This is an award winning Jones Edmunds project.

The Polk County North Central Landfill (NCLF) was projected to last until 2008. Plans were underway to expand the landfill with a third phase and while the time frame was tight, the schedule wasn’t critical. Then came the 2004 hurricane season and over six weeks Charley, Frances and Jeanne barreled across central Florida, directly through Polk County. As a result, the landfill lost a year’s worth of air space. That meant designing, permitting and constructing the NCLF Class I Phase III Expansion within 24 months, a highly compact schedule that spanned another hurricane season.

To expedite the permitting process, Jones Edmunds and the County met with permitting agencies across the state. Design decisions were made, permit applications submitted, schedules set and the project was underway. The work included clearing, filling, road building, wetland mitigation, stormwater system construction, and constructing a lined 60-acre landfill cell. Only two bids were received with the low bid coming in at $23.6 million. While the 2005 hurricane season spared Central Florida a direct hit, the damage done by Katrina in New Orleans and Rita to the Gulf Coast upset the construction industry as a whole, increasing prices and diminishing labor pools.

Project successes were many and included the import of 650,000 cubic yards of fill, requiring approximately 500 trucks a day, working five to six days a week for six months. Not only was the compact schedule met, the cell construction was completed by September 2006, three months ahead of schedule. Even with an unstable market and increased construction costs due to the damage done by Katrina in New Orleans and Rita on the gulf coast, the total project cost came in approximately $ 870,000 below the bid price. p>