"It’s not just a road, it’s our way back home."
Preferred Materials, Inc. is a leading supplier of asphalt, concrete, concrete products, and paving services in the Southeast, with 15 asphalt plants, 31 ready mixed plants, and more than 1,200 dedicated and trained professionals.
Preferred Materials takes asphalt quality control very seriously and operates a total of 12 CMEC-accredited labs in the state of Florida. Quality Control Managers perform rigorous daily testing of materials and mixes as well as develop customized solutions to meet specific construction needs.
Preferred Materials is a CRH company. CRH is the largest building materials business in North America and the leading building materials business in the world; operating c.3,100 locations in 30 countries.
Challenge:
Safely and accurately complete paving improvements on SR 93A (I-75) in southern Hillsborough County to include milling and resurfacing with cross slope correction, drainage improvements, guardrail, signage and other incidental construction totaling 15.553 Miles of Roadway with .747 Miles of Bridge Length during the COVID-19 pandemic. Decreased traffic volumes resulted in motorists driving at faster speeds than normal around the work zone due to less congestion.
Solution:
With a commitment to quality, communication and safety, Preferred Materials laid more than 128,000 tons of asphalt from January 2020 - November 2020 on this project. Quality Control Managers from the West Florida Preferred Materials CMEC-accredited lab performed rigorous testing to determine the proper volumetrics - mixture of asphalt, aggregate particles, and air voids. Once the right mix was determined, close communication with the plant and site crew allowed for quality control of the mixture, resulting in adherence to strict Florida DOT specs. The site crew worked closely with vendors, including Ring Power to schedule equipment delivery, service, support, and maintenance as needed; sometimes around the clock. They developed and communicated safety-first protocols for entering, exiting, and working on the jobsite. By adopting an “all hands on deck” mentality, Preferred Materials was able to, “Do it right the first time.”
Result:
FDOT has been collecting laser profiler data on high speed roads consistently since 1999. After formal review, Preferred Material’s I-75 project achieved the smoothest pavement profile in FDOT history.
The project achieved an extremely low (i.e. extremely smooth) average IRI of 24 inches per mile. Having an average IRI in the 20’s is incredible, considering that an average IRI in the 30’s and 40’s is considered very smooth.