Charles Potts is given the Bartlett Award for his contributions to highway progress.The chairman of Heritage Construction and Materials in Indianapolis was recently honored for his contributions to highway progress with the George S. Bartlett Award
The American Road and Transportation Builders Association announced that Charles F. Potts was the winner of the 84-year-old award September 30 at the organization’s annual convention in Philadelphia.
The award is co-sponsored by ARTBA, the American Association of State and Transportation Officials and the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine and goes each year to someone who “has made an outstanding contribution to highway progress.”
Potts’ resume certainly fits the bill, with 40 years in the construction industry. He spent years as the CEO of Heritage Construction and Materials before he became the president of the largest highway construction contractor in the country at Ashland’s APAC, Inc. Potts was also the head of materials and research and director of construction for the Florida Department of Transportation for 16 years.
Potts has been a member or leader in several highway construction-related organizations. He is a former chairman of the board for ARTBA, the International Center for Aggregates Research at the University of Texas, the National Asphalt Pavement Association and the National Center for Asphalt Technology at Auburn University—the latter of which he still serves on the board for. He was the president of the Association of Asphalt Paving Technologies and a member of the National Sand, Stone and Gravel Association.
Potts has been a vocal supporter of long-term transportation funding. He is also considered an expert on hot mixed asphalt materials, with more than 100 technical papers written on the subjects.
The award was named after George Bartlett, who is considered “the greatest single influence on the use of concrete roads in the United States.” He was an advocate for concrete roads and worked with the University of Portland Cement Company and the Wane County Road Commission where modern road construction was born.
