Award of Merit - Small Project: Interstate 81 Pavement Recycling Project
In 2011, the Virginia Department of Transportation employed full-depth reclamation, cold central-plant recycling and cold in-place recycling to rebuild a 3.7-mile, two-lane section of southbound Interstate 81 near Staunton, Va. Using these three distinct pavement-recycling processes together on a single rehabilitation project on the U.S. interstate system had never been done before this project. By using this approach to reconstruct the stretch of interstate, VDOT reduced its estimated construction time by two-thirds, saved millions of dollars and mitigated environmental impacts. The Virginia Center for Transportation Innovation and Research conducted research years before construction began, and will continue to study the project's durability for years to come.