McCarthy Awarded Construction of State Highway 71 Toll Lanes in Austin

AUSTIN, Texas - Aug. 11, 2014 - PRLog -- McCarthy Building Companies, (http://www.mccarthy.com/locations/dallas/) Inc., a Texas builder for 35 years, has been awarded the State Highway (SH) 71 Express Lanes project by The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT). The $96.3 million project is set to begin in September of this year,and will incorporate the building and improvement of express toll traffic lanes on SH 71.

The project includes the design and construction of 4.5 miles of one toll lane in each direction on SH 71 between Presidential Boulevard, considered the main entrance to the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (ABIA), and SH 130, a highway connecting San Antonio to Austin. The project also includes construction of a bridge over SH 130 with ramps connecting the toll lanes and SH 130, the reconstruction and realignment of the intersection at SH 71 and Farm to Market Road (FM) 973, widening of SH 71 from Presidential Boulevard to SH 130 to allow for three non-tolled lanes in each direction, as well as a pedestrian pathway system.

“The SH 71 project is McCarthy's first design-build highway project in Texas, and is the perfect opportunity to showcase our team’s strengths in the design-build transportation market,” said Mike McWay, president of McCarthy’s Texas Region. “We are excited to begin working on this project to deliver a safer Austin highway for the Austin metroplex and the surrounding areas.”

McCarthy worked closely with its design partner LAN, Inc. to develop the most cost effective design solution and ultimately a winning strategy for the project. The highway, which connects Austin to the ABIA, Bastrop and other central Texas communities has not been updated since 1990, even with an experienced traffic increase of 158 percent. With the improvements made by McCarthy, Austin residents can expect to experience a shorter and safer commute along SH 71.

McCarthy will use a multi-phased approach in constructing the new facility, with an emphasis on maintaining safe traffic flow through the corridor and minimizing impact to adjacent businesses and the Austin Bergstrom International Airport. With an array of experience working on complex transportation construction projects, McCarthy’s Texas Division has completed numerous similar reconstruction projects (http://www.mccarthy.com/work/heavy-civil-transportation/) under heavy traffic conditions, including the recently completed Texas A&M Wellborn Road Grade Separations project in College Station, Texas.

The SH 71 Express Lanes project is scheduled for completion in the summer of 2016.

About McCarthy

Celebrating 35 years of building in Texas (http://www.mccarthy.com/locations/dallas/), McCarthy is the nation’s ninth largest domestic general contractor (Engineering News-Record, May 2014) and a leading community builder. At McCarthy (http://www.mccarthy.com/), we’re just getting started. For 150 years, McCarthy has been building communities across America, both by constructing essential projects communities rely on, as well as by helping those who need assistance. An employee-owned company, McCarthy performs general contractor, construction management and design/build services for the following project types: bridges and highways, parking structures, healthcare, entertainment, laboratory, biotechnology, retail, educational, office buildings, water/wastewater, federal, port/marine, microelectronic, industrial facilities, tenant interiors and mixed-use project construction. In addition to Dallas, McCarthy has offices in Houston; Sacramento, San Francisco, San Diego and Newport Beach, Calif.; Phoenix; Las Vegas; St. Louis; New Mexico; Kansas City, Kan.; Collinsville, Ill.; and, Atlanta. More information about the company’s history is available online at www.mccarthy150.com or by following the company on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/mccarthybuilding), Twitter (https://twitter.com/McCarthyBuild), LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/company/119184?trk=tyah) and Google+ (https://plus.google.com/+MccarthyBuilding/posts).