BMW LC-X Bridge & Power Feed Expansion Project

BMW Manufacturing is expanding its logistics operations to a new manufacturing building on the  opposite side of Interstate 85 from the current plant. To minimize impacts of truck traffic in the area and allow for easy/efficient access to BMW within federal trade zone, a private roadway design-build project was developed to connect the new logistics center to the existing BMW campus. This project connects BMW’s Geer Plant in Spartanburg County with its satellite expansion property across I-85 at the LCX Freeman Farm Road site.

The BMW project includes roadway, drainage, and two private bridges, one over Interstate 85 and one over Freeman Farm Road. The design and construction the two-lane road and bridges was performed in accordance with SCDOT Specifications in conjunction with BMW’s criteria and subject to approval of SCDOT leadership. The project included a 210’ simple span steel girder bridge over 8 lanes of I-85, a 100’ simple span concrete girder bridge of Freeman Farm Road, 3,700 feet of new roadway, roadway
lighting, landscaping, FTZ security fence, and utility installations and relocations (8” water main, telecom and fiber optic, sanitary sewer force main, 4” gas main, and medium voltage overhead power) — all within a highly accelerated delivery schedule of just 15 months.

The design-build team eliminated the need for a pier in the median of I-85 to significantly minimize impacts to interstate traffic during construction and greatly improve safety for the traveling public. When completed, this was the longest single-span bridge over an interstate in the state of SC with approximately 475,000 LBS of structural steel; 157,000 LBS of rebar and 470 CY of concrete. The roadway construction included 70,000 CY of earthen embankment, 4,000 TN of stone base, 10,000 SY of hot mix asphalt pavement, 1 mile of medium voltage (13.2kV) power feed, and 15,000 LF of conduit for low voltage power, medium voltage power, data, and future expansion.

The girders were pre-assembled into pairs then erected over I-85 in one night, while law enforcement officers provided rolling roadblocks of interstate traffic. The girder pairs were passed across the interstate with a mid-air handoff from a 1,320-ton hydraulic crane to a 600-ton hydraulic crane on the other side of I-85, with a 150-ton crawler crane carrying the trailing end of the girder pair. Each girder pair weighed about 250,000 LBS and was erected in less than 45 minutes.

A detailed white paper was submitted to the FHWA and SCDOT by the design-build team demonstrating a “fire-safe” design to allow dual 13.2 kV power feeds to be attached to the bridge versus boring these lines underneath the interstate. This resulted in significant time and cost savings and is the first example of medium voltage power being mounted directly onto a bridge over an interstate in South Carolina.

The project was completed on time and under budget with no recordable safety incidents, no lost time incidents, no quality issues, and no disputes or claims.