The American Concrete Pavement Association (ACPA) has announced winners of its 17th Annual “Excellence in Concrete Pavement” awards.
The awards honor contractors, engineers, and owners for quality concrete pavement construction projects completed in 2005. The awards also recognize companies and agencies for safe, efficient, and durable concrete pavements.
The awards program cites Gold- and Silver-level projects for quality, efficiency, smoothness, reduced costs, and for minimizing road-user delays.
The winners located in the Southeast were:
Gold Winner:
Divided Highways (Urban)
Contractor: Duit Construction Company Inc.
Owner/Engineer: Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department
Project: I-30 west of Pulaski County Line and I-430 (Job 60120) and I-30 Sevier Street to west of Alcoa Road (Job 60122), Little Rock to Benton and Saline and Pulaski counties, Ark.
These projects consisted paving of 8.5 mi. (13.7 km) of I-30 leading into Little Rock, Ark., in two sections, separated by a third 4-mi. (6.4 km) project being built by another firm.
Reportedly two of the toughest projects Duit Construction has ever contracted, involved more than 100,000 cu. yds. of undercut, coordination of 11 different phases, building 11 bridges, contending with 80,000 vehicles per day, maintaining 26 ramps, and constructing 77,000 linear ft. (23,470 m) of permanent concrete retaining wall from 3.5 to 8.5 ft. tall (1 to 2.6 m).
Wet weather over the project duration often limited work to just three days a week for the 24 separate subcontractors. Project phasing included constructing temporary asphalt detours on the outside shoulders of the existing lanes.
Duit proposed to speed up the construction process by changing the detours from a 15-in. (38.1 cm) asphalt section to 10.5-in. (26.7 cm) concrete section. The typical section included 6-in. (15.2 cm) cement stabilized aggregate base with a 1-in. (2.54 cm) asphalt bond breaker base and 14 in. (35.6 cm) of dowel jointed concrete pavement.
For the aggregate base, Duit used its paradigm concrete crusher to recycle the existing concrete pavement into aggregate for the CTB. To obtain the desired ride quality, a string line was set up on either side of the driving lane.
In several locations, the new shoulder pavement butted up to one side of the median wall. That required the use of a special paving pan built by Duit’s fabrication shop that allowed placing the shoulder against the wall and prevented hand work that would have been required with normal paving equipment.
Silver Co-Winner:
Divided Highways (Rural)
Contractor: APAC-TN Inc.; (subcontractor) English Construction Co. Inc.;
Owner/Engineer: Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT);
Project: U.S. 29 Madison Heights Bypass — North project in Amherst County, Va.
The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) chose continuously reinforced concrete pavement for this project, despite significant opposition from local industry and politicians, and a lack of recent experience.
However, long-term performance and low maintenance were the bottom line, and the Lynchburg District chose concrete pavement to handle traffic that is projected to increase significantly by 2010.
The North project, a 5.7-mi. (9.125 km), $39 million contract was the final of nine projects completing the 13 mi. (21 km), $262 million U.S. 29 Madison Heights Bypass. The project team completed placing the 180,848 sq. yd. (151,212 sq m) of CRCP, and approximately 17,003 cu. yds. (13,000 cu m) of concrete 309 days ahead of the original contract completion date, without sacrificing safety or quality.
The entire concrete pavement was placed under a timeframe of less than two months and was coordinated with other projects under construction. The soils involved made construction challenging, but APAC-TN used two belt-placers to get concrete from the adjacent lane to the paver. VDOT also changed its standard surface texture to random-spaced transverse tining to help mitigate potential noise issues.
The prime and subcontractors received scores from 80 percent to 96.9 percent performance ratings under one of the toughest international roughness index ride specifications in the country, measured at .006 mi. (.01 km) intervals.
Because this project was the first APAC-TN built under an IRI ride specification, they purchased a GOMACO GHP 2800 paver and used an Ames profiler installed on a John Deere Gator to check and record ride quality each day.
Partnering efforts and using lessons learned from the Federal Highway Administration, ACPA, and other districts and states led to the construction of a beautiful four-lane divided highway with well-graded slopes and medians. Sound wall barriers and random transverse tining addressed environmental and citizens concerns.
The owner expected this neatly constructed, clean-looking concrete pavement to serve area citizens, users of U.S. 29, and taxpayers for decades to come.
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