ARRA 2017 Award Winners

Each year, the Asphalt Recycling & Reclaiming Association offers Special Recognition Awards to honor public officials and consulting engineers who have made outstanding contributions to the asphalt recycling and reclaiming industry. 

This year the Charles R. Valentine Award for Excellence Cold In-Place Recycling was presented to Mike Miles, Utah Department of Transportation Region 4 Materials Engineer (RME). As RME, Miles oversees the Materials and Asset Management Division which is responsible to ensure the standard of quality for materials placed into their roadways, to evaluate pavement conditions and then design projects to address these needs. 

During 2016, under Miles’ leadership, three CIR projects totaling 59 lanes miles of pavement were completed. The first project included 8.8 centerline miles on US 191 through Indian Canyon.  This highway is a main transportation corridor between central and northern Utah.  Steep elevation changes and sweeping curves make this road a challenge to maintain.  The second project was 5.74 centerline miles on US 50 west of Holden, UT.  This highway has extensive heavy truck traffic and prior to the CIR, UDOT was using maintenance patches and chip seal to keep this pavement together.  The third project, 5.5 centerline miles long, is on State Road 10 just south of Huntington, UT.

Stephen Steed, Coughlin Company, who nominated Miles, commented, “Mike is an innovative leader and advocate for recycling.  His team is responsible for the success of recycling in Southern Utah.”

During Miles’ 8 year tenure as RME in Region 4, 13 CIR projects covering 190 lane miles have been completed. 

ROADS & BRIDGES magazine and ARRA partner annually to award the prestigious Asphalt Recycling Awards.  These awards recognize top projects in Hot in-Place Recycling, Cold In-Place Recycling, Cold Planing and Full Depth Reclamation.  Nominations are submitted to the R&B editorial staff, which selects the winners based on amount of RAP used, cost savings and project challenges.

In 2017, three projects received ARRA/Roads & Bridges Asphalt Recycling Awards.

Project #1 – Full Depth Reclamation

Project Name:               Verdigre Street Renovation

Length:                             31,000 sq. yds.

Cost:                                 $347,500

%RAP used:                    40%

Cost Savings:                  $302,000

Designer:                         GSI

Owner:                             Village of Verdigre, NE

Read about why the Verdigre Street Renovation was an award recipient this year: https://www.roadsbridges.com/toughest-armor

Project #2 – Full Depth Reclamation

Project Name:               Whitney Portal Road

Length:                             11.2 miles

Cost:                                 $10.8 million

%RAP used:                   

Cost Savings:                 

Designer:                         Central Federal Lands, FHWA

Owner:                             Inyo County, CA

Contractors:                   Hat Creek Construction and Materials Inc.

Read about why the Whitney Portal Road project was an award recipient this year: https://www.roadsbridges.com/paving-gateway-0

Project #1 – Full Depth Reclamation

Project Name:               SR-199

Length:                             84 lane-miles

Cost:                                 $11 million

%RAP used:                    70%

Cost Savings:                  $4.05 million

Designer:                         UDOT Region 2

Owner:                             Utah DOT

Contractors:                   Granite Construction, Cutler Repaving

Read about why the SR-199 project was an award recipient this year: https://www.roadsbridges.com/waste-not-want-not-0