BUILDING THE STATE OF THE ART

Many aspects of the project to construct the new Highway 407 at Toronto, Canada will influence future road construction and management. This gigantic project was financed in a forward thinking, constructive way, used the most advanced and productive construction techniques, and applied new technologies which elsewhere exist mainly in laboratories. The 36km first stage, of what will eventually be a 155km long highway, was built at a cost of C$1.2 billion (about US$900M). It includes 28 junctions and over 160 structures, including 127 new bridges. It used 1.5Mt of concrete, and extensive amounts of other construction materials, including crushed stone, asphalt, waterproofing, joint sealants, geotextiles, and traffic paints. The project was completed in four and a half years, about 20% of the time normally required for a job of this size. The Canadian Government created the Ontario Transportation Capital Corporation (OTCC) to exploit new public/private financing possibilities. OTCC signed the contract with Canadian Highways International Corporation (CHIC), a consortium of design and construction firms, to develop, design, build, operate, and maintain Highway 407. The highway was built with 'high tech' concrete, but the whole pavement structure was important, because the roadway passes over several soft soils.