The Colorado/Wyoming Chapter of the American Concrete Pavement Association is pleased to announce that three Colorado concrete projects have been recognized as winners of ACPA‘s 2022 National Excellence in Concrete Pavement Awards.
Castle Rock Construction Company (CRCC) took home gold in the Concrete Pavement Restoration category for their I-76 Wiggins WB Pavement Rehabilitation project in Weld and Morgan Counties in Colorado. The Colorado Department of Transportation owns and engineered the pavement. Rehabilitating a 7-mile stretch of the westbound I-76 lanes west of Wiggins required removing 35,000 square yards of damaged concrete panels to their full depth and replacing them on-site with an optimized concrete mix. A 100-working-day timeframe for the scope of work required was daunting. In addition to removing and replacing damaged panels with a 1-inch asphalt bond breaker and grinding and texturing 96,755 square yards of slab, the contractor also had to saw and seal 144,917 linear feet of joints. All contractors on the project contributed to meeting the schedule, including committing full human and equipment resources. CRCC also removed and replaced 31 panels at their own expense to enable continuous paving for both the concrete and the asphalt bond breaker and to minimize the number of headers that required grinding. Overall, the paving schedule was the key to meeting the deadline, and all activities occurred concurrently. The timing of completion was key since each crew’s work followed closely to the previous crew’s work.
Castle Rock Construction Company also won gold in the State Roads category with their US 287 & SH 40 Passing Lanes CM/GC project in Cheyenne and Lincoln Counties in Colorado. The pavement is owned by the Colorado Department of Transportation and the project was designed by Atkins. The paving site was located 25 miles southeast of Limon, Colorado, on US 287/SH 40, the ‘ports to the plains highway,’ a major thoroughfare from Mexico to Canada. The scope of the project was to complete six passing lanes between Hugo and Eads. Two of the sites were extensions of existing passing lanes, and four of the sites were new passing lanes. There were numerous examples of collaboration between CRCC and project partners to solve problems in a manner that best served the project goals, including inadequate subgrade material that required the use of geotextile fabric to decrease the likelihood of material settling or shifting under loads. CRCC managed to work on multiple sites at once, expediting the remainder of the schedule and successfully achieving completion prior to Thanksgiving. This deadline was critical, knowing that lane closures would not be safe along this corridor once it started snowing.
IHC Scott was awarded gold in the Urban Arterials & Collectors category for their I-70B 1st Street & Grand Avenue project in Grand Junction, Colorado. The Colorado Department of Transportation owns and engineered the pavement. With over 30,000 vehicles per day using the intersection, it was necessary to keep it open during construction. The contractor used temporary roundabouts to divert traffic, which allowed longer concrete pours and resulted in smoother surfaces at this intersection. By utilizing the two temporary roundabouts, the project did not have to use the “Temporary Traffic Signal” item that was called out in the plans. Paving in Colorado in the winter months is always a challenge, so the Colorado Department of Transportation and the contractor met daily and weekly to discuss the freeze/thaw temperatures that could affect the project. The contractor provided maturity meters, and the department verified the maturity meters using a thermocouple and a probe to cross-check the contractor.
“Sustainability, resiliency and innovation were on full display among this year’s award winners,” said Laura O’Neill Kaumo, ACPA President and CEO. “Congratulations to those who built these fine projects. The bar is set high for our industry.”
