Asphalt Recycling & Reclaiming Association (ARRA) Names 2024 Special Recognition Award Winners

Contact: Ali Mostardo                                                                                        FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Phone: 630-942-6578

Email: alim@cmservices.com

Asphalt Recycling & Reclaiming Association (ARRA) Names 2024 Special Recognition Award Winners

GLEN ELLYN, IL, March 18, 2024 – During the 49th Annual Meeting of the Asphalt Recycling & Reclaiming Association (ARRA), February 19-23, 2024, in Palm Harbor, FL, ARRA congratulated three individuals as recipients of the 2024 ARRA Special Recognition Awards.

Each year, through the ARRA Special Recognition Awards, ARRA recognizes public officials and consulting engineers who have made outstanding contributions to the asphalt recycling and reclaiming industry.  Nominations are submitted by ARRA members and the ARRA technical committees review all nominations and select the award winners.  

The first recipient was John Fox P.E., California Department of Transportation, for the 2024 Charles R. Valentine Award for Excellence in Cold Recycling. Fox is the Chief Maintenance Engineer for District 9 where he has been instrumental in promoting and coordinating training for new, cost-effective treatments to enhance road performance throughout the Caltrans District 9 network. He has been in this role for more than two decades and was among the first in the state to embrace recycling and incorporate it into the long-term maintenance strategy of the district. Since 2011, Fox has scoped cold in-place recycling on 17 separate projects, totaling over 300 lane-miles in CIR for the state. This includes using CIR on over 150 lane miles of U.S. Route 395 which runs the entire length of California, through the Mojave Desert and up through the Sierra Nevada mountains before crossing into Nevada. Fox is considered one of the experts on CIR within the agency and pioneers successful maintenance strategies for CIR projects in the state such as consistent fog seal two to three years after CIR completion.

The 2024 Special Recognition Award for Excellence in Full Depth Reclamation was presented to Kit Black with the Texas Department of Transportation Amarillo District. For more than a decade, Black has worked tirelessly to promote recycling processes in Amarillo TXDOT district as well as TXDOT statewide. From 2009 to 2015, only one project in the entire state of Texas was using FDR with asphalt binder, and that was US 83 in the Amarillo District. Due to the success of this project led by Black, there have now been more than a dozen projects constructed state-wide. The Amarillo District continues to use FDR on projects including two projects this year on US 60. Black has also supported other types of roadway recycling including two cold in place recycling projects for TxDOT. In addition, and with guidance from him, the Amarillo District is one of the only five districts that have let multiple cold central plant recycled RAP projects.

Finally, Black has shown great willingness to try new approaches even within the established FDR process.  The Amarillo District was the first in Texas to perform asphalt FDR on virgin placed base material, and was the first to utilize High Yield Emulsion in asphalt FDR, which is now commonly used for FDR in Texas, and was included in TXDOT’s most recent FDR spec.

The final receipt was Scott Meinders, P.E., County Engineer for Winnebago County, Iowa, for the Special Recognition for Excellence in Hot In-Place Recycling. Winnebago County did their first cold in place recycling project in 1994 with 78 miles being recycled and 25 miles being double recycled. County Road R74 was first paved in 1962 and had been overlaid several times over the years and was about nine to 10 inches thick of full-depth asphalt. In 2020, the spring weather brought some curious surface failures, and several locations were milled and patched and this was required again in 2022 with other similar projects. During the patching, Meinders noticed that the layer beneath the surface seemed quite sound and the surface was crumbling and delaminating from the layer below. Partnering with ARRA member Dustrol Inc on their first hot in place recycling project, the county needed to find a solution between major rehabilitation and surface treatments. It was determined that hot in place with a micro surfacing protective overlay was the right approach and the savings was about 20% more than doing an intensive rehabilitation.  

ABOUT THE ASPHALT RECYCLING & RECLAIMING ASSOCIATION (ARRA):

Incorporated in September 1976, ARRA’s primary function has been to promote the recycling of existing roadway materials through various construction methodologies, to preserve limited natural resources and reduce costs. This ongoing effort continues through education, strategic alliances and partnering at both the industry and agency level.

ARRA is a founding member of the Pavement Preservation & Recycling Alliance (PPRA) along with the Asphalt Emulsion Manufacturers Association and the International Slurry Surfacing Association. PPRA is a partnership of leading industry associations (AEMA, ARRA, ISSA) to advance sustainable, eco efficient, and innovative pavement applications.

To learn more, visit www.arra.org or call us at 630-942-6578.

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