Madrid Engineering Group, Inc. completed a Transportation soil survey to FDOT specifications for the proposed widening of County Road 540A from 2 to 4 lanes from Old Hwy 37 to Highway 98 and included the construction of a bridge across Triangle lake at the west end of the project. The construction of this bridge facilitated a continuous link between Highway 98 in the center of the county and County Line Road at the west border of the county. Geotechnical consulting for the various additional storm water pond sites, mast arms, and retaining walls that were required on this project was also provided on this job. The project was completed in two parts:

The first part consisted of approximately 3miles of road from Old highway 37 to Lakeland Highlands Boulevard and included the proposed new 700-foot bridge across Triangle Lake. Triangle Lake consists of both swamp land and areas of shallow water. The deep pockets of muck made normal shallow construction impractical thus facilitating the need for the proposed bridge. In order to obtain soil samples from this shallow muck filled lake a drill rig was fitted to a barge and was dragged across the proposed alignment with cables and winches operated from shore.

The second phase was consisted of the widening of approximately 3.3 miles of road between Lakeland Highlands Boulevard and Highway 98. This portion of the project contains some of the steepest topographic changes in the county. Widening the road on these hills necessitated several retaining walls and some small dikes around storm water ponds.

The initial field work for both phases consisted of hand augers and deep auger borings at regular spacing as well as standard penetration tests at structure locations and infiltration tests at pond locations. All laboratory testing for the project was completed at Megs in-house laboratory. Upon the completion of the field and lab work specialized site development recommendations were provided to accommodate the various site development features including, additional lanes of traffic, light poles, ponds, retaining walls, sidewalks, and Triangle Lake bridge.

Phase 1 of the project completed construction in 2007 and Phase 2 is currently under construction.

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