The Metro Gold Line bus rapid transit project began construction in fall 2022 and will continue through 2024, with service scheduled to begin in March 2025. During the construction phase, the following activities will take place:

• Constructing bus-only lanes and repaving and restriping existing lanes
• Building stations and park & ride facilities
• Constructing new bridges and an underpass
• Adding trails to connect people to stations and the existing trail network
• Upgrading or adding traffic signals and signs at intersections
• Upgrading utilities, adding lighting, and landscaping

This entire project is quite unique due to its scale: it includes 9 ½ miles of pavement, 21 miles of curb, and 12 bridges and underpasses. Cemstone’s entire Saint Paul team has undertaken a significant effort to complete this project. The project will total just shy of 100,000 cubic yards of concrete.

Currently Cemstone is placing concrete on a pedestrian bridge on Maple Street, St. Paul, MN. Here we are working on a feature known as a Helix, which is a circular ramp. Helixes are attractive for their architectural appearance and small footprint, but they can present construction challenges. With this specific helix, the major structural support is the ring beam. With one beam being responsible for the entire structure the rebar spacing is extremely tight and would have been challenging to pour with a conventional bridge deck mix design. Cemstone and Ames Construction preemptively recognized this potential issue and worked with MnDOT to have a separate mix design approved at a higher slump. Having two mix designs presented its own challenge of coordinating two different orders during the placement of the Helix. By emphasizing the importance of communication the challenge was handled without any issues.