I- 40/Coors Interchange

Albuquerque, New Mexico

The I-40/Coors Interchange Reconstruction Design and Build project is one of the most complex, high profile design-build projects undertaken in New Mexico to date. I-40 is a critical economic lifeline for New Mexico and the region, serving an important transportation facility for Albuquerque. Over 100,000 vehicles including numerous heavy trucks pass through the interchange in a single day.

Coors Boulevard is the only north-south principal arterial on the west side that serves both local traffic and regional transportation needs. The Interchange, built in the 1960s, was handling more than twice as many automobiles as it was designed for.

As part of the design-build team, Terracon was selected to provide geotechnical engineering design services. This includes geotechnical field exploration, laboratory testing of materials, Falling Weight Deflectometer testing, foundation design, retaining wall designs and roadway design. 

The interchange requires building eight bridges, numerous MSE retaining walls, several reinforced concrete retaining walls, and numerous related structures. During the field exploration, Terracon drilled a total of fifty-two test borings and twenty-eight CPT borings for bridges, retaining walls, sound walls, major drainage structures, and pavement areas to characterize the subsurface soils at each structure. This is in addition to the twenty-nine borings previously drilled by the NMDOT during the planning stages.

The SE ramp over I-40 bridge is the tallest and longest structure on the project. Because of its curved layout and long spans, the ramp superstructure is constructed of a concrete deck on steel girders. To expedite construction in the intersection area, single column piers with hammerhead caps were used between spans. 

The Coors Boulevard over Ouray bridge carries the local traffic over Ouray Road to the north of the main interchange. The bridge is 139.1 feet wide in a single span of 110 feet to cross over Ouray Road, between MSE-type abutments. The structure was built in phases to maintain traffic movement on Coors Boulevardand minimize disruption of local traffic.