Pontotoc County, Mississippi

Burns Cooley Dennis, Inc. (BCD) provided geotechnical consulting services for bridge foundations and pavements and construction materials testing, inspection and engineering services for Mississippi Department of Transportation’s (MDOT) State Route 9 Design-Build Project in Pontotoc County, Mississippi.  The project consisted of approximately 9.5 miles of new four-lane roadway from U.S. 278/S.R. 6 near Pontotoc to U.S. 78 at Sherman. The project included eight at-grade intersections, an interchange at Endville Road and grade separations at Dozier Hill Road and Eads Creek Road.  Construction included 7 million cubic yards of earthwork, approximately 170,000 tons of asphalt pavement, and ten bridges.

Geotechnical services included preparation of geotechnical reports including pile design and verification using dynamic pile testing, drilled shaft design and verification using Osterberg load testing, stability analysis of embankment slopes and cut slopes, and settlement analyses of embankments.  Materials testing services included daily field and laboratory testing for embankment soils, design, soils, stabilized subgrade soils, cement stabilized subbase materials, granular base materials, shoulder materials, hot-mix asphalt pavements and concrete structures.  BCD also provided QC construction inspection services during deep foundation installation, bridge construction, embankment/roadway construction, hot-mix asphalt placement, pavement striping, and roadway signage and traffic control.

Hancock and Harrison Counties, MS

When Hurricane Katrina made landfall on August 28, 2005, the U.S. 90 Bridge over St. Louis Bay, a vital link between the communities of Pass Christian, Mississippi and Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, was destroyed. The storm surge from this hurricane, estimated to be about 28 feet, devastated both the superstructure and substructure of the previous bridge, making replacement the only reasonable solution to reconnect the communities along this historic route.

Burns Cooley Dennis, Inc. (BCD) was a subconsultant to HNTB Corporation as part of a design-build team to construct the replacement bridge. This $266.8 million project for the Mississippi Department of Transportation not only replaced the previous bascule bridge, but also enhanced the functionality of this critical component of the Gulf Coast transportation network.