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Pavement on I-84 project earns Knife River coveted award

The National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA) announced this week the Idaho Division of Knife River Corp. is one of two runners-up for the 2012 Sheldon G. Hayes Award for excellence in construction of an asphalt pavement.

Knife River Corp. was recognized for the rubblization, overlay, and reconstruction of 13 miles of the eastbound lanes of Interstate 84 in southern Idaho between mileposts 222 and 235.

The Sheldon G. Hayes award recognizes the highest quality highway pavement in the country. Knife River was recognized Wednesday (Feb. 13) during the association’s 58th Annual Meeting in Scottsdale, Ariz.

“This was a very aggressive, single-year project,” explained Josh Smith, Asphalt Manger, Knife River Corp. — Idaho Division. Weather complicated the project.

“This is a high desert area, and our plant site was up in the mountains. We started work in early April and had to move snow to get our portable plant in place. In late October, when we were finished with the project, it was snowing as we removed our plant.”

The company ran crews 16 hours a day to ensure the project was completed on time.

The eastbound lanes of I-84 were shut down for the project. The company used the cement recycled asphalt base stabilization (CRABS) process. Crews pulverized the existing concrete roadway, added cement to the rubblized material, and re-graded it before laying two courses of asphalt pavement on top.

The company milled the interstate before it pulverized existing pavement, removing some asphalt from the site. They incorporated that reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) into the asphalt mixes used for the job.

The use of RAP saved enough money on the project for ITD to authorize additional work. In addition to the original project work, Knife River Corp. also removed large outcroppings of rock in the median that were a safety issue. The rock was reused to fill depressions in other sections of the median.

“We were pleased with how Knife River performed this additional work and how they made sure that they minimized as much of the haul as they could,” said ITD’s Chris Severson, project coordinator for District 4.

“Although it was not a requirement that we use a material transfer vehicle, we did on this job,” Smith said. That helped produce a smoother surface. The quality of the asphalt mixes produced for this job was exceptional; the company achieved 95 percent of the available incentive pay for the mixes. It also earned 93 percent of the available smoothness incentives.

Partnering with the ITD was key to the project’s success, Smith said. “They helped us get through many change orders that otherwise would have delayed the project’s completion.”

“Knife River has always tried to do the best quality of work it can – it’s always been their top agenda,” Severson said. “They spend a lot of time on pre-planning and a lot of time on the job focusing on putting good quality projects out there.”

The determination of Knife River employees to build an exceptional roadway also was an important factor. Although the company has been working on paving jobs for many years, it’s only during the last two years that they have taken on highway projects.

“We have provided our people with the tools and the training that they needed before they got to the job,” Smith said.

“My goal was to get one of NAPA’s Quality in Construction awards for this project to acknowledge their achievements,” he said. “To be a finalist for the Sheldon G. Hayes award is just unbelievable. We’re very proud of how far we’ve come.”

Sheldon G. Hayes Award finalists are determined through a two-year process. Any highway pavement project using more than 50,000 tons of asphalt is eligible for consideration.

Initially, the project must win a Quality in Construction (QIC) Award, which is determined by numerical scores calculated by pavement engineers at the National Center for Asphalt Technology (NCAT) in Auburn, Ala., based on how well the contractor met specifications and achieved density on the finished pavement. Each pavement that meets a benchmark figure receives a QIC award.

The year after a project wins a QIC Award, it may be considered for the Sheldon G. Hayes Award. The top-ranked projects from the previous year are tested for smoothness and visually inspected by an independent pavement consultant with many years of experience in the industry.

The award, given annually since 1971, is named for Sheldon G. Hayes, a founder of NAPA and the association's first chairman. Hayes spent his entire career striving for better construction techniques and improvements in the quality of asphalt pavements.

The National Asphalt Pavement Association is the only trade association that exclusively represents the interests of the asphalt pavement material producer/contractor on the national level with Congress, government agencies, and other national trade and business organizations. NAPA supports an active research program designed to improve the quality of asphalt pavements and paving techniques used in the construction of roads, streets, highways, parking lots, airports, and environmental and recreational facilities. The association provides technical, educational, and marketing materials and information to its members; supplies product information to users and specifiers of paving materials; and conducts training courses. The association, which counts more than 1,100 companies as its members, was founded in 1955.