In the heart of Washington’s pulp and paper industry, nestled within a busy Packaging Corporation of America (PCA) mill, Central Paving, LLC recently took on one of its most complex and unconventional jobs to date—and walked away with top honors.
The project? Repaving a railway corridor that couldn’t be shut down, located inside an operating mill that never sleeps. The result? A seamless, precision-executed asphalt surface completed under intense logistical constraints—earning Central Paving the 2025 Paving: Non-Parking Lot Award.
Project Overview: Railway Repaving Without Stopping the Tracks
This wasn’t your average paving project. Unlike a residential driveway or a city parking lot, the PCA mill in Washington runs 24/7, and so does the private rail line embedded within it. The rail system acts as the backbone of operations, shuttling container cars full of pulp in and out like clockwork.
Repaving this area meant working around active rails, navigating mud-like layers of decomposing paper pulp, and coordinating with a mill that simply couldn’t pause production.
“It’s like paving in a swamp made of paper,” said Billy Harrell, account manager at Central Paving. “And we didn’t have the luxury of shutting anything down—we had to work with the schedule, not around it.”
Planning, Precision, and On-the-Fly Problem Solving
To pull this off, Central Paving held multiple strategy sessions ahead of the job, mapping out equipment logistics, crew safety, and material staging. But as often happens in the field, things didn’t go exactly to plan.
After the rail crew prepped the track and laid new ballast, Central Paving’s team was left with tight, uneven spaces that required custom approaches.
Standard paving equipment didn’t always fit, and the paper pulp made for slick, unstable ground conditions. Skid steers with millimeter clearance, material hand-spread in tight gaps, and a ton of improvisation became the name of the game.
“Every time a plan hit a wall, our crew came up with a smarter way to move forward,” Harrell shared. “That’s what made the difference.”
Results That Spoke for Themselves—and Won Industry Recognition
Despite the hurdles, Central Paving not only delivered a finished product that met all operational and structural requirements—they did it on schedule and without disrupting the mill’s daily output.
The final repaved rail corridor now allows PCA’s transport operations to move efficiently and safely through the heart of the facility.
The project’s success didn’t go unnoticed. Central Paving earned the 2025 Paving: Non-Parking Lot Award, a testament to the crew’s adaptability, craftsmanship, and refusal to back down from a tough job.
Tough Jobs, Smart Teams: We’re Built for Projects Like This
At Central Paving, LLC, we don’t shy away from a challenge—we lean into it. Whether it’s a standard paving project or a one-of-a-kind site like this active railway in Washington, we bring the same level of planning, problem-solving, and persistence to every job.
Our team is built to handle:
- Industrial and commercial paving in high-traffic zones
- Milling, overlays, crack sealing, and more—even in limited-access environments
- Tight timelines and complex logistics
Got a job that others think is “too tricky”? That’s exactly the kind of work we’re built for. Reach out to us today at Central Paving, LLC, and let’s figure it out—together.
