Sunland Asphalt was honored at this years 66th Annual Roads and Streets Conference at the La Paloma in Tucson, Arizona on Friday, April 14th.  Our team accepted a 2016 Arizona Transportation Partnering Excellence Award for the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) SR-264 Cross Canyon to Summit project.

Why did this project receive a Partnering Excellence Award?

Sunland, ADOT, ADOT’s consultants, our subcontractors and the various agencies involved went above and beyond to safely complete this project on-time and under budget, despite numerous challenges including:

• Weather: The “summit” of the project was over 7,000 FT resulting in wet summers and cold winters. The project team was committed to meeting the schedule despite potential weather delays.
• Commitment to Quality Operations: Despite the remote location of the project being over two hours away from the asphalt plant, the project received substantial smoothness and compaction bonuses. Our team developed a schedule and traffic control plans to efficiently move the trucks through the project site ensuring continuous operations while monitoring key quality control metrics.
• Safety: SR-264 between Burnside Junction and Window Rock is one of the most heavily traveled roadways on the Navajo Nation. There are few alternatives for residents to commute to the governmental facilities of Window Rock and resources in nearby Gallup, New Mexico. The hilly terrain presented safety issues for both the traveling public and our team. The ADOT-Sunland team identified and mitigated the risks of the traveling public driving through hilly terrain, unable to see sudden traffic stops and or delays on the other side, resulting in a collision. There were safety concerns about our crews navigating through the heavy traffic to deliver asphalt and the operations of equipment. Sunland-ADOT cooperatively worked together to implement traffic control plans that would minimize the use of flagger stations which allowed for ample notifications of road work ahead, minimal delays and for the work to be completed without any lost time worker accidents or major traffic incidents within the work zone.
• Community Participation:  Not only did the local workforce staff the project, the local governmental agencies helped Sunland resolve issues and mitigate potential risks. Over 70% of the work force on the project was locally sourced. The Navajo Nation Water Authority and Apache County went above and beyond to help Sunland navigate the challenge of finding the construction water needed for the project. Water resources are scarce and extremely valuable on the Navajo Nation and without these key partners the project would not have been able to be completed successfully.
• Partnership with ADOT:  Sunland and the ADOT Holbrook District have successfully partnered on past projects. Having a pre-existing partnership accelerated the numerous benefits that partnering can have on a project. There was as minimal “learning curve” when it came to the two parties on this project coming together as a team. The ADOT – Sunland Team was able to hit the ground running from the beginning of the project, which helped the team achieve great success in hitting the partnering goals.

Congratulations to everyone who contributed to the successful partnering of this project including the pictured Rick Risner (Sunland), Matt Johnson (Sunland), Lynn Johnson (ADOT), Michael Thompson (Sunland), Beau Wagner (ADOT), Jose Hernandez (CEI), and Manny Martinez (Sunland).

For more information on this project, click HERE.