Washington County Secondary Roads recently accepted an award for the long-term performance of County Road W61, or Riverside Road, from the American Concrete Pavement Association.

The county received the National Lifetime Pavement Recognition Award in 2020 but due to the pandemic County Engineer Jacob Thorius did not accept it on the county’s behalf until the 58th Annual Iowa Concrete Paving Association Workshop held in Des Moines last month. The award is presented to an agency or owner of an in-service concrete pavement that has demonstrated exceptional performance for its state, community, and local users. Thorius commented at a recent board of supervisors meeting that this award is a testament to his and the board’s predecessors and what they had done to help prolong the life of the pavement, “There’s still a stretch of the road which we have not overlaid which was paved in 1963. The last roughly half mile there going into Riverside we did not overlay that stretch because of [the] floodplain. So there’s still original pavement there functioning quite well.”

The original 14-mile pavement on Riverside Road was placed six inches thick and 20 feet wide in 1962 and 1963. Thorius says the road has withstood the tests of time, traffic, and weather, and is a reminder of the county’s long tradition of paving roads with concrete. The 32 foot wide, six inch thick concrete overlays placed on the road in 2018 and 2021 further underscore the county’s tradition of prudent rehabilitation decisions and cements the possibility of 100 years or more of service, with minimal repairs and great value to the county.