pedestrian routes.  

“The Hunts Point Access Improvement Project is a game changer for the South Bronx […] the people of the South Bronx will see fewer trucks on local roads and less congestion, which will help improve air quality, and they will also have wonderful new recreational opportunities.”

NYSDOT Commissioner Marie Therese Dominguez, quoted in a 2023 New York YIMBY article

For more information, contact:

Edward Zamiskie

Market Leader, Government

Paul Pizzimenti

Senior Client Account Manager