Parsons wins award for Caldecott Tunnel

3220 Parsons has won an award for ITS work on the Caldecott Fourth Bore Project. The award comes from Roads & Bridges magazine as the top (US) road project of 2013. Parsons worked as prime consultant on the US$417 million tunnel project, working with Jacobs Associates. The project involved constructing a fourth bore through the Berkeley Hills, near Oakland, California. Parsons was responsible for preliminary engineering and the final design of the tunnel, the operations building, and two associated roadway projects. The tunnel was excavated using sequential excavation, also known as the New Austrian Tunneling Method.

The Caldecott Fourth Bore Project represents a partnership between the 2410 Federal Highway Administration, the 2451 California Department of Transportation, the 7419 Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the Contra Costa Transportation Authority, and the Alameda County Transportation Commission. When it opens to traffic in late 2013, the Fourth Bore will relieve traffic congestion in the off-peak direction along a heavily traveled section of State Route 24 by permanently dedicating two bores to westbound traffic and two bores to eastbound traffic.  This multimillion-dollar project is one of the largest recipients of 1088 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding in the nation, a testament to ITS regional importance.