2026 Best in Arizona Pavement Awards Program

Do you have an exceptional asphalt pavement project constructed in 2025 or 2026?  

If so, why not submit it for consideration in the inaugural Best in Arizona Pavement Awards Program jointly organized by Southwest Pavement Technology Consortium and Arizona Pavement Materials Conference?

Award categories include:

• Local Agency (City)
• Local Agency (County)
• Urban Highway 
• Rural Highway
• Surface Treatment 
• Project Delivery
• Commercial Development
• New Development (Residential)
• Sustainability
• Small Contractor Paving
• Airport
• Special Use Pavement
• Golden Oldie
• QC Manager of the Year
• Producer of the Year
• Delivery of Outstanding Transportation Technology and Innovative Engineering (DOTTIE)

The Best in Arizona Asphalt Pavement Awards Program is open to all asphalt users, producers, and contractors. Projects nominated for awards can be submitted by the owner/agency and/or the contractor. Nomination forms are available for download on the consortium website and must be submitted by September 18^th, 2026.

If you have questions, please contact Hasan Ozer at [email protected]

Evaluation Criteria

Overall Appearance
Refers to the uniformity of the materials placed, consistency of appearance, construction quality, texture, workmanship, and the contractor’s attention to detail.

Segregation
Nominations showing segregated areas due to paving operations, raking or broadcasting mix, etc., will be taken into consideration.

Longitudinal Joints
Evaluated as to how straight they are on tangents and how smooth their line is on curves.  They will also be evaluated on how tight they appear and how noticeable they are. In the Urban and Rural Highways, New or Reconstruction, and the Resurfacing Categories, joint density incentives results will be used as part of the judging criteria.

Transverse Joints
Evaluated as to how tight they appear, smoothness across the joint, and how noticeable they appear, and will be considered for both Ride Quality and Joint Construction.

Ride Quality
Ride Quality will be evaluated as the smoothness of the joint between lanes.  Bumps, wheel chatter, and must-grind areas will also be noted. Transverse joints will be evaluated and considered as part of the Ride Quality judging.

Project Size
The size of a project will be used when considering it for a “Best in Arizona” Asphalt Pavement award. It is important to include quantities in section 5C of the nomination.

Complexity/Difficulty
Impacts influencing the constructability, phasing, and overall process of the project will be considered. Elements to be scored include Night Paving, Traffic Impacts, Number of mobilizations required to complete the project, and other on-site considerations.

Plant/Producer
Tonnage produced, percentage of work done for agency versus commercial, and share list of any NAPA Asphalt Production Awards received by the company, or other awards specific to asphalt production received locally. Elements to be scored include environmental outreach with society and sharing some social media posts from the past year, as well as how you educate your customers on the benefits of using asphalt: lunch-and-learn, kickoff meetings, webinars, and/or other events such as site visits.

QC Manager
Tell us about yourself or your staff: credentials, years of experience, average agency pay factors for the past year (isolate a project if it is exceptional), how you coach and mentor your staff, what role does he/she play in your lab and daily work life. Elements to be scored include you/them being a catalyst for progressive change or a bystander waiting for specification changes, engaging clients when confronted with challenges, and recommending possible solutions, etc.