Arizona DOT receives Gordian’s 2015 Harry H. Mellon Award of Excellence

Updated Aug 11, 2016
Mud and debris closed 24 miles of U.S. 89A in Arizona following a monsoon last year. Photo credit: AZDOTMud and debris closed 24 miles of U.S. 89A in Arizona following a monsoon last year. Photo credit: AZDOT

The Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) has received the 2015 Harry H. Mellon Award of Excellence in Job Order Contracting from the Gordian Group for repairs on U.S. 89A after the House Rock flash flood last year.

The Gordian Group has presented the award each year since 2007. It honors those “who work hard on projects that demonstrate best practices” in the job order contracting industry. In addition to the Award of Excellence, Cordion presents five Awards of Merit.

The job order contracting process was created in 1982 and allows agencies to complete projects based on locally priced construction tasks and competitively awarded contracts.

In August 2015, a monsoon dropped 1.5 inches of rain on the Vermilion Cliffs in just 15 minutes. ADOT says U.S. 89A, which is the only road across a wide area on the north side of the Grand Canyon, was impacted by boulders as large as 15 feet in diameter, as well as mud in seven different

Repairs to U.S. 89A took 53 days to complete. Photo credit: AZDOTRepairs to U.S. 89A took 53 days to complete. Photo credit: AZDOT

slides covering portions of 24 miles of the road. ADOT used the job order contracting process to call on S.J. Anderson Company of Mesa to repair flood-damaged sections of U.S. 89A “quickly and at the lowest possible cost.”

The repairs to the roadway were finished in 53 days, including ADOT’s on-site inspection. S.J. Anderson was able to mobilize “within days” of accepting the proposal, and brought in equipment and crews from multiple locations across the Southwest.

“This year’s Award of Excellence winner demonstrated the speed, versatility and efficiencies of job order contracting, even in the face of a natural disaster,” says William Pollak, CEO of Gordian. “We congratulate Arizona DOT and The S.J. Anderson Company for the remarkable job they did serving road users in Arizona.”

“Completing the repairs and cleanup of such a large event in less than two months was an outstanding achievement,” says Dallas Hammit, ADOT’s state engineer and deputy director for transportation. “This award recognizes a creative approach that allowed ADOT’s Northcentral District to respond quickly, efficiently and effectively to an unexpected challenge.”