This year Les Marchant, our Manager Materials Engineering, was awarded the Australian Asphalt Pavement Association (AAPA) 2017 Western Australian Leadership Award. The Award recognises Les’s contribution in working with industry in driving improvements, adoption and trialling of new and innovative approaches and quality control.
Most of our road network is constructed of local natural materials with thin bituminous surfacings which are tested for suitability along with audit testing during construction. Testing of bitumen binders, asphalt, concrete mixes and other complex engineering properties of materials is undertaken at our main laboratory in Welshpool.
Les has overseen and guided the establishment of the West Australian Road Research and Innovation Program (WARRIP). This four year program has a special focus on developing and guiding implementation of the latest pavement advancements, technologies and practices from interstate and overseas into Western Australia.
Under Les’s guidance we have constructed the first asphalt pavement in Western Australia using EME2 high modulus asphalt. The EME2 asphalt was successfully placed by Downer at a project to upgrade the intersection of Tonkin Highway and Kelvin Road. EME2 is a very stiff asphalt developed in France which significantly reduces the thickness of full depth asphalt pavements and is expected to deliver construction cost savings of 20 percent on future projects in addition to improving productivity during pavement construction.
Reflecting the unique work done by our laboratory teams and to ensure that we are able to continue to meet the future needs of our business we are upgrading the infrastructure at our Welshpool JJG Punch Materials Laboratory. These improvements will increase our capability to understand new and emerging innovative pavement technologies; design and testing that are aimed at reducing road construction and maintenance costs. Construction work started in February 2017 and has been staged for completion by early 2018.
In accepting the Award Les personally thanked his team which he "said provided the organisation with the engineering and testing that made this ongoing work a success". In particular, Les acknowledged Steve Halligan and Chris Skantzos who manage the asphalt mix designs, specifications and the planning of the EME2 trial; Jon Griffin who oversees the WARRIP projects and Craig Phillips and Mark Hopgood who run an extremely professional audit and testing laboratory.
