Projects Kevin Foxcroft has worked on as a field technician at NCE, for transportation agencies, counties and airports across Nevada, California and the western United States.
San Francisco International Airport — as-needed civil and pavement engineering
Kevin collected pavement thickness cores, ground-penetrating radar data, manual pavement distress surveys and soil samples across the airport. The distress work covered both airside and landside pavements — ASTM D5340 for the former, ASTM D6433 for the latter — using a semi-automated vehicle on runways and taxiways and walking surveys on the aprons.
The data fed SFO's PAVER™ pavement management system, with reports submitted to the Federal Aviation Administration. The wider scope included determining Aircraft Classification Number and Pavement Classification Number values for runways and taxiways, and deflection testing and pavement design in FAARFIELD for Runway 1L/19R and Taxiways E, F and L.
Airfield pavement work runs to the airport's schedule rather than its own. Aprons can often be worked around parked aircraft during the day; runways and taxiways generally cannot, and come available only in short windows overnight.
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Positioning survey points on an apron, alongside live aircraft operations. -
Collecting condition data on airside pavement, working around parked aircraft.
Long Term Pavement Performance
Kevin performed manual distress surveys, coring, profile data collection and falling weight deflectometer testing for the FHWA's long-running pavement performance study. The programme monitors more than 500 roadway segments across 14 highway agencies in the western United States, combining materials sampling, deflection and profile measurement, condition surveys, environmental and GPS data, and dynamic cone penetrometer testing.
It is among the longest-running pavement datasets in the country, and its value depends entirely on every segment being measured the same way, year after year, by people who follow the method exactly.
Virginia Street Bus RAPID Transit Extension
Kevin performed pavement condition surveys, coring and ground-penetrating radar for this $60 million corridor project. NCE prepared the environmental document and the preliminary and final engineering design, extending RAPID service from the 4th Street Station to the University of Nevada, Reno.
The work covered new transit stations, roadway reconstruction, intersection and signal modifications, pedestrian and bicycle improvements, landscaping, lighting, parking and access management, utility relocations and drainage — running along Virginia Street from Plumb Lane to Liberty Street and from Maple Street north of the Lawlor Events Center, plus a dozen connecting streets.
Arrowcreek Parkway rehabilitation
Kevin performed pavement condition surveys and coring for this quarter-mile reconstruction within the City of Reno. NCE's design scope covered topographic mapping, utility investigation, visual pavement condition assessment, coring and soil sampling, pavement design options, final plans and specifications, and right-of-way, bidding and construction support. Improvements included roadway reconstruction, new and replacement sidewalks, pedestrian ramps, signal modifications and drainage inlet work.
Regional pavement condition data collection
Kevin performs pavement condition surveys and assists with semi-automated data collection across three overlapping annual programmes in the Truckee Meadows:
- RTC of Washoe County — over 160 centreline miles of the regional road network, roughly 1,870 sample units inspected each year, feeding the pavement management databases for Washoe County, Reno and Sparks.
- Washoe County — roadway and parking-lot networks, approximately 3,000 sample units a year, including GIS shapefile development and linkage to the management system.
- City of Sparks — the city road network plus regional bike and pedestrian trails, around 1,000 sample units a year.
All three include quality assurance on the collected data, establishing new sample units, and identifying maintenance work that was carried out but never recorded — the gap that quietly corrupts a pavement management system if nobody goes looking for it.
Maintenance Achievement Program data collection
Kevin travelled throughout Nevada assessing pavement and NDOT property to evaluate state assets. NCE conducts the field surveys, collects the data and calculates the level of service achieved through highway maintenance activities, documenting the results for the department.