Riverside Contracting Wins Wyoming Smooth Roads Award BY SARAH REDOHL
Riverside produced the mix for its award-winning job on US-14 with its CMI 500-tph portable plant set up at the company’s gravel pit in Aberdeen, Wyoming, 15 miles from the project.
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Bighorn National Forest is a U.S. National Forest spanning more than 1.1 million acres in north-central Wyoming. First established as a forest reserve in 1897, it is one of the oldest governmentprotected forest lands in the United States. US-14 is a common route for visitors to access the forests and alpine meadows of Bighorn National Forest. After an awardwinning recent asphalt overlay, Bighorn’s tens of thousands of visitors will have a smoother ride, thanks to Riverside Contracting Inc., Missoula, Montana. In April, Riverside was honored with the Wyoming Department of Transportation’s Smoothest Pavement award for a project without a wearing course, for its performance paving US-14. The 5.1-mile project between Dayton and Ranchester required milling up 2 inches of asphalt and paving the two-lane highway and 6-foot shoulders with a new asphalt overlay. Riverside also added a turning lane in front of a school in Ranchester to improve traffic flow.
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US-14 has an average annual daily traffic count of 4,427. According to Riverside Project Manager Kurt Kaufman, the existing pavement was in fair condition but cracks were beginning to appear across the road. Riverside completed the bulk of the $1.8 million project in the fall of 2019, returning to US-14 in the spring to complete seeding, signage and mile markers. “That section of road now has the necessary improvements to make it better for the traveling public,” said Jerry Buckley, retired WYDOT resident engineer who oversaw the project. “I’m pleased with the work Riverside did for WYDOT and the people of Wyoming.” WYDOT began recognizing high-quality asphalt pavement based on smoothness in 2001 in an effort to recognize exceptional work on road surfaces that will benefit the traveling public. WYDOT
