Diamond B lands two NAPA quality awards

The National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA) recently announced that Diamond B Construction of Alexandria has won two 2002 Quality in Construction Awards for excellence in construction of an asphalt pavement.

The company received its awards during a special ceremony at NAPA's recent 48th Annual Convention in San Diego.

"The Quality in Construction Awards recognize Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) pavements of excellence. APA selects the recipients of its paving awards using a known set of standards that have been shown to give a good result," said David B. Carlson, chairman of the NAPA Board of Directors. "This award demonstrates the high quality of work that the HMA industry is achieving."

Diamond B Construction's first award was given for its work on I-10 in Jefferson Davis Parish. Because the road's average daily trips numbered more than 42,000, the company faced restricted paving during rush hours.

It met the challenge by doing some nighttime paving and by emphasizing safety for its workers and motorists. The use of informal partnering with the state helped the contractor complete the project 23 days ahead of schedule, while producing a smooth, high-quality pavement.

The second award-winning project was the rubblizing and overlay of I-12 in Livingston Parish. Challenges included the high volume of paving to be done, nighttime paving and innovative paving techniques to help keep the mat smooth. The company successfully partnered with the state on the project, completing it 119 days ahead of schedule.

Louisiana firms win ABC national safety awards

During the mid March Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) national convention in San Diego, merit shop construction firms that demonstrated an outstanding commitment to safety were honored with Safety Excellence awards.

Three Louisiana firms were recognized, all in the Specialty Construction Category, including Auger Services Inc., Baton Rouge; Westgate Inc., Baton Rouge; and MMR Group Inc., Baton Rouge. All three companies are members of the Pelican Chapter of ABC in Baton Rouge.

In announcing the awards, ABC President and CEO Kirk Pickerel said, "ABC recognizes member firms that have achieved the highest levels of industry safety performance. These are the standard bearers, not only for ABC but also for the entire construction industry."

Award winners were selected from ABC member firms achieving Platinum status in ABC's Safety Training and Evaluation Process (STEP) program. The criteria used for selecting national safety winners included each member's self-evaluation scores, lost workday case rates and total recordable rates.

ADOTD, AGC discuss issues throughout state

The Department of Transportation and Development and Louisiana Associated General Contractors recently traveled throughout Louisiana to visit every DOTD district to discuss construction issues with those in the field.

AGC said these "shade tree meetings" were well attended.

Contractors and DOTD engineers both shared their concerns with their respective counterparts. DOTD headquarters personnel were on hand to offer a consistent ruling on specification and construction problems, not only district to district but project engineer to engineer.

AGC's Ken Naquin acted as facilitator of the meetings, which discussed topics such as plan changes, contractor/project engineer field relations, lump sum bids and plan errors.
More than 100 contractors and 300 DOTD representatives attended.

AGC, CIS, AIA co-host fire marshal safety seminar

The New Orleans chapters of Associated General Contractors, Construction Specifications Institute and American Institute of Architects recently co-sponsored the Third Annual State Fire Marshal Life Safety Seminar recently in New Orleans.

The seminar provided an opportunity for State Fire Marshal V. J. Bella and other representatives from his office to discuss with contractors, designers and manufacturing representatives issues pertaining to life safety code issues and additional enforcement responsibilities of the First Marshal's office.

Changes in plan review and enforcement procedures were also outlined for the industry.

The seminar offered an excellent opportunity to network with officials in industry and those responsible for life safety code enforcements, as well as ADA requirements.

The Occupational, Safety & Health Administration, (OSHA) has recognized Dow Louisiana Operations in Plaquemine as one of the safest workplaces in the country by re-certifying it as an OSHA Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) Star site. OSHA only awards the Star of Excellence to sites that have achieved a safety performance that is 90 percent better than the national average for industry.
Louisiana Operations was originally accepted into the program in 1990. The employees and programs at the Louisiana site are included in a select group of work sites that OSHA has deemed to be a model of safety success.
According to Earl Shipp, Louisiana Operations site leader, "The VPP recognition shows that our Louisiana Operations site in Plaquemine is one of the safest workplaces in the country. This great honor can be directly contributed to the effort and support of our employees."

Based upon engineering analysis, the condition of the roads maintained by the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development has shown steady improvement since the department began compiling figures over the past several years, Dr. Kam Movassaghi, DOTD secretary, said.

In 1995, 1998 and 2001, DOTD utilized the Automatic Road Analyzer (ARAN) van to determine the quality of ride provided by Louisiana's DOTD maintained highways, he said.

These state maintained roadways are classified into four categories - the interstate highway system, the national highway system, the statewide highway system and the regional highway system.

The condition of the four categories of roadways in Louisiana was classified as either excellent, good, fair, poor or very poor, Don Carey, DOTD management system administrator, said.

"According to the ARAN analysis, the percentage of DOTD maintained roads in poor or very poor condition has been reduced in each of the four categories," Movassaghi said.