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Innovative Pavex Project Wins Napa Award

The National Asphalt Pavement Association informed Jingna Zhang, Project Engineer, Pavex Construction Division, that the Montague Expressway Pavement Rehabilitation, Phase 1 Project won a Quality in Construction Award for 2007. Graniterock’s Pavex Construction Division will receive the Award at NAPA’s 53rd Annual Meeting in Arizona at the end of January.

The scope of work included: pavement excavation & repair; cold planning conform; cracksealing; overlay of existing pavement with 50mm of Rubberized asphalt concrete; placing thermoplastic striping, pavement markers and markings; raising affected manhole cover and utility boxes to grade, furnishing and installing detector handhole, loops and conduit. A total of 13,734 tons of Rubberized asphalt concrete was used.

The job included some particular challenges such as working at night, in a very narrow timeframe, tight working conditions with regard to the area housing, businesses, and San Jose Light Rail, and an owner (County of Santa Clara) that had a pervious poor experience with Rubberized Asphalt.

“Because Jingna understands design principles, she is more able than most engineers to help the owner solve problems,” commented Rodney Jenny, Vice President and Division Manager of Pavex. On this Montague Expressway Project, she worked with the owner to re-design the type of mix from a ¾″ to a ½″ to accommodate the lift thinness and winter and night time paving. The first Rubberized Warm Mix Asphalt test section was also built on this project. The experiences will be shared at the upcoming NAPA’s annual meeting.

Jingna graduated from Tongji University, China with a Ph.D. degree in Civil Engineering. Prior to joining Pavex in November, 2005, Jingna had worked as a Research Engineer at the National Center for Asphalt Technology, Auburn University for over five years. She worked on numerous research projects and published 29 journey papers, book, and reports internationally; she also taught courses on HMA technologies to university professors, engineers from state and local agencies, and industry group. She had been invited to give guest talks and presentations related to Hot Mix Asphalt at universities and national conferences.

Jingna is married to Hongbin Xie and they have a three-year old son, Edwin. Hongbin holds a Ph.D. degree from Auburn University and works as the assistant director for Research Technology Service of Graniterock. They live in Gilroy and enjoy their life traveling around the world.

Through extensive planning, constant, diligent Quality Control, the ability to control material from the Quarry to the final warranty, Graniterock’s Pavex Construction Division completed a job that is certainly worthy of the award but more importantly garners the approval of the motoring public. One motorist commented in the San Jose Mercury, “Kudos to the crew paving the Montague Expressway North of 101. It’s the smoothest piece of pavement I’ve driven on in years.”

“When we look at quality, we look at it from the perspective of both the user and the engineer. From the highway user’s perspective, we’re concerned with how well the pavement rides, how smooth it is, the noise level, skid resistance, and speed of construction. From the engineering side, we look at the materials and mix design, the consistency of the material, and the density specifications, so that it will provide good performance,” stated Mike Acott, NAPA president.

The National Asphalt Pavement Association is the only association that exclusively represents the interests of the Hot Mix Asphalt producer/contractor on the national level with Congress, government agencies, and other national trade and business organizations. NAPA supports an active research program designed to improve the quality of HMA pavements and paving techniques used in the construction of roads, highways, parking lots, airports and environmental and recreational facilities. The Association, which counts more than 800 companies among its Members, was founded in 1955.

Graniterock has been headquartered in Watsonville, California, since it’s founding in 1900. The Company’s employees work in branch locations in South San Francisco, Redwood City, San Jose, Salinas, Monterey, Oakland, Watsonville, Felton, Turlock, Cupertino, and Santa Cruz. Graniterock supplies construction materials including ready-mix concrete, hot mix asphalt, building materials, landscaping supplies, rock, sand and gravel. The Company’s Pavex Construction Division is a significant regional heavy engineering contractor building roadways, airports and private commercial and residential projects. Graniterock received the 1992 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award and the 1994 Governor’s Golden State Quality Award.

For more information, contact:
Keith Severson, 831.768.2063
Jingna Zhang, 408.574.1400