2021 Paving Awards winners were celebrated at WAPA’s 67th Annual Meeting on November 5^th.  A wide range of “Best of the Best” awards were presented to Washington state’s premier asphalt paving companies alongside the private sector and public owners of the projects.

The public works paving awards were graciously presented by Josh Thomson, the 2021 President of the Washington State Association of County Engineers (WSACE), Lorelei Williams, Immediate Past President of the American Public Works Association of Washington (APWA-WA) and Kevin Dayton, our state’s Chief Engineer and Assistant Deputy Secretary of Transportation.  John Madden of Inland Asphalt Paving Company, WAPA’s newly elected 2022 President, led the awards ceremony and presented the awards for Commercial, Innovative, Heavy/ Industrial and Intermodal paving.

This year’s Carl Minor Award (the highest rated public works paving project of the year) was awarded to WSDOT Contract 9349 – I-90 – Sprague Interchange to Argonne Interchange Paving.  Mark Allen, P.E. led WSDOT’s project management team and Shamrock Paving Inc. of Spokane was the General Contractor and self-performed the paving, placing over 43,000 tons of top quality hot mix asphalt, “magically” transforming the ride on this stretch of the freeway.

The Awards Presentations are available here: WAPA/WSACE/APWA Paving Awards and WSDOT/WAPA Paving Awards

2020 WAPA Awards

2020 WAPA Paving Awards

2019 WAPA Awards

A list of the projects that received awards in 2019 is shown in the Banquet Program booklet, available here: 2019 WAPA Paving Awards Catalog – Web Version

The presentation that accompanied the awards is available here: 2019 Paving Awards Presentation Slideshow

2018 WAPA Awards

The complete list of 2018 WAPA Paving Award Winners is included here: 2018 WSDOT-WAPA Paving Awards

The PowerPoint slide show highlighting each project is available here: 2018 WAPA Paving Awards PPT Presentation

Asphalt Pavement Alliance Announces Winners of 2021 Perpetual Pavement Award (PPA)

The Washington State Dept. of Transportation was notified on April 14th, 2022 that it has won three 2021 PPAs from the Asphalt Pavement Alliance (APA). The award celebrates long-life asphalt pavements from across the USA that highlight the characteristics of a Perpetual Pavement design.

In the “By Performance” category, the awards are presented to state transportation departments and local agency road owners for well-performing asphalt pavements that are at least 35 years old with proven high-quality structural design. To earn the award, the pavement must have not suffered a structural failure, and it should have an average interval between resurfacing of no less than 13 years. The pavement must demonstrate the characteristics expected from a long-life, Perpetual Pavement design: excellence in design, quality in construction, and value for the taxpayers.

The 2021 By Performance award winner is for a 4.4 mile section of highway on State Route 7 in Pierce county. This is the eighth Perpetual Pavement Award by Performance earned by WSDOT.  The roadway was opened to traffic in 1952 (70 years ago).

“One of the keys to infrastructure sustainability is long pavement life,” said Amy Miller, P.E., national director of the Asphalt Pavement Alliance. “These Perpetual Pavement Award-winning roads demonstrate how asphalt roads can be engineered to last indefinitely with only routine maintenance and periodic surface renewal.”

Engineers at the National Center for Asphalt Technology (NCAT) at Auburn University, evaluated the nominations and validated the results for the 2021 Perpetual Pavement Award winners.

Winning agencies are honored by their local state asphalt pavement association and are presented with an engraved crystal obelisk. The names of the winning agencies and projects are added to a plaque on permanent display at the NCAT Research Center at Auburn University. Since the Perpetual Pavement Award was first presented in 2001, 176 pavements in 37 U.S. states, one Canadian province and one County have been honored with the award.

A video on the Perpetual Pavement concept is available here.

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The Asphalt Pavement Alliance (www.driveasphalt.org) is a partnership of the Asphalt Institute (AI), the National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA) and the State Asphalt Pavement Associations. The Asphalt Pavement Alliance’s mission is to establish asphalt as the preferred choice for quality, performance and the environment.

For more information, contact:
Asphalt Pavement Alliance
Amy Miller, P.E., 904-591-3333, amiller@asphaltroads.org

Washington State Department of Transportation
Claudia Bingham Baker, 360-357-2789, Bakerc@wsdot.wa.gov

The Diamond Commendations encourage and recognize excellence. Continuous improvement in all aspects of operations is the goal. Taken together, the three commendations below provide a blueprint for excellence in all aspects of the industry’s operations, both at the plant and on the paving site.

2016 WAPA Awards Presentation (PowerPoint):

The complete list of 2016 WAPA Paving Award Winners is included here: 2016 WAPA Paving Awards