Skip to main content

NAPA award for airport paving excellence

NAPA gave its 2019 award for airport paving excellence to Preferred Materials, part of the CRH Group.
By MJ Woof February 20, 2020 Read time: 2 mins
Jacksonville’s Herlong Recreational Airport (HEG) now features a high quality runway and taxiways - image © Courtesy NAPA/Preferred Materials Inc, A CRH Co

The National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA) recently gave its prestigious 2019 Ray Brown Airport Pavement Award to Preferred Materials, part of the CRH Group, of Jacksonville, Florida. The firm was winner for excellence in construction of an asphalt pavement for its work at Jacksonville’s Herlong Recreational Airport (HEG). The company was recognised at a ceremony during the association’s 65th Annual Meeting.

“The asphalt pavement industry is committed to building high-quality projects that deliver superior performance to the travelling public. All contractors’ projects earning a Quality in Construction award are measured against best practices designed to live up to that commitment,” said 2019 NAPA chairman John Harper. “Earning the Ray Brown Award demonstrates that Preferred Materials has met or exceeded these rigorous standards.”

Preferred Materials won the award for the rehabilitation of Herlong Recreational Airport’s Runway 11/29 and Taxiways C and D. The existing lime rock pavement at the airport was milled and added to make a new lime rock base, which was then paved with two lifts of FAA P-401 asphalt mixture. Full-depth asphalt pavement and lime rock removal was performed at the end of Runway 11/29 and then built up with soil, seed and sod. The job was completed in 90 days.

The award is named after Ray Brown, the Director of the National Center for Asphalt Technology from 1991-2007. Under Ray’s guidance and tenure, the centre became renowned for its asphalt pavement research. The award is presented to the highest scoring Quality in Construction — Airport Pavement project.

Related Content

  • Super paving with Aggregate Industries’ SuperThin
    February 21, 2019
    Aggregate Industries’ contracting division recently laid a total of 1,800 tonnes of an ultra-low noise asphalt at Brampton Hut Services in Huntingdon in one weekend. Section 1 of Highways England’s A14 Cambridge-to-Huntingdon Improvement Scheme will see 21km of the road upgraded to three lanes in each direction and is expected to cut journey times by up to 20 minutes. The pavement works at Brampton Hut motorway services specified minimum sound level requirements of -7.5db (A). The limits are designed
  • Rainforest road repair and rehabilitation with stabilisation
    May 23, 2014
    A limited amount of aggregate and resources, including fuel, in the Riau province of Indonesia can challenge roadbuilders, but Indonesian contractor PT Harap Panjang overcame the obstacles on a recent project. The province rests in a tropical rainforest. The 2600mm of annual rainfall take a toll on the area’s roads, particularly those developed by oil company Chevron Pacific Indonesia. The remote roads were built to service Chevron operations, crucial to the economies of the city, region and country. The r
  • Improved airport for Thimarafushi atoll
    August 29, 2014
    Thimarafushi forms part of the Thaa Atoll lying in the Indian Ocean but access has been limited in the past. However the construction of a new airport planned by the Maldives Government will help develop the tourist trade, boosting the local economy. Most visitors previously used the country’s two international airports, using these as hubs for flights to the country’s six domestic airports. This has limited travel to only a few of the country’s 1,192 islands, of which around 200 are inhabited. As a result,
  • This runway builder perfected paving and landed remarkable results
    August 31, 2023
    This busy airport needed a complete runway renovation without disrupting daily scheduled take-offs and landings. Each workday, construction could start no sooner than 11pm and couldn’t end a minute past 6am. Without state-of-the-art technology from Trimble—including 3D machine guidance—and expert training from SITECH, this complex and high-precision project would've never got off the ground.