Alabama DOTD wins 2005 pavement award

The Asphalt Pavement Alliance (APA) announced recently that the Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT) has won a 2005 Perpetual Pavement Award for a section of State Route 255 in Huntsville.

The award will be presented at a special ceremony during the International Conference on Perpetual Pavement in Columbus, Ohio, on Sept. 14. ALDOT will receive an engraved crystal obelisk and a plaque and will have its name and project added to a permanent plaque, which is kept at the National Center for Asphalt Technology (NCAT) in Auburn, Alabama.

To qualify for the award, a pavement must meet strict criteria and demonstrate hot mix asphalt's (HMA's) long-life characteristics, excellence in design, quality in construction and value to the traveling public. It also must have been constructed at least 35 years ago. Engineers at NCAT evaluated the nominations and a panel of industry experts validated the winners.

Alabama's award-winning pavement is a 2.8-mi. stretch of SR 255, a road that serves as the north-south link between I-565 (the old SR 20) and U.S. 72, as well as the primary access to Redstone Arsenal and the Marshall Space Flight Center for more than 35 years.

Construction of the road started in February 1967 and it was opened to traffic in May 1969. The original construction consisted of 5 in. of stabilized subgrade, 10 in. of dense-graded aggregate base, 2.25 in. of HMA binder course and 1.35 in. of surface course. In 1986, an overlay of approximately 1 in. of HMA was placed from milepost 1.39 to 2.12 in the northbound direction. In 1988, an overlay of approximately 1 in. of HMA was placed from milepost 1.34 to 2.34 in the southbound direction. In 1999, approximately 3 in, of HMA was placed over the pavement between mileposts 0.0 and 2.35.

There has never been any patching of the road aside from these two placements of the surface mix, and only a portion of the length had to be resurfaced after 17 years of service

Dunn gets contact to build Cullman casting facility

Dunn Building Co. LLC of Birmingham was recently awarded a contract to design and build a new 125,000-sq.-ft. casting facility in Cullman, Ala., for Cullman Casting Corp. The facility will produce forklift truck counterweights for leading forklift manufacturers, utilizing a special patented molding system.

Cullman Casting Corp. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of North Vernon Industry Inc. (NVIC) of North Vernon, Ind.

Dunn has employed Gresham, Smith & Partners Birmingham office to perform detailed design. Dunn's project manager is Doug Miles and its superintendent is Doug Collins.