The New Farm Lane Underpass project was instituted due to an increase of residential and commercial growth around a major public university in East Lansing, Michigan. On a daily basis, close to 60 trains travel through that particular campus. In some instances, these trains span as long as two miles, causing up to five hours of accumulated daily traffic delays. To remedy these delays, an underpass, accompanied with bike paths and sidewalks under the railroad bridge, was created to continue the flow of traffic.

The elevated railroad bridge supporting the railroad lines had to be refurbished as well. One of the requirements was to create a service walkway on the elevated railroad bridge which would be low-maintenance and electrically non-conductive. Due to the harsh winters in Michigan, the walkways also had to provide slip resistance and corrosion resistance against a myriad of deicing salts and liquids. As the size of the university’s campus is estimated to be around 5,200 acres, the distant storage of the building materials from the build site posed some logistical site transportation challenges. Therefore, an easy-to-transport and lightweight material was prescribed to limit traffic interruption.