Granite Construction Co. wins NAPA National Airport Paving Award
Santa Barbara Municipal Airport Named 2018’s Highest Quality Airport Pavement
The National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA) announced that Granite Construction Co. of Buellton, California, has won the 2018 Ray Brown Airport Pavement Award for excellence in construction of an asphalt airport pavement.
The company received its award at a ceremony during the association’s 64th Annual Meeting in Marco Island, Florida. Granite Construction Co. won the award for its work on Santa Barbara Municipal Airport Runway 7/25.
The project consisted of a 5-inch cold planing of the existing surface on the main runway, followed by a variable thickness levelling course. Due to the grade requirements of the two paving courses, 3D total station paving equipment was used. Proper planning was essential to ensure uninterrupted and continuous operation throughout the shift, and the 3D models were regularly updated to ensure proper grades were obtained.
Working in tight areas with short nightly paving windows were two significant challenges the project posed. Additionally, the runway needed to be cleaned and inspected before opening to aircraft in the morning. This required cold planing and paving operations to be performed in the same shift along with striping operations to replace major runway markings. Proper planning was crucial to ensure the runway was open for normal airport operations without any delay to commercial and private aircraft.
Daily communication between the grinding crew, paving crew, asphalt plant, trucking company, sweepers, striping contractor, and airport operations/security was key to the success of the project.
The award is named after Ray Brown, the Director of the National Center for Asphalt Technology from 1991 to 2007. Under Ray’s guidance and tenure, the center became renowned for its asphalt pavement research. The award is presented to the highest scoring Quality in Construction — Airport Pavement project.
