The New Hampshire Department of Transportation has been honored with the 2013 James B. Sorenson Award for Excellence in Pavement Preservation from FP2 Inc. The award was presented to NHDOT Commissioner Chris Clement during at the Midwestern Pavement Preservation Partnership meeting in Indianapolis Nov. 11-12.
Intended to recognize agency pavement preservation, the Sorenson award is usually, but not always, presented to city and county agencies. New Hampshire joins California and Tennessee as the only state DOT winners.
"The future for state DOTs lies in maintaining and preserving their existing transportation infrastructure and networks,” Clement said at the Nov. 12 ceremony in Indianapolis. “Pavements are the largest asset value in some states. That’s why it makes sound financial sense to properly maintain and preserve that asset to maximize its useful life."
New Hampshire’s Pavement Management Group, led by Eric Thibodeau, has done an outstanding job with data collection, programming and treatment selection to fulfill pavement preservation’s mantra of The Right Treatment, for the Right Road, at the Right Time.
NHDOT also has developed Equivalent Annual Costs (EACs) for its most commonly used treatments. An EAC is easily calculated by taking the treatment cost and dividing by the average service life to obtain a cost per sq. yd. per year. The lower the EAC, the more cost effective the treatment is. In New Hampshire, preservation treatments have lower EACs than rehabilitation treatments, and also can be used to select treatments.
Clement has presented detailed performance data to the governor, executive council, legislature, and public entities to secure additional revenues for the department’s pavement and bridge preservation programs.
New Hampshire utilizes every pavement preservation process available, including crack sealing, conventional single and double chip sealing, asphalt rubber chip sealing, micro surfacing, bonded wearing courses, thin HMA overlays, WMA mixes, high polymer thin overlays (HiMA), cold mix RAP, paver shim, and mill-and-fill.
Plan now to submit your nominee for the 2014 James B. Sorenson Award for Excellence in Pavement Preservation, sponsored by FP2 Inc. Deadline for the 2014 award entries is July 1, 2014.
For more information, or to submit nominations, please contact FP2’s executive director, Jim Moulthrop, at 8100 West Court, Austin, TX, 78759, voice (512) 970-8865, e-mail at [email protected].
