Located in Lakeville, MN, Northland Paving is Minnesota’s largest commercial parking lot paving contractor. In 2014, they completed over 200 jobs, laying 150,000 tons of asphalt down on parking lots alone.
One of the largest jobs of the year was the Eagle Brook Church parking lot in Woodbury, MN. Sheehy Construction of St. Paul constructed the 1,300 stall, 50,000 sq. yd. parking lot for the Church and handled construction traffic control during the paving process.
That came in handy as Northland was contracted to lay 24,202 tons of aggregate base, transported in 1,076 truckloads, and put down 9,084 tons of asphalt that was delivered in 491 truckloads.
[Paving to perfection]
With the plant being about a half hour away from the jobsite, Northland was challenged with making sure the asphalt stayed warm. On top of that, Northland wanted to make sure they paid extra attention to getting the seams right, so keeping the asphalt hot was a necessity. With this in mind, they wanted to make sure to wait to pave when there would be two consecutive days of warm weather.
"Since this was such a big, open lot, we needed high 70's for temperatures to keep the seams warm and looking good and to keep the asphalt hot,” said T. J. Grossman, Field Superintendent for Northland.
Northland made 16' passes during this paving process and used 12 quad axle dump trucks to haul the asphalt on their 55 minute round trips, making sure the asphalt was covered to keep warm. The crew used one Blaw Knox paver, one Hamm oscillating roller, two Dynapac rollers and one Caterpillar rubber tire roller.
"We have had a long standing relationship with Dan Dauffenbach and Northland Paving,” Blair Juliar, vice president of Sheehy Construction says. “Dan and Northland Paving have been such a good partner when there are paving needs of any size on my projects. That partnership was strong on Eagle Brook Church's Woodbury Campus. The soil conditions and scheduling were challenging. It was good to have a partner who understood our needs and the needs of the owner. Northland Paving was a big part of making this project a success for the entire construction team.”
[Quality attracts attention]
When striping subcontractor Tom Frederickson of Superior Striping in Ramsey, MN saw the quality of the paving work, he wanted to make sure it was recognized professionally by the industry.
“Northland Paving is so efficient,” Fredrickson says. “The paving was absolutely seamless. To look out at such a huge parking lot and not see any seams, it really looks great. Contractors like Northland who complete jobs like this are deserving of an award. It’s not only great for Northland, but for the Church, supplier and everyone who worked on the job.”
Northland Paving owner, Dan Dauffenbach, a 37 year paving industry veteran, knows that quality work often speaks for itself, but is still thankful for the nomination.
“We’re very appreciative of receiving this type of recognition,” Dauffenbach says. “We take a lot of pride in what we do and everyone from top to bottom here is very quality conscious. It’s nice to be recognized for that.”
