NV5’s Melrose Drive Extension project in the City of Oceanside received an honorable mention for the “Value Engineering Study of the Year” Award of 2014 by the Federal Highway Administration and Caltrans. This award recognizes excellent application of Value Engineering (VE). The project was recognized for problem solving, innovative solutions, performance improvement, life cycle cost savings, and total cost savings. NV5’s project manager Jack Abcarius, PE, was specifically mentioned by Caltrans in the award for including VA as an integral part of his design proposal to the City as a way to address numerous technical, environmental and stakeholder issues that surrounded the project. Melrose Drive is the first project off the Caltrans system in history to receive this award.
The Melrose Drive Extension project connects Melrose Drive between Spur Avenue (located roughly a half-mile south of State Route 76) and North Santa Fe Avenue. The extension constitutes 3,000 feet of new roadway with a proposed bridge crossing over Guajome Lake Road and wetlands habitat. According to Caltrans, the project is vital to the completion of a transportation link to the cities of Vista and Carlsbad and the improvement of intra-city and sub-regional multi-modal transportation service. The VA solutions recommended by the NV5 Team offered the City of Oceanside $14 million in project cost savings and a decreased delivery time of 6 months. Congratulations to Jack, Mark Webb, Roland Elvera, and the rest of the NV5 team in San Diego that worked on this project.