The Massachusetts Division of Transportation’s (MassDOT) freeway department has been awarded the Northeast Pavement Preservation Partnership’s Jim Sorenson Award in popularity of its management and long-term dedication to pavement preservation and lowering the desire for pricey resurfacing.
The Sorenson Award is a prestigious nationwide honor that acknowledges businesses for excellence in holding pavement property via leading edge, cost-effective and sustainable remedies. MassDOT’s program used to be decided on for its long-term software of preservation ideas throughout all categories of highways and for its good fortune in preserving roadways in excellent restore the usage of quite a lot of preservation tactics.
The award used to be offered on the Northeast Pavement Preservation Partnership Convention Might 5–7, 2026, in Springfield, Mass. Cody Holemo, MassDOT’s pavement preservation engineer authorized on behalf of the company.
“Neatly maintained roads save drivers money and time, lowering put on and tear on their cars and offering a extra relaxed experience,” stated Intervening time Secretary of Transportation and MBTA Common Supervisor Phillip Eng. “ We’re proud that our freeway crew has been identified for excellence with this yr’s Sorenson Award, a testomony to their dedication to innovation and handing over effects for the folk we serve.”
“Our crew has labored for greater than 20 years to construct a preservation program this is sensible, records pushed and attentive to the desires of communities throughout Massachusetts,” added MassDOT Undersecretary of Transportation and State Freeway Administrator Jonathan Gulliver. “This popularity displays the numerous years willpower through company body of workers, municipal companions, and business collaborators to stay roads in excellent situation whilst maximizing worth for the general public.”
As background, MassDOT officially established its pavement preservation program in 2005 inside the freeway department’s pavement control segment. This used to be preceded through many years of study and implementation in spaces akin to microsurfacing, diamond grinding, polymer-modified skinny overlays and ultrathin bonded dressed in classes. This system is a key a part of the dept’s upkeep technique, which emphasizes early intervention to increase pavement lifestyles and stretch taxpayer greenbacks.
Components that weighed at the award determination incorporated MassDOT’s long-term dedication to pavement preservation and the Northeast Pavement Preservation Partnership. The company used to be an early adopter of a centralized pavement situation database and pavement control gadget that helps data-driven selections. As well as, it used to be a founding member of the Northeast Pavement Preservation Partnership and hosted the primary NEPPP assembly in 2006.
MassDOT additionally has participated in nationwide tasks akin to SHRP2-R26 and FHWA Each Day Counts. In 2021, the company introduced the Municipal Paving Program to convey preservation sources to municipally owned state-numbered roadways.
MassDOT mechanically applies a variety of preservation and recycling remedies adapted to pavement prerequisites and context. Therapies come with:
• Crack sealing the usage of a couple of fabrics and mastics;
• Fog seals and rejuvenators together with plant-based and uniqueness formulations;
• Chip seals with emulsion and hot-applied asphalt rubber;
• Microsurfacing in typical and high-performance formulations;
• Ultrathin bonded overlays in typical, polymer-modified, and asphalt rubber variants;
• Sizzling in-place recycling;
• Chilly in-place recycling with emulsion and foamed asphalt; and
• Skinny HMA overlays with numerous combine designs, excessive RAP content material and function modifiers.
Past those remedies, MassDOT continues to pilot and undertake inventions akin to various milling tactics, floor texture packages, void-reducing asphalt membranes and expanded use of spray pavers.
