35 Awards in 14 Years

Cedar Valley’s winning ways continue as we are proud to announce that we recently garnered two 2018 American Concrete Pavement Association (ACPA) Excellence in Concrete Pavement awards.  Amazingly, this brings our total winning ACPA projects to thirty-five over the last fourteen years. CVC is one of an elite number of concrete pavers in the nation who can boast of this sustained level of paving excellence.

The awards program encourages high-quality workmanship in concrete pavement projects, and serves as a way to share success regarding challenging and highly successful projects.  Judges representing various stakeholder groups throughout the transportation-construction community evaluate projects.  The program recognizes contractors, engineers, and project owners who completed outstanding projects.

The gold (first place) awards were presented at the American Concrete Pavement Association’s (ACPA) 29^th Annual Excellence in Concrete Pavement Awards banquet. On hand to receive the well - earned honor in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, were Bob Leon, Willie Calderwood, Steve Jackson and IDOT RCE Steve McElmeel. 

Our winning projects are in the Concrete Overlays (State) category, where our Clay County Highway 71 project is a winner, and in the State Roads category, where our Sac County Highway 196 is also a finalist. This is an incredible tribute to the quality projects that Cedar Valley’s crews build year after year.  Following is the Executive Summary for each of the two awards and a list of the winning salaried crew members.

#16014 - CLAY COUNTY- HIGHWAY 71

Cedar Valley Corp., LLC’s (CVC) Iowa - Clay County - US 71 project won the Iowa Concrete Paving Association’s (ICPA) “BEST” award in the PCC Overlays - Primary category.  US Highway 71 is a major north - south artery that intersects east - west US Highway 20. CVC actually paved this four stage job in 2016 but missed the ICPA paving competition deadline by only a week.  Therefore, the Iowa Department of Transportation submitted the project for award consideration in 2017. It is a great testament to the quality of CVC’s US 71 PCC Overlay project that it was in service for a full year and still beat all the other overlay projects paved during the subsequent construction season.

The highway was originally paved with seven inch concrete in 1931.  Over the years it received numerous asphalt overlays, and in some places it had deteriorated so badly that full depth asphalt had been used. The highway was plagued with thermal cracks, failing joints, severe joint roll - down, and bottom - up cracking. This 6.88 mile project called for milling and placing 124,000 square yards of nominal 6 inch unbonded PCC overlay.

The project limits of US 71 included overlaying both full depth asphalt sections as well as composite sections.  In the design process the Iowa Department of Transportation (IDOT) determined that different saw cut patterns were necessary over the full depth asphalt compared to the pattern called out for over the composite sections.  The IDOT specified sawing the concrete overlay on top of the full depth asphalt sections in 6’x6’ panels. Therefore, five longitudinal saw cuts and crosscuts on six foot centers were performed on the 32 foot wide pavement in the full depth asphalt sections.

The composite sections, which made up about 47 percent of the project, were treated differently.The sawing pattern for those sections was basically performed on 8’x 9’ panels. The composite sections required three longitudinal saw cuts and crosscuts on eight foot centers. On a typical paving day over 35,000 lineal feet of sawing was required.  The entire project required a whopping 305,700 lineal feet of sawing.

Furthermore, in order to transition between the full depth asphalt sections and the composite sections, the IDOT specified that 15 lineal feet of 16 inch concrete was to be placed on the 32 foot wide pavement. The project contained five of these transition sections. What the IDOT overlooked was how to successfully transition between the two different saw cut patterns – they did not line up - and also how local traffic and haul traffic would be able to pass through these full depth removal areas during construction.

CVC proposed a mutually beneficial solution that was ultimately accepted. The joint at each edge of the five transitional 15 lineal foot full depth sections was sawed full depth transversely to stop the longitudinal saw joints from propagating across the panel. Problem 2 was to decide how we were going to maintain local access and haul concrete through these transitional areas. After considerable deliberation, we determined the best plan of attack was to fill one-half the pavement transition area with rock and haul on it. Then once we reached the transition area, we temporarily stopped paving while our fine grade crew rushed to remove the rock and fine grade the transition panel to the correct 10 inch depth so we could continue our overlay operation.

The actual transition areas presented their own set of challenges. For one thing, the paving thickness abruptly changed from 6 inches to 16 inches.  We were naturally concerned about how this would affect the paving smoothness, likely creating either a bump or a dip.  We ultimately chose to pour the bottom 10 inches by hand, using a Terex MTP, to bring the transition panel up to the existing elevation, allowing us to pave the remaining 6 inches through with the paver, while the lower 10 inches was still plastic.

In the end our plan was successful as IDOT Resident Construction Engineer (RCE) Steve McElmeel wrote these comments – “This project had several transitions from full depth HMA to composite pavement which required different longitudinal joint spacing. CVC worked with the Iowa DOT to propose the best possible transition which included the termination of two longitudinal joints and the transition of two others. Quality of ride and durability was not compromised in these transitions.”

In most cases the greatest public relations measure a firm can make on a highway project is to get in, build the job, and get out as quickly as possible. The IDOT let this project on May 17, 2016, with a mandatory Late Start Date of June 20, 2016. The IDOT assigned 116 working/calendar days to this project. Amazingly, Cedar Valley started this project on June 17, 2016, only 30 days after project letting date and completed the entire project on October 28, 2016. By utilizing excellent planning and execution, Cedar Valley earned $118,500 in time incentive pay.

IDOT RCE Steve McElmeel wrote these positive comments regarding CVC’s operations - “CVC worked well with the public to be able to meet their needs, and CVC was proactive in discussing access with the residents. CVC’s use of its resources was very productive and well thought out.  This allowed the project to finish well ahead of schedule, on budget, and without major incident.” This was especially significant since US Highway 71 is a gateway to the Iowa Great Lakes, where the summer population of Dickinson County routinely swells to 100,000 each year as vacationers and anglers flock to the area.

Prior to starting the paving operation CVC’s paving foreman wisely reviewed our intended paving operation with the dumper and paver operator. They were informed with regard to how many lineal feet an 8 cubic yard load of concrete would cover so they had a pretty good idea where to dump each load. This ensured a consistent head of concrete was maintained at our Guntert & Zimmerman (G&Z) 850 Paver. 

The varying depths, transition pieces, bridge approaches, bar insertion, and maintaining the many access restraints all had the potential to impact CVC’s ability to attain the maximize pavement smoothness incentive. However, excellent pre-planning and execution enabled us to attain remarkable smoothness considering the circumstances. CVC garnered 83.30 percent of the maximum zero band smoothness incentive on the mainline paving thereby earning $95,500.

Finally, Cedar Valley is extremely proud of our safety record on this project. We had no injuries or recordable vehicular accidents despite almost 21,000 man-hours of exposure.

#15008 - SAC COUNTY- HIGHWAY 196

Cedar Valley Corp., LLC’s (CVC) Iowa Sac County Highway 196 subcontract won the Iowa Concrete Paving Association’s (ICPA) “BEST” award in the State Roads category. This nearly ten mile project removed 135,000 square yards of existing pavement, completed over 900,000 cubic yards of earthwork, and placed almost 109,000 tons of base and shoulder aggregates. Cedar Valley paved almost 200,000 square yards of detour, mainline, and shoulder paving on the project. The main line and a portion of the shoulders were paved in the late fall of 2015.  The remaining shoulder paving was completed in the spring of 2016. Unfortunately, the Iowa Department of Transportation (IDOT) forgot to recommend the project for ICPA award in 2016, but due to the high quality of workmanship performed on this project, and despite going through two full winter cycles, it was nominated at the end of 2017. We were proud and somewhat amazed that after having been completed for 2 seasons it beat out the competition and won the ICPA award for BEST in the State Roads category.

Existing Highway 196 was originally paved in 1938 and had received at least four asphalt overlays in its history. This project ran from the intersection of Highway US 71/175 on the south end, north to newly constructed US Highway 20. The IDOT chose to rebuild Highway 196 and then relocate US Highway 71 from its current location in order to best utilize ten miles of new US Highway 20 before going south again.  

Cedar Valley’s Sac County Highway 196 subcontract specified a Late Start Date of March 16, 2015. The contract period was stated to be 255 calendar days with the intent to have all traffic lanes open on the project by the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. 

However, 2015 was an especially wet one in Sac County. Almost 40 inches of rain hit the area, constituting over 9 inches more than normal. In the key Iowa construction month of August, the job was hit with 9 inches of rain, 6 inches of which fell in one day alone. Additionally, during the months of June through September it rained on almost 40 percent of the days.

Two bridges were also constructed on this project. The new earth berms each had assigned settlement periods. The wet weather severely delayed completion of the berms and the saturated soil conditions surely impacted the rate of settlement as well.

Obviously, the weather delays had a considerably negative impact on Cedar Valley’s paving schedule.  The prime contractor first scheduled our paving start as August 3^rd.  As the job progressed the start date slid to September 20th. After the job still wasn’t ready on the revised date, the start date was moved to October 5^th.  Cedar Valley finally got the go ahead to start paving the project on October 12^th.

Fortunately, Mother Nature thankfully decided to give everyone a break – or so it seemed.  Once we started paving on October 12^th we paved five days a week for the following five weeks. However, when mid-November arrived we had caught the prime contractor’s grading and base operation and the chances of opening Highway 196 to traffic in 2015 was looking pretty bleak. Winter was approaching and the overnight temperatures dictated a lot of expensive cold weather protection. On the other hand, the IDOT was extremely worried about leaving a potentially dangerous 12 mile detour in-place over the winter mainly because it included three four-way stops and a very sharp curve on the south end of the project.

Therefore, out of concern for the safety and convenience of the travelling public, the IDOT allowed a defined amount of “emergency/critical” operations to take place in order to make sure that the mainline of Highway 196 was opened over the winter. All parties involved realized and agreed that this meant the roadway would need to be closed down again in the spring of 2016 in order to complete the project.

Based on the IDOT’s request, Cedar Valley put together a plan that outlined the extra measures and expenses needed in order to make sure Highway 196 was opened to traffic in fall of 2015. Snow was falling as the last few days of paving were executed. Some pavers would have said, “Snow way can we do this”, but excellent planning and execution allowed us to pour the required two outside 14 foot wide lanes and the 16 foot median on the south end of the project thereby closing down the detour till spring.

On April 4, 2016, work started up again and traffic was rerouted and placed back on to the established project detour route so CVC could complete the remaining 16 miles of paved shoulders, along with a couple of paved driveways.

The concrete road work was completed on April 25^th, 2016.

IDOT Resident Construction Engineer Steve McElmeel was appreciative, writing these comments – “This project presented many challenges. This project was detoured the length of the project but had limited access due to bridge replacements near the north and south ends of the project.  CVC worked with the Iowa DOT and Sac County to best route paving construction traffic to limit the impact on those living along the project as well as adjacent residents.  Due to a wet spring, and grading complications, paving on this project was pushed to the fall of 2015.  CVC was able to accelerate the paving in sometimes difficult conditions in order to have mainline on this project opened for the winter without compromising ride quality or durability.  CVC was able to work well with the Prime Contractor allowing the paving portion of this project to finish on budget, and without major incident.”

The project also included matching the two newly built concrete bridges and approach pavements.  Stopping our paving operation at these locations and passing over the bridges naturally impacted smoothness in these sections. 

We also had eight intakes in the grade to pave over that were plated and then set to grade which impacted the smoothness in these areas as well.

The bridge approaches, CD baskets, intakes, maintaining the many access restraints, and the extremely wet job conditions and haul roads all had the potential to negatively impact CVC’s ability to attain the maximum pavement smoothness incentive. However, excellent pre-planning enabled us to attain a remarkable smoothness considering the circumstances. CVC garnered 70.80 percent of the maximum zero band smoothness incentive on the mainline paving thereby earning $111,050.

In most cases the greatest public relations measure a firm can make on a highway project is to get in, build the job, and get out as quickly as possible.  Although the wet weather severely delayed our paving start, once CVC started paving we made record progress and even battled through the beginning of winter in order to finish.

Finally, Cedar Valley is extremely proud of our safety record on this project. We had no injuries or recordable vehicular accidents despite over 35,500 man-hours of exposure.