CHAMPIONS CELEBRATE PARTNERING TO THE 2ND POWER
Champions multiplied by two.
Initially named winners of Don Conaway Partnering Awards at this year’s Conaway Conference in late February, the champion teams of contractors and project owners received their hardware and some words of inspiration at a special June ceremony.
This year marked the 11th that Don Conaway Partnering Awards have been given to project members who best meet the attributes of partnering. In his comments to this year’s category, honorable mention and individual partnering winners at the June 15 event at OCA’s headquarters, President Chris Runyan talked about how the importance of the partnering champions goes well beyond the physical trophies that were being presented.
“Partnering needs its champions,” Runyan said. “You talk to individuals around the state, and you hear so often, ‘Oh that’s not working for me,’ or this and that – the negative. But you folks are the example of what it can be, and what it should be, because you have that attitude, that attitude that: ‘We can work together and accomplish this together.’ … We appreciate you being leaders in that regard; we ask that you continue to spread good news about what partnering can do and how it can make your jobs easier and just make it more enjoyable to go to work every day.”
Don Conaway Partnering Award recipients were part of a project in 2022 that:
- Took a proactive approach to partnering as opposed to being reactive
- Utilized the Dispute Resolution Process including Verbal Written Notice
- Solved issues at the project level
- Displayed original minutes from partnering meetings
- Showcased correspondence letters from various project stakeholders complimenting the partnering process
In his comments at the awards presentation, ODOT Director Jack Marchbanks talked of the accolades he hears at national conferences regarding Ohio’s partnering efforts. “We have something in Ohio that other states don’t have,” as he looked around the gathering of project teams and OCA and ODOT officials and staff. “This partnership that we have is more important than ever.
“We are on an infrastructure boom that is going to last at least until the end of the decade if not beyond,” Director Marchbanks said. “So, with the capacity issues, with the expectation issues that have been placed upon us with this extraordinary bi-partisan infrastructure law (Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act) and the funds that it sends our way, we need partnership more than ever. We have to work together. We have to work together in a way that advances the missions that I think we both have – both ODOT and OCA – and that is to leave as our legacy, to the citizens of Ohio, a system that is safe, well-maintained and an accessible system for the future – because that adds to the quality of life …”
In presenting the awards to project members, OCA Director of Public Agency Advocacy Chris Engle discussed the challenges the teams faced on each of the projects and how partnering efforts led to both the innovation and successful completion of the winning projects.
The 2022 Don Conaway Partnering award-winning teams receiving their honors were:
Category 1 (Projects Under $5 million) – Vernon Nagel Inc./ODOT District 1
Category 2 (Projects $5 million-$20 million) – Allard Excavation LLC/ ODOT District 10
Category 3 (Projects more than $20 million) – Kokosing Construction Co. Inc./Michael Baker International (project designer)/ODOT District 12
Local Public Agency (LPA) Projects – Strawser Paving Co./ The Mannik & Smith Group Inc. (project consultant)/ Franklin County Engineers
Honorable Mention – John R. Jurgensen Co./ODOT District 7
Individual Partnering Awards – OCA: Pete Kinzer/Shelly & Sands Inc.
ODOT: Bulent Bilgin, District 4. For more information on these winning partnering efforts see the March-April 2023 issue of Ohio Contractor.
ODOT Deputy Director, Division of Construction Management, Josh Bowman, who with Engle helped co-organize the 2023 Conaway Conference, held February 28-March 1, in Columbus, announced at the June gathering how ODOT and OCA are continually trying to strengthen partnering relationships. “We are open to ideas,” Bowman said. “We’re always looking to update if we can make it better. So, any feedback you can give, we’ll take it.”
Category 1 WinnerVernon Nagel Inc. and ODOT District 1 partnered on the construction of Van Wert County’s first roundabout, which is located at the intersection of U.S. Route 127, U.S. Route 224 and Marsh Road.
Category 2 Winner
Allard Excavation LLC teamed with ODOT District 10 in the major rehabilitation and pavement replacement of nearly five miles of S.R. 7 in Gallia County.
Category 3 Winner
Kokosing Construction Co. Inc. and project designer Michael Baker International partnered with ODOT District 12 in the successful completion of the final phase of Cleveland’s Opportunity Corridor.
LPA Project Winner
Strawser Paving Co., consultant The Mannik & Smith Group Inc. and Franklin County Engineers teamed to win the inaugural LPA Projects award for the reconstruction of the intersection at S.R. 317, London-Groveport Road and Lockbourne Road.
Honorable Mention Winner
John R. Jurgensen Co. and ODOT District 7’s partnering efforts on the major rehabilitation and widening of Interstate 70 from U.S. 68 and S.R. 72 in Clark County was selected honorable mention in this year’s Don Conaway Partnering Awards.