Innovation, safety and excellence recognised at 2018 AAPA National Awards

The winners of this year’s National and Queensland Australian Asphalt Pavement Association (AAPA) Industry Awards have been announced.

The 2018 Gala Dinner and Industry Awards recognise the best of the best in the flexible pavements industry, with this year’s national and Queensland winners receiving their awards at a prestigious gathering in Brisbane last week.

The 2018 AAPA National Industry award winners are as follow:

Safety Initiative Award (sponsored by Caterpillar): Nigel Preston, Viva Energy.

Mr. Preston won the national award for his initiative towards the issue of safe sampling of hot bitumen from tankers and for developing the necessary industry guidelines

He arranged a “how to” video to be shot, demonstrating how to Safely sample hot bitumen, which is now available to view industry wide.

Road Worker of the Year Award (sponsored by Wirtgen): Gunther Breindl, Downer.

Mr. Breindl has worked in the surfacing industry for over 30 years, with a proven vast knowledge of sealing operations, processes and design.

He’s been a site supervisor for the past 9 years, with a core focus on safety, quality and delivery efficiency. With an understanding of the art of road building, he mentors his crew on how to deliver high quality projects, which is consistently achieved and offers value to clients through proven suggested alternative solutions.

Emerging Leader Award (sponsored by ALTUS Traffic): Carlos Solis-Navarro, AECOM.

Mr. Solis-Navarro commenced pavement engineering in the UK before moving to Australia where he is currently leads the pavement and geotechnical disciplines on the Easing Sydney Congestion Project for his organisation.

He has developed a strong ground engineering team for ESC and under his leadership has become a one-stop-shop for pavement investigations and a pavement design centre which has also attracted young engineering talent to the pavement discipline.

His leadership has achieved two main outcomes for the industry: promoting sustainable asphalt mixes with warm mix asphalt now the default mix on Easing Sydney Congestion projects and developing pavement designs specifically tailored to urban conditions.

Innovation Award (sponsored by SAMI Bitumen Technologies): Downer Group, Low Carbon Asphalt (or LCA) incorporating glass.

Downer developed this product, which was designed to optimise the use of recycled materials such as glass and toner cartridges, giving a saving of up to 35 per cent in virgin quarry materials. Also incorporating warm mix asphalt, LCA is produced at a much lower temperature giving environmental and works safety benefits and been successfully trialled in the ACT.

Outstanding Project Award (sponsored by Viva Energy): Downer Infrastructure, The Bend Motorsport Park – Motor Racing Circuit.

The project was recognised for its great Safety performance, with high complexity of plant interactions there were no MTI’s or LTIs. Over 46,000 tonnes of asphalt was laid and delivered under very tight timeframes.

The project saw seamless echelon hot join paving and multiple mixes of asphalt to address seven different track configurations.

In its longest configuration, the racetrack is the second longest permanent race track in the world and is the only Australian circuit to comply with the latest FIA Grade 2 and FIM Category A standards.

Industry Leadership Award (sponsored by Astec): Tony Aloisio, Fulton Hogan.

Mr. Aloisio commenced working for the Boral Group in Melbourne as a graduate engineer in 1979. Joining the Boral Asphalt business in 1982 and moved to Townsville in North Queensland, where he learned the trade in asphalt production and contracting, labs and spray seal.

He then moved to Sydney through the mid 80’s and worked with Stabilex, Boral’s then stabilisation business.

Following this, he came back to the bitumen side of the business, moving to Canberra to run the asphalt plant acquired from the ACT Government and establish a fully-fledged contracting business.

He then moved to Adelaide in the early 90’s running asphalt and spray seal operations before returning to Melbourne in 1995, eventually taking up the role of GM for the Victorian business.

At this time he began having a closer involvement with industry through AAPA, serving a couple of terms as AAPA State branch chairman and then taking a position on the Board of AAPA.

In 2012, he left Boral after a long association and changed direction, taking on new role with Fulton Hogan as GM Corporate Services, covering safety, quality, environment & sustainability and HR for the Fulton Hogan Australian business across both their surfacing and civil contracting.

He maintained a close affiliation with AAPA taking on the Fulton Hogan Board directorship, holding the role of Board Chairman from 2013 to 2016, and remaining as Deputy Chair for a further year before stepping down.

The 2018 AAPA Queensland Industry award winners are as follow:

Safety Initiative Award (sponsored by Caterpillar): Steve Olsen, Boral.

Road Worker of the Year Award (sponsored by Wirtgen): Ross Canning, Boral.

Emerging Leader Award (sponsored by ALTUS Traffic): Brendan Cole, Fulton Hogan.

Innovation Award (sponsored by SAMI Bitumen Technologies): Fulton Hogan, Integrated Intelligent Compaction System.

Outstanding Project Award (sponsored by Viva Energy): Fulton Hogan for the Port of Brisbane – Port Drive Upgrade Project.

A Highly Commended citation in the Outstanding Project Category was also awarded to Downer and RPQ who combined their resources to deliver Queensland’s first airport EME2 asphalt for the Brisbane Airport Corporation – Taxiway Hotel Code E Upgrade.

Industry Leadership Award (sponsored by Astec): Kevin McCullough, Colas.