January 21 2021 0Comment

ACPA Provides Support to Ohio Chapter and Ohio DOT

As part of our ongoing ConcreteCOMPETES program, ACPA staff deployed a comprehensive effort to provide support to our Ohio Chapter, contractor members, and the Ohio DOT.

The most recent discussion with the Ohio DOT executive and engineering staff, along with the industry participants, was held last week.  That meeting provided an opportunity to inform and reinforce information covering design, construction, sustainability, cost, and competition.

The effort began more than two years ago with ACPA’s discussions with Mark Pardi and Greg Colvin, followed by discussions with the Ohio DOT. “It was an opportunity to pursue a new direction,” says Jerry Voigt.

Since then, ACPA has conducted a review of life-cycle cost analysis and state-of-the-art pavement design methods, an effort led by Eric Ferrebee. Eric demonstrated the benefits of using AASHTOWare’s Pavement M-E over a modified version of AAHSTO ’93. He also presented details of how more advanced design methods would have benefitted the DOT and taxpayers on specific projects throughout the state.

Leif Wathne worked with Ohio Concrete Association/Ohio Chapter staff and consultants and DOT officials to inform the benefits of inter-industry competition, emphasizing how owners who ensure a mix of both concrete and asphalt projects see cost benefits with both. This initiative has been supported by Dr. Jeremy Gregory and the MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub, which has demonstrated competition benefits by analyzing agency bid pricing based on 10 years of data and 298,000 pay items from 47 state DOTs. “The MIT analysis shows how unit prices for asphalt and concrete pavement could drop by 5% and 19%, respectively, simply by adjusting the balance between concrete and asphalt incrementally,” Leif says.

ACPA also engaged Dr. Mark Snyder of Pavement Engineering and Research Consultants, LLC* and Dr. Mike Ayers of  Global Pavement Consultants* to provide a review and recommendations related to pavement construction and design practices.

Responding to the DOT’s comments that they use data-driven design, ACPA showed how the DOT can benefit from competition, optimized pavement design, and technologies that have been adopted and have yielded excellent benefits in neighboring states.

“Our concrete pavement industry is committed to being a sound technical resource and a partner to Ohio DOT,” Leif said, adding, “We will help in whatever way we can with pavement and materials design and technical assistance to enable the agency to deliver the most cost effective, safe, and sustainable pavements.”

Jerry says ACPA staff is optimistic about the latest meeting and adds that the commitment to the Ohio Chapter and Ohio DOT is backed by what has been the most comprehensive analysis in the almost three-year history of the ConcreteCOMPETES program.

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* ACPA member.

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