Oct. 11, 2012 – Submit entries now for the 2013 James B. Sorenson Award for Excellence in Pavement Preservation, sponsored by FP² Inc. Deadline for the 2013 award submittals is June 30, 2013.

Bexar County, Tex., and the Tennessee Department of Transportation were honored for their pavement preservation programs with the Sorenson award during the National Pavement Preservation Conference in Nashville Aug. 27-30, 2012. The Bexar County Public Works Department was honored with the Sorenson Award for 2012, and Tennessee DOT for 2011.

Intended to recognize agency pavement preservation, the Sorenson award is usually, but not always, presented to city and county agencies.

Criteria used to evaluate candidate agencies include: process used to gain acceptance by elected officials, general public, employees, and industry (40 percent); how well the program relates to the theme of The Right Treatment, for the Right Road, at the Right Time (20 percent); tangible improvement in their system (20 percent); techniques used to keep public notified of what is being done and why (10 percent); and uniqueness of program (10 percent).

To nominate an agency, please include a brief write-up of how the agency gained acceptance and support for its pavement preservation program; how long the program has been in existence, any special or unique public awareness actions; press releases; the contact person in the agency; and the person or firm making the nomination.

For more information, or to submit nominations, please contact FP²’s executive director, Jim Moulthrop, at 8100 West Court, Austin, Tex., 78759, voice 512.977.1854, e-mail at jimmoulthrop@gmail.com.

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Sept. 7, 2012 – The new Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) surface transportation legislation enacted July 6, 2012 contains language both specifically, and more generally, helpful to pavement preservation.

Thanks to the strong support of members of the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, pavement preservation in the final bill was stronger than it was in either the House or Senate versions. The concepts of asset management and preservation are widely used in MAP-21, which will bring great benefits to state and local government agencies, the preservation industry, and road users.

The term asset management is included in the language and is defined to include “a structured sequence of maintenance, preservation, repair, rehabilitation, and replacement actions that will achieve and sustain a desired state of good repair over the lifecycle of the assets at minimum practicable cost.”

The Maintenance Section of the law has been expanded to specifically define pavement preservation programs and activities. The final bill explicitly states that preservation activities are eligible for projects under the national highway and surface transportation programs. We’ll explore this new legislation in our next issue.

We at FP² Inc. are proud of the role that we and Williams & Jensen, our “Inside-the-Beltway” partners, played in making sure pavement preservation and asset management were explicitly included in MAP-21. A special “thanks” to all our members who traveled to D.C. for Capitol Hill visits, and who funded our efforts, and to Tracy Taylor of Williams & Jensen, who spearheaded our efforts.

Here is an outline of language in MAP-21 pertaining to pavement preservation:

• Sec. 1507. MAINTENANCE
Section 116 of title 23, United States Code, is amended—
(1) by inserting before subsection (b) (as so redesignated) the following:
“(a) DEFINITIONS. –In this section, the following definitions apply:
“(1) PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE.—The term ‘preventive maintenance’ includes pavement preservation programs and activities.
“(2) PAVEMENT PRESERVATION PROGRAMS AND ACTIVITIES.—The term ‘pavement preservation programs and activities’ means programs and activities employing a network level, long term strategy that enhances pavement performance by using an integrated, cost-effective set of practices that extend pavement life, improve safety, and meet road user expectations.”;

• Sec. 1103. DEFINITIONS
(a) DEFINITIONS. –Section 101(a) of title 23, United States Code is amended…by
inserting…the following:
(3) By inserting after paragraph (1) the following:
“(2) ASSET MANAGEMENT. –The term ‘asset management’ means a strategic and systematic process of operating, maintaining, and improving physical assets, with a focus on both
ngineering and economic analysis based upon quality information, repair, rehabilitation, and replacement actions that will achieve and sustain a desired state of good repair over the lifecyle of the assets at minimum practicable cost.”;
(4)(C)(ii) by striking “and rehabilitation” and inserting “rehabilitation, and preservation.”

• Sec. 1106. NATIONAL HIGHWAY PERFORMANCE PROGRAM.
IN GENERAL.—Section 119 of title 23, United States Code, is amended to read as follows:
Sec. 119. National highway performance program
“(a) ESTABLISHMENT.—The Secretary shall establish and implement a national highway performance program under this section.
(d) Eligible Projects.—Funds apportioned to a State to carry out the national highway performance program may be obligated only for a project on an eligible facility that is—
“2) for 1 or more of the following purposes:
“(A) Construction, reconstruction, resurfacing, restoration, rehabilitation, preservation or operational improved of segments of the National Highway System.”

• SEC. 1108. Surface Transportation Program.
(a) ELIGIBLE PROJECTS. –Section 133(b) of title 23, United States Code is amended—
“(1) Construction, reconstruction, rehabilitation, resurfacing, restoration, preservation, or operational improvements for highways….

• Subtitle B- Performance Management
Section 1201. Metropolitan Transportation Planning. Several areas of Section 134 of Title 23 have been amended to increase the emphasis on preservation and most efficient use of the existing transportation system.

• SEC. 20005. METROPOLITAN TRANSPORTATION PLANNING.
• AMENDMENT.—Section 5303 of title 49, United States Code, is amended to read as follows:
“Metropolitan transportation planning….”(H) emphasize the preservation of the existing transportation system.

• Sec. 52003. RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT AND DEPLOYMENT. Section 503 of title 23, United States Code, is amended to read as follows:

503. Research and technology development and deployment.
(b) HIGHWAY RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM—
(3) Improving infrastructure integrity.—
“(A) In GENERAL.—The Secretary shall carry out and facilitate highway and bridge infrastructure research and development activities—
“(i) to maintain infrastructure integrity;
“(ii) to meet user needs; and
“(iii) to link Federal transportation investments to improvements in system performance.
“(B) OBJECTIVES.—In carrying out this paragraph, the Secretary shall carry out research and development activities–
“(vi) to improve highway condition and performance through increased use of design, materials, construction and maintenance innovations;
“(vii) to reduce the environmental impacts of highway infrastructure through innovations in design, construction, operation, preservation and maintenance.

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Sept. 7, 2012 – Bexar County, Tex., and the Tennessee Department of Transportation were honored for their pavement preservation programs with FP² Inc.’s James B. Sorenson Award for Excellence in Pavement Preservation during the National Pavement Preservation Conference in Nashville Aug. 27-30, 2012.

The Bexar County Public Works Department was honored with the Sorenson Award for 2012, and Tennessee DOT for 2011.

Receiving the award for Bexar County was Tony Vasquez, public works operations manager, for his work instituting asset management of county roads beginning in 2004, and subsequent pro-active pavement preservation practices to economically prolong the life of county roads.

Bexar County applies a fundamental tenet of pavement preservation, that is, for the lowest-cost, long-term performance, treat roads before they show distress. Bexar (pronounced “bear”) County includes urban as well as rural pavements, as the City of San Antonio is located there.

Accepting the award for the state of Tennessee was Tennessee DOT Commissioner John Schroer. The DOT was honored for its outstanding advocacy for, and implementation of, its statewide pavement preservation program. In only four years – between 2007 and 2011 – Tennessee DOT transitioned from an almost exclusively hot mix asphalt resurfacing program to one that incorporates pavement preservation principles. The result has been a significant improvement in pavement condition.

The department provided detailed pavement management systems data to prove the case for future network condition, and worked with the local hot mix industry to develop new specifications for thin hot mix overlays to gain its buy-in to the program. These thin hot-mix overlays now have become another routine pavement preservation treatment used in Tennessee.

Intended to recognize agency pavement preservation, the Sorenson award is usually, but not always, presented to city and county agencies. Criteria to evaluate candidate agencies include: process used to gain acceptance by elected officials, general public, employees, and industry (40 percent); how well the program relates to the theme of The Right Treatment, for the Right Road, at the Right Time (20 percent); tangible improvement in their system (20 percent); techniques used to keep public notified of what is being done and why (10 percent); and uniqueness of program (10 percent).

For more information, or to submit nominations, please contact FP²’s executive director, Jim Moulthrop, at 7400 Anaqua Drive, Austin, Tex., 78750, or by e-mail at jmoulthrop@fugro.com.

Also recognized at the awards ceremony for his leadership and long service to the pavement preservation community was FP² executive director James Moulthrop, as he was inducted into the FP² Pavement Preservation Hall of Fame.

At the National Pavement Preservation Conference, 48 exhibitors and over 500 delegates from across the contienent and around the world came together for this year’s No. 1 event in the growing field of pavement preservation.

Major pavement preservation partnerships uniting state and provincial road agencies held concurrent meetings. These included the Midwestern, Northeast, Rocky Mountain West, and Southeast Pavement Preservation Partnerships.

Plenary sessions set the stage for the conference to come. Then, seven topical “tracks” relevant to pavement preservation, asset management and pavement management featured 24 sessions spread over four days, to give delegates maximum flexibility to attend themes of greatest interest.

A busy field demonstration held on the grounds of the Old Tennessee State Prison outside Nashville featured asphalt and concrete pavement preservation techniques such as chip seals, micro surfacing, scrub seals, surface re-texturizing, pavement rejuvenation, dowel bar load transfer retrofits, diamond grinding, and other innovative treatments.

All of the presentation PDFs from the Nashville conference are available online at http://nationalpavement2012.org/presentation-multimedia/

Download the press release