Better Roads

October 2013

Better Roads Digital Magazine

Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/187662

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HighwayContractor By Bob Humer, P.E., and Russell W. Snyder, Contributing Editor The perpetual pavement project on California's I-5 has sparked a trend in the state for asphalt pavements designed to last 40 years with minimal maintenance. A s traffic whizzed nearby on busy Interstate 5 in California, Shirley Choate and Chris Cummings watched an asphalt paving operation like proud parents. This wasn't just any paving job. An innovative, long-life asphalt pavement project was starting to take shape on a section of the busy interstate, California's backbone of commuting and commerce that stretches nearly 800 miles from Mexico to the Oregon border. For Choate, the deputy director for the California Department of Transportation's (Caltrans) District 2, and Cummings, 18 the Caltrans area construction manager, the paving work culminated months of planning, preparation, design work and coordinating with numerous interested parties – including industry, academia and the contractor community. The goal of the $17.5 million, 6-mile project near the community of Weed, as well as another nearby $31 million, 14.5-mile project near the community of Red Bluff, was to produce asphalt pavements designed to last 40 years or more with minimal maintenance. The North State work represented a breakthrough in California for the concept of long-life October 2013 Better Roads HighwayContractor_BR1013.indd 18 9/30/13 2:08 PM

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