Walbec’s Payne + Dolan (P+D) Michigan team has earned national recognition from NAPA with the 2026 Sheldon G. Hayes Award—one of the asphalt paving industry’s highest honors—for outstanding work on the US 2 reconstruction project in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. This award reflects the exceptional planning, dedication, and teamwork our crews and partners demonstrated from start to finish.
The US 2 project included 17.7 miles of cold milling, crushing, shaping, and resurfacing, completed in October 2024. The team placed 83,822 tons of hot mix asphalt and performed extensive milling and crushing operations, drainage improvements, culvert replacements, and guardrail upgrades.
The results spoke for themselves. Winter maintenance crews reported the pavement was so smooth that snow removal was more difficult than on other road sections. The project achieved Mean Roughness Index (MRI) readings of 30 or less on every lane—well below the incentive threshold of 45—and earned bonuses across all quality categories.
The Mean Roughness Index (MRI) measures pavement smoothness and ride quality. It represents the average of the International Roughness Index (IRI) values from both the left and right wheel paths in a single lane, typically measured in inches per mile or meters per kilometer. A lower MRI indicates a smoother road and better ride quality.
More than 50 Walbec team members worked on site beginning in May 2024, supported by colleagues from our manufacturing, technical services, and business support teams. While construction began in the spring, months of detailed planning laid the foundation for success. Projects of this scale truly take a village.
The team navigated significant challenges, including alternating between asphalt milling and concrete pulverization across 17 different sections, managing trucking logistics with the asphalt plant located 28 miles from the project midpoint, and coordinating work within local ordinance restrictions.
A YEAR TO BE PROUD OF
P+D won for best pavement in the country, and their M-28 project was named a finalist. In addition, Walbec received two Larry H. Lemon Awards, recognizing the top 10 highest-scoring projects with fewer than 50,000 tons of asphalt. Congratulations to Northeast Asphalt (NEA) for their award-winning work on STH 110 (Fremont–Marion) and STH 21 (Redgranite–Oshkosh).