From left to right: John Roberts, executive director of the International Grooving & Grinding Association; Bill Brudnick – director of transportation planning and development (Houston District TxDOT); Mark Woolridge, director of maintenance (TxDOT –Houston District); and Lucio Ortiz, director of construction (TxDOT- Houston District)The International Grooving & Grinding Association has announced its “Government Official of the Year” award winners.
Employees of the Texas Department of Transportation–Houston District were selected as this year’s winners of the national award.
They were recognized for their efforts to advance the understanding and use of quiet concrete pavement surface textures using the Next Generation Concrete Surface in the state of Texas.
A technical presentation by TxDOT discussed how the Houston District—the largest DOT district in the state—incorporated the ultra-quiet and smooth Next Generation Concrete Surface (NGCS) into several major highways, including I-10, Harris County’s U.S. 290, and the 610 Loop.
Houston is placing about 3 million square yards of NGCS in total.
“TxDOT had been urged to apply a pervious friction course on top of the new concrete on 290, as well as on the 5-year-old pavement of I-10,” explains an R. Prusinski, executive director of the Cement Council of Texas.
“However,” Prusinksi continues, “this overlay would have added expense to the project and also set the roads up to require regular maintenance—as often as every seven years. Texas has extensive experience using continuously reinforced concrete pavement (CRCP) in its populated areas and has found that CRCP, if well-constructed, is an extremely low-maintenance, economical option.”
This made Texas officials eager stick with concrete pavement solutions, he says.
TxDOT turned to NGCS, an innovative solution which the department knew had performed well in research and trial applications.
“This award is an acknowledgment of the Houston District of the Texas Department of Transportation’s ability to recognize the needs of the homeowners in the area and take positive, decisive steps to make their lives better,” says John Roberts, executive director of the International Grooving & Grinding Association.
“Their willingness to innovate and adopt new technologies to meet these needs sets this group apart and makes them a model for other public agencies to emulate.”
About 270 people attended this year’s conference, with about 100 representing TxDOT engineering and construction personnel and the remainder being local transportation personnel, consultants, manufacturers and suppliers, and others, the association says.
Founded in 1972, IGGA is a non-profit trade association promoting development of the diamond grinding and grooving process for surfaces constructed with Portland cement concrete and asphalt.
