ForConstructionPros.com

Perhaps building a quality pavement is like cultivating a fine wine; perhaps one should build no road before it's time. That's one of the significant decisions Milestone Contractors of Indianapolis made when planning reconstruction and expansion of an intersection, and it was one of the factors that lead to the success of the job, which was recognized with a 2005 Quality in Construction Award from the National Asphalt Pavement Association.

The complicated job centered on reconstruction and widening of more than two lane miles of asphalt pavement at the intersection of Main Street and Graham Road in Greenwood, an Indianapolis, IN, suburb. Lynn Shireman, Milestone general superintendent, says that as with most intersection work, the roads could not be shut down so the work had to be done in stages.

"This intersection serves an industrial park and that park had to remain open for business," Shireman says. "So we had to work around their schedule."

But even while working around the industrial park's operations, and even with the challenges that are inherent in most intersection work, Milestone constructed a top-quality pavement that more than passed inspection, was finished well ahead of the deadline, and still looks great more than a year after completion.

"We scheduled it the way it needs to be built, and you can't always do it that way," Shireman says. "But that's one of the things we try to do and one of the things we learned on this job: If you can schedule the job the way the job ideally should be done, you're going to end up with a quality finished pavement - and there's a good chance you'll end up finishing the job before the deadline."