The Asphalt Forum

Don't Waste Time When Delivering Asphalt

2011-06-14T14:03:00.000-07:00

By John Ball, Proprietor of Top Quality Paving
From the April/May issue of AsphaltPro Magazine

It bears repeating: we work with a perishable product. When a haul truck leaves the asphalt plant with a load for the paver, the driver of that truck needs to take the most direct and timely route to the work zone as possible. There shouldn’t be stops along the way for coffee or even tank fill-ups. The foreman on the project has calculated the day’s yield based on many factors, including how long each truck will take to complete the circuit from loadout to loadout.

As I’ve outlined in AsphaltPro Magazine before, on a perfect day, it takes 3 minutes for the truck to get loaded at the plant, another 3 minutes to pick up the loadout ticket and get the tarp in place. If the work zone is 15 miles from the plant, you can figure it’ll probably take the truck 20 minutes to get from point A to point B. It should take another 20 minutes for the truck to back into position, charge the hopper in an even manner and move to the designated area for a quick clean-out. It’s 20 minutes back to the plant and 4 minutes in line to loadout.

That kind of calculation is valuable to the foreman and others on the paving crew. Truck drivers need to be educated as to why a mess-up in that schedule is detrimental to the crew’s success.

One of the problems a driver creates if he performs maintenance items or personal business during the route is getting trucks out of number order. The foreman wants to keep the trucks in sequence to keep the mat temperature consistent. Truck 4 should not bypass Trucks 2 and 3 on the way to the paving site because this sets up the crew for mix temperature and compaction variations behind the paver.

If a truck driver thinks he or she needs to stop for fuel, which would take the truck out of sequence, the foreman needs to tell him that fueling is a house-keeping item to address when the bed is empty. Fuel up before the shift or, if necessary, on the way back to the plant. A truck that takes too long getting to the site and is too far out of sequence suddenly has a load of expensive RAP to haul back to the plant.

Another idea I recommend is traveling the route before the project begins. If the foreman can assess traffic patterns and when interruptions in traffic patterns might cause asphalt delivery delays, he can adjust the route haul trucks take during peak traffic times or set up an alternate route altogether.

For instance, if the most direct route between the plant and the work zone takes drivers past a school that experiences heavy bus and carpooling traffic—not to mention children on foot—at regular times in the morning and afternoon, the foreman may suggest a different route that is less direct, but more timely and more comfortable for the community. Maybe the foreman can arrange the paving schedule so deliveries aren’t necessary during the affected hours of peak traffic. Whatever scenario you arrange, taking a pre-project drive of the delivery route will ease the foreman’s mind and set the haul truck drivers up for success.

Tracking haul trucks has become easier with all the GPS products on the marketplace today. I’ve mentioned Minds Inc. before. Navman Wireless—featured on page 38 of the April/May issue—is another company with GPS tracking software for fleets. These and other companies offer products that give owners the ability to check on truck staging and timing. When a haul truck reaches the plant, the foreman can receive a ring on his phone. He gets another ring when the truck departs. When the truck stops, the GPS lets the system know. Truck drivers get paid by the hour, so GPS tracking can help cut wasted time and money in some situations, and definitely help track the cycle of our perishable product and its best window of opportunity for perfect laydown and compaction.

Tags: AsphaltPro Magazine, Asphalt Pro Magazine, John Ball, trucking, hauling, GPS

Vote to Extend Now Rather than Later

2011-06-02T13:00:00.000-07:00

by AsphaltPro Magazine Editor Sandy Lender

I’m a pretty optimistic person. I do ascribe to the theory that “only the paranoid survive,” but that’s more of a survival mantra than a viewpoint. When it comes to the transportation funding options floating around Congress these days, I’d say my take on things mirrors a mix of paranoia, preparation, hope, prayer, survival plans—a cornucopia of caution, if you will. When it comes to Congress, I don’t often feel comfortable.

For instance, Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) is what I’d call a loon.

She presented a nearly $340 billion plan ($339.2B over six years to be precise) for surface transportation legislation from her Senate Environment and Public Works Committee last week that would authorize funding for six years. The mind-boggling aspect of her plan, given all the talk of the Highway Trust Fund an

d reliable funding during the past few YEARS, is its lack of funding suggestions.

The woman went on record saying that’s the Finance Committee’s job.

Really, Babs? Can no one follow through anymore? Does no one take responsibility for the schemes they create? You sound like Ray LaHood. (with less whining)

As if the $340B price tag—and its football-field-size gap from what The House has been murmuring about—isn’t enough to make a reader stop and say, “Wait, will that pass in today’s climate?” here’s something else of interest she’s suggested for state departments of transportation (DOTs) that are trying to make long-term plans concerning development, redevelopment and repair.

Borrow what you need.

Thousands of former homeowners can comment on this option. Boxer recently joined the cheerleading squad to expand TIFIA (the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act). This act gives low-interest loans to states for their federal transportation projects. Apparently, Congress has magically increased TIFIA’s lending power from $122 million annually to $1 billion annually. Boxer encourages state DOTs to get on board the housing market—I mean the transportation market train now to take care of their long-term projects.

Look, no one has the crystal-encrusted magic wand that makes all members of Congress—especially the freshmen members who don’t think they have a stake in transportation legislation—suddenly work in blissful harmony to pass a highway authorization bill within the next four to six months.

Senator Boxer has done her Democrat best to present a plan for which someone else will need to prep a funding plan, and John Mica (R-Fla.) will need to raise his sights to reality to get a little closer to her plan. Then everyone else will need to work in concert to draft a bill that gives the transportation industry the money and the confidence it needs to repair the infrastructure that’s been floundering during the highway bill extensions the past couple of years and to build the roadways that ease congestion (thus pollution) and assist economic recovery where necessary.

If no one in Congress thinks that bill can pass in the next four months, they should go ahead and vote for the SAFETEA-LU extension now, rather than waiting for it to come up to its next deadline in September. Then state DOTs can at least plan for the immediate future and immediate, emergency needs.

(Opinions are those of AsphaltPro Magazine Editor Sandy Lender.)
Tags: AsphaltPro Magazine, Asphalt Pro Magazine, Highway Trust Fund, Highway Bill, TIFIA

Put the Phone Down

2011-06-02T12:48:00.000-07:00

(from the April/May 2011 Editor's Note in AsphaltPro Magazine)

Smart phones bring a new level of control and communication to the foreman on the paving site. With today’s fleet tracking telematics, the foreman or supervisor can touch a button on the phone’s screen and see any number of facts about the haul trucks and tonnages en route to his project.

Think the clouds on the horizon look ominous? Hit the weather app and check into it.

We could brainstorm a hundred reasons to have a smart phone, an iPad and/or walkie talkies on the paving site including communication with the plant operator, DOT inspectors, dispatchers, quality control personnel and other crew members who aren’t close at hand. Those are wise uses of technology for ground personnel at the plant or foremen out on the road.

But smart phones have weaseled their way into dangerous positions in our work zones, too. From paver operators to the folks driving 33-plus horsepower compaction equipment through the work zone, construction personnel are taking risks by playing with technology toys at the worst of times.

When you’re in the control house, on the paver, on the roller, in a haul truck or working in any construction-related capacity, the last thing you need to be doing is sending text messages or visiting with buddies on the phone. You might think you can multi-task with the best of them, but you’re slowing your reaction time and dividing your focus.

I ask you to stop that.

Four or five years ago, would you have stopped the paver at a rest stop, hopped down while it was still running, and made a personal phone call to your wife or CPA or fishing buddy from the pay phone next to the rest room? Of course not.

To leave a paver running while unattended is unheard of. So why would you run a roller while talking on a cell phone to a friend? Why would you run a paver while texting your picks for the next fight to your bookie? Why would you risk quality or safety by dividing your attention between the job you’re being paid an hourly wage to do and personal riffraff?

Don’t try to justify unsafe practices by texting about work, either. If you have information about the equipment you’re operating, the mix you’re laying or the mat you’re compacting to communicate to a supervisor, there are signals in place to get that information across.

Since the dawn of paving, we’ve used flags, lights, whistles, hand signals and our voices to communicate more efficiently than putting a phone to our ears amid the engine noise on a paving project.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood may irritate the stuffins out of me when it comes to his policies on high speed rail and funding, but I have to agree with him on his push to get cell phones out of drivers’ hands. Distracted driving too often results in deaths and injuries that could so easily be prevented. Let’s not get into the habit of distracted paving.

Stay Safe
Sandy Lender (sandy at theasphaltpro dot com)

Tags: AsphaltPro Magazine, Asphalt Pro Magazine, distracted driving, distracted paving, cell phone, communication, smart phone

Don't Lie to Me

2011-06-02T12:38:00.000-07:00

(from the March 2011 Editor's Note in AsphaltPro Magazine)

I’m sure there are honest people within the concrete paving industry. I wonder if they’re as irritated as I am by their industry’s misrepresentation of information about our respective pavement products.

I’ve complained in this column before about the Portland Cement Association’s use of incorrect assumptions in their lifecycle cost analyses when comparing asphalt and concrete pavement thicknesses. PCA members didn’t appear interested in facts and figures from members of the Asphalt Institute to make corrections to their equations, so their software remains flawed. The Asphalt Pavement Alliance has since released realistic lifecycle cost analysis software, which can be accessed at http://asphaltroads.org/.

At the 56th annual meeting of the National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA) in Orlando in early February, presenters showed ads from a $1 to $2 million campaign the concrete industry launched against the asphalt industry last year. It’s frustrating to see an ad in which someone claims asphalt pavements fail in a certain number of years. (It sort of makes their lifecycle cost analysis efforts look silly.)

On a bright note, Howard Marks of NAPA shared a slide in which the actual carbon footprint of HMA sat comfortably on a level just slightly higher than the carbon footprint of WMA with 20 percent RAP. Both were at less than 500 CO₂e for the 50-year lifecycle of the pavement. It’s impressive to see how little energy asphalt production requires. On that same slide, there was a tall tower of color that represented the carbon footprint of PCC. It was at nearly 2,000 CO₂e for the same lifecycle of the pavement.

Holy cow.

I didn’t realize how bad it was. So I did some research and found a disturbing quote from a May 24, 2009, article at ScienceDaily.com. “Many scientists currently think at least 5 percent of humanity’s carbon footprint comes from the concrete industry…” The article explained that civil and environmental engineering professor Liv Haselbach of Washington State University is evaluating the lifecycle carbon footprint of traditional and new concrete applications, and looking for ways to improve them.

Apparently, they need improvement because the PCC folks are making up concepts like “feedstock energy” to try and make asphalt pavements appear as bad as the concrete industry’s product. According to the collective minds in the concrete industry, the “feedstock” known as petroleum that becomes entrapped in an asphalt pavement is supposed to remain flammable after its entrapment, thus remain capable of emitting bad stuff. Apparently, if you retract the asphalt from the pavement and burn it—and by doing this alone—you can bring an asphalt pavement’s carbon footprint “up” to a concrete pavement’s carbon footprint.

You can also make a concrete pavement appear to save on fuel use if you coast downhill on it. Real physics tells us that smooth pavements cut fuel use—thus costs. Real physics, and profilographs, tells us that asphalt pavements are smoother than concrete pavements. Those are facts that can’t be removed by the guise of coasting downhill and publishing the findings in some PR campaign. If we must find something nice to say about that, I guess it would be that by costing the end user more in fuel dollars, the concrete industry is contributing more substantially to the gas tax than the asphalt industry.

I again invite you to visit http://asphaltroads.org/ to download the free publication “Carbon Footprint: How Does Asphalt Stack Up?” and other items researchers have prepared. These white papers and publications will give you real-world facts and figures you can quote when someone outside of our industry misrepresents information. I find that arming myself with facts and information with which to correct others lessens my irritation.

Stay Safe
Sandy Lender (sandy at theasphaltpro dot com)

Tags: Asphaltpro Magazine, Asphalt Pro Magazine, lifecycle cost, carbon footprint

What Comes After CONEXPO?

2011-02-18T06:25:00.000-08:00

(From the February 2011 editor's note in The AsphaltPro Magazine)

This issue of The AsphaltPro Magazine is dedicated to two things: technology and CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2011. I’ve noticed that, similar to the turn of a new century, winding up to CONEXPO sends the construction industry into a sort of burst of technological advancement. There’s more on that concept in this issue’s technology roundup article “Automate Your Production Control” on page 18, so I’d like to concentrate on the “event” side of things here.

With technology and automation comes the promise of doing things more efficiently, more quickly, with better quality, with better control, with precision and with confidence. Whether it’s mixing asphalt at the plant, loading it safely from the silo, tracking it by the minute from Point A to Point Z, or placing it at the perfect depth and rolling it to the perfect density, there’s an app for that. What I wonder is will there be a need for that?

What are we going to do after the excitement of CONEXPO dies down and we all stare at the messes in our research & development departments. Technology has been on everyone’s collective mind as we rush toward the deadline of March 22—and much earlier if you’re shipping the final product out to a stand in Vegas.

Drayage invoices and credit card statements make for a financial hangover that puts corporate bosses in a foul mood. They don’t feel so technologically-motivated after CONEXPO, do they? Who carries the load then? Who’s going to come up with the next great idea that provides a super funding idea for the transportation construction industry?

Ah, yes. After CONEXPO, we still have to fight for our right to support the nation. The President’s State of the Union address Jan. 25 suggested he’s all for taking care of our crumbling infrastructure. He’s all about getting people back to work fixing our roads, bridges and transportation network.

The problem is he’s got this grand idea that we can do all that and build a bunch of high-speed trains that few people are interested in while Congress is going behind our backs with secret ballots to appropriate federal highway funds for whatever special need they come up with. AEM’s Dennis Slater and AASHTO’s John Horsley can get up the morning after such a speech and say they’ll hold the President accountable for his promises (and they did), but who in this country believes that man can get anything besides stump speeches done in the next two years?

It’s Congress we have to appeal to.

It’s Congress we have to write to.

It’s Congress that has to create a reliable highway bill this spring.

It’s Congress that has to pass a strong, fully funded highway bill that contains provisions that keep special interest groups—such as Congress—from undercutting the Highway Trust Fund on a whim.

It’s Congress that we have to get in touch with and get in touch with right now.

You all saw the timeline Jay Hansen outlined in this magazine in December. Get on the ball! The President releases his budget in early February, about the time this magazine hits the streets. By the time dandelions start blooming in the cracks in your concrete sidewalks, Congress needs to have a transportation authorization bill drafted. That’s not a lot of time for members of this job-creating force of ours to get ideas in front of the drafters.

Have you informed your representatives of just how important it is to improve roads and highways? As sad as it sounds, you also have to inform them of how important it is to guarantee funding for improving those roads and highways so your state can make long-term, realistic, efficient plans. Stop-gap measures don’t cut it anymore. This is where we put technology and intelligence to work.

I asked you what we do after CONEXPO. We can’t wait until after CONEXPO. You and I have to pick up the phone today. After CONEXPO, what does all our fancy technology matter?

Stay Safe,
Sandy Lender (sandy at theasphaltpro dot com)
Tags: AsphaltPro Magazine, Asphalt Pro Magazine, Federal Highway Funding, CONEXPO-CON/AGG, automation, technology

Let's Sue Someone in 2011

2011-02-18T06:13:00.000-08:00

(from the January 2011 editor's note in The AsphaltPro Magazine)

A new year always rings in with people asking what your New Year’s Resolution will be. I find that irritating 99 percent of the time. As a magazine editor, I have goals and deadlines every day of my life. As a member of the asphalt industry, I have additional goals that involve legislation and letters to city planners. Why would I add more? One of the goals I’d like to specify this January is to talk less about this obnoxious funding issue we’ve been facing the past few years. Aren’t you sick of it? Aren’t you ready for a big ol’ lawsuit to put it to rest?

Think about it.

Roads need to be fixed. The entities that own the roads must be responsible for fixing them or the motorists getting injured are going to sue the pants off those entities. (Pardon my glibness; it’s a function of my frustration with the subject.) I have to believe that once the first multi-million dollar lawsuit hits the courts for a federally-funded highway that didn’t get federally fixed because Congress couldn’t gets its collective act together on funding, we’ll see faster action. What’s the saying? It takes money to make money. For our purposes, I think it takes a discussion of loss of money to make money.

Perhaps that’s cynical, but it’s better than sending zombies from the concrete industry’s ill-planned pollutant-reactions to frighten our representatives into passing meaningful legislation. (See last month’s editorial column.)

I mean, the House did vote in a landslide 212 to 206 victory to approve H.R. 3082 back on Dec. 8, which would have continued appropriations for all of FY11. That means all federal government operations, including federal surface transportation and aviation programs, would get extended authorization through Sept. 30. Status quo, people. Status quo. That should be good enough for government work. Then the Senate stepped in and said, “wait, we’d like to add these 7,000 special items right here.” Enter government progress, right?

So we ended up with more hashing and re-hashing of the same old argument about spending and money and funding and earmarks. In the end, the continuing resolution will only carry our working government through March 4. Name one state DOT that can plan with that.

James Oberstar, ousted rep from Minnesota, got up Dec. 8 to say he’d rather we were voting to approve an adequate transportation bill that funds a real highway plan. Amen, Brother! As stated on the http://transportation.house.gov website, Oberstar stated that H.R. 3082:

• rescinds all remaining highway earmarks designated in the Surface Transportation and Uniform Relocation Assistance Act of 1987 (STURAA) (P.L. 100-17);

• rescinds all remaining highway earmarks designated in the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA) (P.L. 102-240);

• rescinds all highway projects designated in the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA 21) (P.L. 105-178) that have not obligated at least 10 percent of the funds authorized for the project; and

• rescinds all High Priority Project program funds authorized by the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU) (P.L. 109-59) that were not designated for use on a specific project.

What’s left? Apparently, we have $42.3 billion for federal-aid highway programs and $10.5 billion for federal transit programs. I think we’re all aware that that’s not enough to maintain the current system, let alone allow DOTs to plan ahead for serious maintenance projects or congestion-relief projects down the line.

It looks like 2011 is going to be another spot-check kind of year for industry. I encourage you to call on your Congressmen about funding, but I’m sick and tired of harping on it. I don’t want to spend the next nine months of FY11 haranguing readers to do what should have been done two years ago. This industry needed a long-term authorization plan, and a reliable system to pay for it, long before H.R. 3082 rescinded items and offered meager droppings from Congress’s table. If you’ve not already made the decision to participate in this May’s legislative fly-in to discuss this with your representatives, I can’t imagine a few sarcastic comments in my frustrated editorial column will convince you that you need to add it to your calendar.

Maybe you need to fall back to Plan B: Find someone who’s already had an accident or lost a loved one on a deteriorated federal roadway. Convince them to sue the pants off one of those Congressmen.

Let’s get to work.

Stay Safe,
Sandy Lender (sandy at theasphaltpro dot com)
Tags: AsphaltPro Magazine, Asphalt Pro Magazine, Federal Highway Funding

New Concrete Additive Triggers Zombie Apocalypse

2011-02-11T11:05:00.000-08:00

(from the December 2010 Editor's Note in AsphaltPro Magazine)

"It’s just interesting to theorize about the displacement of decomposed pollutant products from a chemical reaction within a concrete pavement." -Sandy Lender, AsphaltPro Editor

This is an editorial column, so I hope everyone sees this use of dramatic license as humorous. I guess I could have saved it for April 1st but this is the fourth annual State of the Industry issue of AsphaltPro and we should discuss what the competition is up to. Apparently, the Portland Cement Association (PCA) as a collective is preparing to release toxic decomposed organic compounds into the air and groundwater of densely populated communities as the association’s pavements erode, crack and fail during the next decade, slowly turning us into the walking dead.

By the time PCA officials complete this insidious plan, all DOT engineers will have been brainwashed into believing they helped the environment, when in fact they sped society’s eventual collapse by bringing about a zombie apocalypse. I wonder if anyone at MoDOT suspects they’re spurring the end of civilized society in the United States. See the fact-oriented, related article on page 24 and note the integrity of MoDOT to cooperate with AsphaltPro to get information to you about the Ladue Road/photocatalytic concrete project. My hat’s off to the gentlemen there for helping me present just the facts.

As most zombie-causing infectious diseases do, the concept of smog-eating concrete starts with intelligent science. Researchers in Europe have put Titanium dioxide (TiO2) in concrete. This ultra white pigment makes the concrete very pretty.

TiO2 also causes a chemical reaction within the concrete when exposed to ultraviolet light. Here’s where the zombie movie picks up speed and audience members lean forward in their seats.

The chemical reaction takes place between ultra-ickies from the air (like dirt, soot, mold, etcetera) and the TiO2. The “bad” reactants break down—decompose—but the TiO2 is supposed to remain unharmed and ready for more pollutants from the air to settle on the pavement and get caught in its wily web.

To be honest, that’s pretty cool. But where do the products of the chemical reaction within the pavement go? According to Italian research (Ground Zero in zombie apocalypse terms), the concrete matrix traps the decomposed toxins.

Once again, that’s pretty cool. But there’s a catch. We all know concrete spawls. We all know concrete fails. We all know concrete has those obnoxious bumps every few yards where water gets in and causes the rebar to rust and expand and send cracks up to the surface. We all know concrete has to be “fixed.” As the concrete fails, the decomposed pollutants do what? And, of course, some products of the chemical reaction, by the photocatalytic concrete pavement’s design, wash down and away.

I theorize that these decomposed pollutants escape into the ground water (by design) and into the air (through pavement failures) on a regular basis and en masse during a pavement’s reconstruction. This is the part of the movie where somebody on-screen breathes too deeply, convulses and starts eating his fellow construction worker’s brain. Someone in the audience screams and tosses popcorn. The camera pans to a bloodied hard hat on the ground.

Of course this whole editorial column is designed to be a bit corny. No zombies will rise up from the use of photocatalytic concrete pavements. It’s just interesting to theorize about the displacement of decomposed pollutant products from a chemical reaction within a concrete pavement. If smog suddenly defies its natural tendency to float skyward, that is. I mean…does it settle onto pavements? There’s a funneling trick I’d like to see.

I’m off to buy an industrial-strength can opener and more ammo for just in case! In the meantime, I wish you all a lovely holiday season devoid of monsters and filled with family and friends. May you have a peaceful and prosperous 2011.

Stay Safe,
Sandy Lender, Editor (sandy @ theasphaltpro dot com)
Tags: AsphaltPro Magazine, Asphalt Pro Magazine, concrete, additive, Titanium dioxide", zombies, zombie apocalypse

Have You Renewed?

2011-02-11T10:48:00.000-08:00

(from the November 2010 Editor's Note in The AsphaltPro Magazine)

Funny. This note is NOT about recycling (or this month’s automation and technology theme). This note is about subscribing. Let me give you a short story that’s directly related to my point.

In my non-asphalt life, I write fiction. One of the most prominent magazines in my second career is called Realms of Fantasy (ROF). That magazine went under a couple years ago and a great outcry from the fantasy fiction community was heard around the world. A new publisher took up the reins immediately, and ROF had new life. They depend on both subscriptions and advertising to pay the bills. It has ample advertising support, but far too many readers believe it’s still defunct. The editorial board provided an awesome review of my second novel in their June 2010 issue, but I wonder how many readers saw it. They need more subscribers to sign up for the magazine.

Now let’s apply that story to the print version of your asphalt industry resource. AsphaltPro is advertiser-supported, so we get to mail it to you free of charge if you reside in the United States, Canada or Mexico. Overseas subscriptions are another ballgame, but we still get it to you.

The thing is, we have a similar concern to ROF. We need subscribers to fill out a subscription card (found in every issue of AsphaltPro) to receive the magazine so we can prove to our advertisers that folks out there know we exist and read our pages.

You and I know readers are paying attention to AsphaltPro content. You call me on the phone. You send me notes—both e-mail and snail mail. You grab my arm at tradeshows and annual meetings to tell me about something you read in the magazine that you used at the plant or in the lab or on the paving site (such as the IC or plant controls articles in this month’s automation and technology issue).

Folks, that stuff makes my day!

But marketing reps can’t convince their bosses to advertise in a magazine based on the editor sharing anecdotes. We have to prove that you’ve sent in a signed subscription card. Gone are the days when people merely trust each other.

Isn’t that a shame?

If you enjoy AsphaltPro, fill out the subscription card in this magazine and send it back to us with your signature on it so we have it on file. If you have to share your issue of AsphaltPro with someone else in your company, fill out the card in this magazine to get your own copy. Maybe you want a lab tech or maintenance crew member in your company to get a copy; fill out the form for him or her. AsphaltPro makes an inexpensive Christmas present. (Although you probably ought to get him or her a Hickory Farms basket, too.)

If someone has already used the card in this issue, visit our website at www.theasphaltpro.com and click on the “Subscribe Now” link to fill out the form online. We’ll set you up with your own free subscription and we’ll be able to prove to the world what you and I already know.

Stay Safe,
Sandy Lender, Editor (sandy @ theasphaltpro dot com)
Tags: AsphaltPro Magazine, Asphalt Pro Magazine, subscriptions

The Man Said No

2010-10-28T11:48:00.000-07:00

With a concept similar to what state DOTs have dealt with for the past couple of years, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie made a decision this week. He decided not to move forward with the Access to the Region’s Core (ARC) project.

ARC was a large, multi-billion-dollar rail tunnel project that would move commuters from New York to New Jersey and back again. The published goal was to reduce congestion.

While that’s a nice goal, it left me with a few questions concerning its proposed drop-off points. I felt sympathy for the taxpayers who wanted New York’s DOT to foot a commensurate amount of the bill with New York’s benefits from the project, and with those who wanted more important stops added to the train’s destination. It looked as though political haggling would then delay a project that the higher-ups needed to ramrod through right away.

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, who seems more interested in where we have our hands when we’re driving than where we’ll get funding for making roads safer, made a special plea to Governor Christie earlier in October to keep the project alive. You see, the feds were only paying part of the bill, yet seemed to hang their political hats on the project’s success.

According to the Oct. 27 post on TransportationNation.org bemoaning Christie’s economic decision and giving LaHood yet another place to whine, “FTA does not require cash commitments to deal with such contingencies, and only requires that a project sponsor identify a non-Federal funding stream that could be called upon to cover contingency costs.”

Apparently, Christie didn’t want to search for additional funding streams. He didn’t want the offered loan from the USDOT Railroad and Rehabilitation Improvement Financing program. He didn’t want to set up a public-private partnership assuming some of the risk.

I wonder if he figured he’d be looking for streams to fund the drying federal well. Think about it. If you’re counting on funds from an unreliable national trough, why move forward with a $9 billion-plus project that someone has already said might creep over the $10 billion mark if a few small bits and pieces go awry?

So Governor Christie has made a sound business decision based on what all 50 states have been basing infrastructure decisions on for the past couple of years: lack of long-term funding reliability from the top. Where’s the reauthorization plan to back up the infrastructure plan LaHood wants Christie to sign off on? Ain’t seen it yet.

Let’s get a long-term authorization plan for transportation infrastructure in place before we badmouth the planners for not planning ahead. The project that Christie had no confidence in could have reduced congestion. It could have provided jobs and stimulated the economy exponentially because that’s what construction projects do. But construction projects don’t materialize out of thin air. They require reliable funding sources. I think Governor Christie gets that.

Tags: ARC, Governor Christie, reauthorization, federal highway funding

AP Website Delivers the How-to Industry Resource You’ve Been Waiting For

2010-10-13T07:29:00.000-07:00

(from the October 2010 Editor's Note in AsphaltPro Magazine)

Let’s face it: when creative minds get together, they tend to overproduce a project. I think that’s one of the reasons people roll their eyes when you suggest forming a committee to work on something. Committees tend to slow progress. For AsphaltPro magazine, we’ve been working on a creative project off and on for three years—our website. Here’s where the committee comes in.

The staff at AsphaltPro is more than the Chris Harrison-Sally Shoemaker-Sandy Lender team that you’ve known for years and met at tradeshows and state association meetings. While the three of us have our experience in publishing and the asphalt industry to recommend us for building a first-class asphalt business website, we also have our creative sides that recommend us for building something aesthetically pleasing.

Then we have two artists in our headquarters office who can build, create and design in their sleep! Combined, the staff has 62 years in magazine publishing (more than 33 of it specifically in the asphalt industry). That’s a lot of creative juices. Add in a whole company in our headquarters town that designs websites for a living and I think you get the picture.

I don’t mind telling you that the team has pulled out a lot of hair over the website project. We wanted something that looked full, yet clean and easy to navigate. We wanted something filled with content and useful information, yet quick to load. We wanted something that complemented the print magazine, yet didn’t compete with it and certainly wasn’t redundant. I can’t tell you how annoyed I get with magazine sites that merely regurgitate their print information. Why would I pay for one when the other is free? Why would I support the murder of innocent trees to have a magazine sent to my home if the editor’s just going to put the information up on a website a week or two after it arrives? That’s stupid and irresponsible. I have no patience for it.

Creative minds want to build something superior to that.

So we did.

I present to you: TheAsphaltPro.com.

Of course there are departments and articles that bear regurgitation. But it doesn’t take an outside expert to tell us that magazine readers and web readers tolerate different styles. We’ve edited our content for the web to make it user-friendly. When you visit http://www.theasphaltpro.com/, you’re not going to be stuck in front of a monitor trying to read tiny type in magazine format. No…I give classes on website and blog development and intelligent online social media use. I’ll be presenting this kind of marketing information at CONEXPO-CON/AGG in March to assist contractors and producers to use their online presence effectively.

We know what we’re doing at AsphaltPro not just in the asphalt arena, not just in the magazine publishing arena, but also in the website presentation arena. Now we’re offering a pleasing, informative, useful website to the masses. I invite you to visit http://www.theasphaltpro.com/ often for updates and information that impacts your bottom line. Then be sure to send me a note about the site’s efficacy. Let me know what else we can add to the site or to this blog to enhance your business.
Stay Safe,
Sandy Lender (sandy @ theasphaltpro dot com)

Tags: AsphaltPro Magazine, Asphalt Pro Magazine, website, launch, CONEXPO-CON/AGG

What Nice Rhetoric You Offer, Mr. President

2010-09-09T07:37:00.000-07:00

By Sandy Lender, Editor, AsphaltPro

At a Labor Day celebration earlier this week, President Obama unveiled a surprise for road-builders. He has a six-year plan for re-building roads and rail. Apparently, he doesn’t have a plan to PAY for re-building roads and rail, but he’d like to see us fix up 150,000 miles of road and put down 4,000 miles of track.

Not too shabby.

I’d like to suggest to my boss, whom many of you know, that we just hire some extra editorial staff, bump up the pages of AsphaltPro to about 102 per issue, add three safety features per issue, and tack on some producer and contractor profiles per issue so we can showcase more “here’s how your peers can help you succeed” information. Wouldn’t that be cool? Who cares how it gets paid for!? My plan is what’s important. Now aren’t all you readers behind me? You’d help me get the extra staff elected, right?

Not too shabby.

The fact of the matter is 20 percent of the construction industry is out of work right now. Fact check that at any unemployment, ARRA, or construction resource you like. We’ve all got the same figures. During President Obama’s speech Monday, he called it “nearly one in five construction workers.” (For non-industry readers visiting the blog, that number will see its seasonal increase this winter.) The scary thing is this: folks are afraid of how we’re going to pay to keep roads and bridges safe, thus the 80 percent of workers employed right now and the President’s strategy for transportation are endangered.

I think it would help if we could get it through representatives’ minds that user fees and taxes are different beasts, and they need to educate their constituents on that fact. Here’s an example:

I have a friend named Joe who owns a small red car. Joe purchases gas for that car regularly, thus pays a user fee for the Highway Trust Fund. Joe has a friend whom we’ll call Pete who does not own a car. Pete does not have a driver’s license. (Pete isn’t a conspiracy theorist, but he does live “off the grid,” if you catch my drift. In fact, I’m not using his real name.) Pete never pays the user fee for the Highway Trust Fund because Pete does not buy gas to walk around on our sidewalks and streets. When Pete has a doctor appointment in Miami, he borrows Joe’s little red car and has a friend, whom we’ll call Dolores, drive him across the state. At that time, Pete buys gas for the car. He’s using the system and paying the user fee that day.

Do you see? The gasoline user fee is not a tax. Pete doesn’t pay it when he’s not using it. Neither does anyone else who opts to ride a bike or walk around or take free transportation.

Is that how we’ll pay for the President’s new transportation strategy? Or will Congress, already hesitant to talk about “taxes,” shoot it down? You can visit NAPA's site to get more information. Also check out a popular Congressional opinion on tax increases.

Tags: AsphaltPro Magazine, Asphalt Pro Magazine, Federal Highway Funding, transportation, user fee

Give Us Something We Can Rely On

2010-08-25T15:38:00.000-07:00

(from the August/September 2010 Editor's Note of AsphaltPro Magazine)

For quite some time now I’ve suggested that raising the gasoline user fee to supplement the Highway Trust Fund would be problematic. I’ve encouraged members of the asphalt industry to write in with their ideas for funding; I’ve offered some painful ideas of my own. Now, I’m disappointed to say, the secretary of transportation has made what I consider an irresponsible announcement for someone in his position by stating “raising the gas tax is not an option.”

How dare he slam that door?

He’s falling back on the already disproved concept of toll roads and the not-yet-disproved Obama plan for highway funding. I cringe. I assume I don’t have to explain to the AsphaltPro audience the problems with relying on tolls for funding—or the sudden detriment to parallel corridors and those corridors’ pavement maintenance plans when tolls are set in place.

We can all agree the current gasoline user fee doesn’t cover Highway Trust Fund needs. You don’t need me to tell you it’s been losing “currency” for years due to inflation and, more recently, due to fewer miles driven and ethanol additives, etc.

What the trust fund needs is a good shot in the arm with a cost-of-living tax hike. Whether or not such a beast can be conjured during this economy is for the pundits to debate. Although I have an opinion on the matter that’s south of positive, I’m not ready to go down without a fight. There are people who can read a graph, if you present it to them logically. There are people who will understand that the gasoline user fee is a deficit-neutral item that is truly a user fee. If you don’t use the road today, you don’t pay the fee on gasoline today. It’s pretty simple.

Unfortunately, the loss of the gasoline user fee’s effectiveness coupled with Congress’s inaction on a long-term reauthorization bill has gutted infrastructure planning and expenditures. Jay Hansen of NAPA pointed out during a transportation coalition webinar at the end of July that this means highway jobs and conditions are at risk. Jobs are at risk to the tune of 870,000 people over the next two years. That’s something your representatives need to know. They have a chance to save their constituents’ jobs if they’ll just get on the ball and get a user fee increase and a reauthorization bill taken care of.

While we’re on the topic, Congress has bandied about a new transportation bill that throws another $4 billion on top of the expired SAFETEA-LU’s allotted monies. Again, where does the funding come from? We love to see Congress finally give attention to an industry that can rescue the economy and create lasting jobs from one end of the construction spectrum to the other, but we must enforce the idea that this industry of superheroes deserves to have a strong, reliable, lasting bank account behind it. Congress needs to put in place not just the rosy idea of planned projects that make a safe, positive transportation infrastructure, but also the resources that make the building of those very real and solid projects possible.

We must enforce the idea that long-term planning at the state level happens when agencies and owners can rely on the money promised in a transportation bill. The bill must be lasting, it must be stable, it must be adequate for the times. Otherwise, a soft and mushy set of half-plans and half-promises leaves unsteady work orders on tap. What Congress must do is deliver a strong and reliable bill backed by a strong and reliable funding stream so we, as an industry, can deliver a strong and reliable work force with strong and reliable infrastructure for the future.

Have you shared this message with your representatives? Do they know how important their actions are when it comes to transportation funding legislation? I encourage you to fill them in. Please visit NAPA’s website to download toolkits for contacting your representatives. Also, be sure to take advantage of the brief window you have with your representatives while they’re in their home districts as this issue of AsphaltPro hits your desk. They return to Washington soon and you can reach them in their offices there after Sept. 13.

Stay Safe,
Sandy Lender
Tags: AsphaltPro Magazine, Asphalt Pro Magazine, Highway Funding, reauthorization

Highway Funding from a Local POV

2010-08-25T15:14:00.000-07:00

Your AsphaltPro Magazine editor, Sandy Lender, was invited to prepare an article for a Southwest Florida magazine, Business Currents, on the topic of highway funding after ranting about the Kerry-Lieberman American Power Act to the editor one evening. (You will find information about the Kerry-Lieberman bill in the posts below.)

If you're interested, you can read the locally-slanted piece titled "Highway Funding Affects You, Your Clients" at the Greater Naples Chamber of Commerce website, or try this shortened URL:

http://tinyurl.com/SandyHwyFunding

Tags: AsphaltPro Magazine, Asphalt Pro Magazine, Sandy Lender, Highway Funding

Sammy Hagar Funding Initiative

2010-07-02T08:38:00.000-07:00

(from the June/July 2010 Editor's Note of AsphaltPro Magazine)
I ask you to bear with me for just a moment while I plagiarize Sammy Hagar.

Go on & write me up for 125
Post my face, wanted dead or alive
Take my license & all that jive
I can’t drive 55!

(Many thanks go out to Steve Jackson of NB West Contracting, Missouri, for sending this shot of himself with Sammy at a show July 1, 2010! Rock on!)

There’s a reason I’m channeling ’80s hair band rock today. I’ve got an idea. You see, I read an article online about a month or so ago claiming county police officers were stepping up their diligence in detaining and ticketing speeding motorists in an effort to make up languishing budgets in our current economic distress. Of course the obligatory quote from a sheriff suggested that officers are always diligent in keeping motorways safe, thus there’s no increase in ticketing these days. (Statistics showed otherwise, but that’s not the point of this editorial piece.) The point of this editorial piece is to suggest we make good use of increased diligence in all state highway patrols.

I would like to suggest all speeding fines be increased dramatically.

I would further like to suggest that a significant percentage of all speeding fines assessed by state highway patrol officers be allocated specifically to highway funding.

I would further like to suggest that the imagined “10-mph grace” allowed for motorists to travel in excess of posted limits be decreased. This will not only enhance motorists’ safety on our nation’s roadways, it will add funding to much-needed highway building and maintenance coffers in every state.

Now, I have to admit that it pains me to write this editorial. I’m guilty of driving too fast most of the time. The only time I truly slow down is when passing a work zone because I’m aware of the danger to workers there. You can imagine the irritation I cause for following drivers when I approach a work zone and start slowing in accordance to the law.

I-75 runs up and down the state of Florida with a posted speed limit of 70 mph. Drivers run up and down I-75 at a clip of 80 mph on a good day. We hit 90 when we can get away with it. Surely members of the state highway patrol are as aware of this as the rest of the driving public. Why aren’t they out there slowing us to something safer? Why aren’t the citizens of Florida sharing the profits in the form of safer roads? Yes, a percentage goes into the funding coffers now. Apparently, it’s not enough.

The FAA funding bill faces its headaches that spell another delay this July 3. The Lieberman-Kerry bill dooms potential user fee increases later this year (see the post below for more on that). Current measures fall short of necessary funding for infrastructure maintenance. What’s the nation to do to keep commerce lively and safety in check?

It’s time to hike up the consequences for speeding and hike up the benefits for the highway system. The next time a Lamborghini races a Corvette—and, yes, that happens down here in Collier County—toward Miami, a string of Florida’s finest should be waiting in ambush to hand them citations that will make my Charger’s smug—and easy—drop to 70 mph feel smoother. (Or maybe I just have to live with Dodge’s funky transmission problem that the dealer refused to fix while the car was under the original warranty…)

As Mr. Hagar says, it’s difficult to drive those slower speeds, and therein lies the genius of this funding plan. Speeders can’t keep their feet off the accelerators. One of those crazy TV channels even has a show about it. We’ll be getting funding from here until the end of time, no matter what kind of car the motorist drives or what kind of fuel he/she puts in it. Now who wants to take the idea to his senator? You know Ray LaHood will sign off on it if you add in a no-cell-phone-use-while-driving clause.

Stay Safe,
Sandy Lender, Editor
Tags: AsphaltPro Magazine, Asphalt Pro Magazine, highway funding

Where are Those Transportation Monies Going?

2010-05-18T11:49:00.000-07:00

Late last week, Senators John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) introduced the American Power Act (APA). I wish these things would have more transparent names. This particular bill could be called the Gouge Energy Companies Until They Gouge Consumers at the Gas Pump Act (GECUTGCGPA). The acronym would sound a bit like hacking up something unpleasant.

Fitting.

What the Kerry-Lieberman bill proposes is that GHG emissions in the transportation sector would be addressed by mandating oil companies purchase carbon allowances at a price set during quarterly auctions. To offset the hit in profits, companies would probably pass those price-problems along to consumers at the gas pump. Sounds about like a motor fuels user fee, doesn’t it? Why on earth would any tax-paying, red-blooded American vote for a user fee increase to help get monies into the transportation fund later on down the road if he or she is already feeling the effect of a user fee increase at the pump? Presents a conundrum, doesn’t it?

As it turns out, Kerry and Lieberman’s bill will allocate a bit of money to transportation funds, but it’s paltry at best. It’s not enough to keep current systems solvent (and that includes the mass-transit leeches sucking money from the parts of transportation that move our economy). So there’s no time like the present to get on the phone to make your voice heard in Congress. Let your representatives know that we need ALL transportation monies funneled to transportation resources.

I invite you to visit NAPA's government affairs page to get more info and to get connected with your Senator today. When you talk to your Senators and their staff, please discuss the following:

* The amount of funding for the Highway Trust Fund in the Kerry-Lieberman bill is inadequate.

* Will they contact Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) and other Senate leaders to insist that 100 percent of new fees on motor fuels detailed in the bill should be returned to the transportation sector and invested under a multi-year authorization bill.

* Explain to your Senators that because the bill will raise the price of motor fuels, it will be almost impossible to finance a long-term authorization bill unless a much larger portion of the APAs revenues are dedicated to the Highway Trust Fund.

Tags: highway trust fund, Kerry-Lieberman

Adopt a Safety Culture

2010-05-07T10:51:00.000-07:00

(from the April/May 2010 Editor's Note of AsphaltPro Magazine)

While at the National Asphalt Pavement Association’s 55th annual meeting back in January, I sat at a table with a gentleman from the Midwest who is in charge of safety for his company. I didn’t ask him if I could use his name in the magazine, so I’ll paraphrase what we talked about. He stated during our conversation that safety in a company has to become the standard. Well-being has to become a part of the company’s culture. If you can establish a safety culture in your company and with your employees, you have a much better chance of keeping employees safe from harm. You have a much better chance of seeing them take better care of their health. You have a much better chance of keeping insurance costs manageable. It comes down to mindset and culture.

I’ve talked with dozens of safety directors, consultants and OEMs who agree with him. Safety has to be drilled into each employee. When I climbed up on a Cat paver at the Rocky Mountain Asphalt Conference and Exhibition Show in February, I heard Jeff Richmond’s voice in my head telling me, “Maintain three points of contact,” from a Roadtec training school I’d attended more than 10 years ago. Now, I wasn’t out on a paving job. Slipping from the back of the paver on a carpeted tradeshow floor wasn’t going to smash my skull against a milled, hard surface. But the safety lesson was in my brain and I heard it the way I’d learned it.

That’s the kind of safety you want “in” your employees. When a member of the ground crew is about to step out of the tool shed at the plant, something in his brain should say, “Am I wearing my PPE? Will the loader operator notice me?” No one should be smoking around equipment or chemicals. No one should let summer heat surprise them with sunstroke or other sickness. No one should step between a dump truck and the paver. These may seem like simple statements, but they’re part of a safety culture that your safety director can orchestrate. Once every employee’s safety mindset increases, accidents, injuries and insurance costs decrease.

Think about insurance for a moment. A construction company without insurance isn’t in business. If your employees are racking up accidents and injuries, your insurance company is going to get nervous. Your premium will rise, if the agency doesn’t cancel the policy outright.

I don’t want to be so callous as to suggest that financial risk is an owner’s big concern when it comes to safety, but it’s one concern you’ve got to consider. Yes, you want employees to return home to their families safe and sound at the end of each shift. You want them healthy and happy and eager to be part of your team. But you also want them working toward lower overhead costs. Insurance is a pretty big line item when it comes to overhead costs.

April 19 through 23 is National Work Zone Safety Awareness Week. Visit the Work Zone Safety Information Clearinghouse for more information and special events you can host to increase your workers’ safety awareness.

As you’ll see throughout the pages of this special safety issue of AsphaltPro, your magazine staff takes all angles of the concept seriously. From programs for the asphalt professional to simple devices contractors can use to keep workers and motorists safe, we’ve gathered information pertinent to a sound safety mindset. Please review not just this issue, but every Safety Spotlight department in every issue of AsphaltPro for tips and advice from the industry professionals who deal with safety every day. Our hope is that accidents, injuries and fatalities can be prevented when we all adopt a safety culture.

Stay Safe
Sandy Lender, Editor

Tags: AsphaltPro Magazine, Asphalt Pro Magazine, safety, safety culture

Avoid Accidents, Injuries at the Plant

2010-05-07T10:41:00.000-07:00

Back to basics tips take the challenge out of battening down the HMA and quarry sites for safety directors
by Sandy Lender, Editor AsphaltPro Magazine

As dusk drapes a heavy fog over the landscape, and stockpiles take on the form of hills and mountains, savvy plant personnel snap on additional lighting for personal protection. An object that looks like a skid steer loader burdened with material for the current mix slips into shadow at a certain time of day and becomes a trick of the eye.

Did the ground man hear that right? Is the loader coming up behind him? Or is the night air playing tricks with the echo off the new RAP bins? Can the loader operator see him?

Such worrisome situations don’t happen only as daylight is waning. When the sun is angled just right and summer temperatures are high, a man stops to mop his brow and a haul truck driver unfamiliar with your quarry site layout turns a corner too quickly. The worker standing in the yard with his hard hat in hand is in a danger zone. The sun blinds the driver. The worker jumps. Is he fast enough? Does the driver ever see him?

The chances for accident or injury abound at an asphalt plant or quarry site. Human beings with human failings work around large, heavy, moving equipment with large, heavy, moving parts. Accidents can happen on regular days when everything seems to be working smoothly.

Luckily, company officials hire safety directors to put health and welfare first and foremost in employees’ minds. Associations, departments of transportation and other groups research best practices and put together manuals, seminars, workshops and safety sheets to help train employees for clean and healthy work environments. The manufacturers of the equipment that asphalt professionals work around have tips and advice to help workers stay safe.

It’s that sense of caring for each other that George Moody, safety manager for Astec, Inc., Chattanooga, shared in his points for readers. One of the methods he promotes for keeping workers safe is keeping them in touch with each other. “Look out for others,” he provided. “Always use machine guards when you are working on or repairing equipment. If you need to step away from the machine, lock it out and tag it out.”

In Moody’s information, he suggested that it’s all right to let a supervisor know if a co-worker routinely does something unsafe. This falls under looking out for your colleagues. “If you see co-workers doing something unsafe, let them know. If they continue to work unsafely, talk to your supervisor. They are putting themselves, and others, in jeopardy.”

A good safety program will include a chain of command or hierarchy for protecting workers, and a way to reward those who have the good sense to speak up when dangerous practices are afoot. Owners aren’t promoting “backstabbing” or “tattling” in such a program; instead, they are promoting a safety culture where workers watch out for and respect each other. If a colleague doesn’t respect himself or a fellow co-worker enough to stop dangerous behavior, he will have to follow the direction of a superior.

This comes down to understanding and following the rules of a safety program. As Moody pointed out, “Understand the safety policies for your workplace. When it comes to workplace equipment, be sure you know how to properly operate it. Read your manual and understand the machine’s capabilities and its hazards; follow preventive maintenance guidelines. Remember, shortcuts aren’t worth the risk.”

Dennis Hunt of Gencor Industries, Orlando, Fla., reiterated Moody’s feelings. “Think,” Hunt said. “Stop and think before you do anything at the plant. Especially when there is break down. Don’t rush to fix the plant and put yourself or others at risk. You can never explain away an accident, injury or fatality by saying ‘I cut corners to get the plant running.’”

A good place to start with hot mix asphalt (HMA) plant safety is to know where your employees are. Jeff Meeker of Meeker Equipment, Lansdale, Pa., suggested owners have a sign-in/sign-out sheet that shows plant operators and managers who is on the site and when. If someone hasn’t been seen or heard from in a while, it’s a good idea to contact him or her by radio to make sure all is well.

Thus having a good communication system is integral to safety. And as Meeker pointed out, good communication systems contribute to a safe atmosphere at all times.

“Carry handheld radios or install hands-free intercoms in multiple locations on the plant,” Meeker said. “Radios allow for good communication between operators and ground personnel. Intercoms allow operators to communicate with other plant personnel in a hands-free mode when troubleshooting.”

Not all personnel will enter the quarry or plant with a walkie talkie in hand. Once a newcomer comes to the site, he or she needs to know where to go. Owners need another form of communication for them. Meeker reminded owners to post clear signage around the grounds for truck drivers and other visitors.

“Let drivers know where to place orders, where to get loaded, and the truck pattern for leaving and entering the site,” Meeker said.

Something that will go a long way toward communicating with personnel—both newcomers and regular employees—is sound. Meeker recommends owners use a plant start-up siren and/or start-up lights to signal the commencement of production. This is a sure sign that movement will begin, fires will start burning, the drum will start turning, etc.

“Start up sirens allow plant personnel, truck drivers, and others around the plant to know that the plant is about to start,” Meeker said. “This gives them time to move away to a safe place prior to the plant starting.”
When it comes to safety around the plant site, Gencor’s Hunt suggested starting with the senses. Rely upon your senses to stay in tune with what’s going on around you.

“Look around you before you do anything at an asphalt plant,” Hunt said. “Look where you are walking, standing or climbing. Be aware of your surroundings. There is constant motion of machinery and equipment at a plant site. Watch out for trucks and loaders; they generally have the right of way.”

Moody added to this with action. Report any hazards that you notice when you’re looking around, whether you think it’s your responsibility or not. It might sound cliché, but safety really is everyone’s responsibility.

“Think you can’t do anything about that dim fluorescent light or that loose railing? Think again,” Moody provided. “By immediately reporting safety hazards, you may save someone…from unintentional injury. If you notice a potential hazard, talk to your supervisor or building maintenance personnel right away.”

The next sense Hunt turned to is sound, telling workers to listen for sounds that aren’t normal or usual for the plant. If something sounds out of place or out of alignment, it probably is, and could pose a threat to someone’s well-being.

Finally, think about the sense of touch. Do you want to come in contact with a burner that’s heating asphalt to 300 degrees F? No way.

“Don’t ever touch moving plant parts,” Hunt warned. “Don’t touch lines, pipes or valves. Assume that everything at an asphalt plant is hot.”

With most surfaces at the plant storing heat, sources advise personnel wear the appropriate clothing for the job—long sleeves, thick gloves, safety glasses, etc. Something every source agreed upon was the use of personal protective equipment (PPE). Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) also want to see plant personnel wearing safety vests, hard hats and the gear typically reserved for the paving crew in the work zone out on the highway.

“Wear safety glasses, hard hats, steel tip shoes, gloves, and bright yellow safety vests,” Meeker said. “There are many things going on at an HMA plant. Trucks are getting loaded. Liquid asphalt and fuel are being off-loaded into tanks. Loaders are filling bins. Aggregates are being delivered to stockpiles. With plant personnel on the plant and around the plant, highly visible clothing and protective covering allows plant personnel to be seen by many.”

Gencor’s Hunt took clothing a step further. “Long sleeve shirts are a must at an asphalt plant,” he said. But he also warned: “Don’t dress the same color as the plant.”

While safety programs should be in place to prevent haul truck drivers and skid steer loader operators from fighting sun blindness, worker fatigue or dusky shadows, the fact of the matter is gray clothing will blend into a gray plant. Light-colored clothing will blend into a light-colored plant. Be aware of your surroundings and try to stand out, both with your PPE and your uniform.

No matter how careful workers are at a facility, accidents and injuries do happen. When the unthinkable occurs, a well-practiced emergency plan can keep a situation from going from bad to worse.

Meeker suggested that owners institute a clearly defined emergency plan. Make sure personnel know the phone numbers for police, ambulance, hospital, etc. Moody recommended owners add evacuation routes and an assembly area to that plan. You want to meet in an agreed-upon area where all personnel can be counted, and accounted for, if a serious accident takes place.

If an accident happens, workers need to know what to do and need to be so comfortable with the plan that they stay level-headed throughout the emergency. With a good safety program and adherence to safety guidelines, the number of accidents at the asphalt plant will hopefully remain low. The goal is to have everyone go home safe and sound at the end of every shift.

Some good sites for safety directors to mine:

American Traffic Safety Services Association

American General Contractors and AGC safety training

Association of Equipment Manufacturers

AEM Safety Pictorial Database

Federal Highway Administration

FHWA Work Zone and Mobility Safety Program

MUTCD

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

NIOSH

OSHA

REACH

Work Zone Safety Information Clearinghouse

Tags: safety, safety training, plant safety, safety director, HMA

The Future of America's Roads: Purple Frog or Living Legacy

2010-05-07T10:08:00.000-07:00

(This Letter to the Editor appeared in the April/May 2010 issue of AsphaltPro Magazine. If you have an opinion to share, send your correspondence to Editor, Sandy Lender. AsphaltPro staff reserves the right to edit information for clarity, length and accuracy.)

When we use words like preserve, protect or sustain, we inevitably think of something that is endangered. In business, those words can mean something entirely different. Generally speaking, to preserve or sustain a certain level of sales or market share we find ourselves setting the bogey higher than the lowest level we are willing to accept so we can make sure we don’t fall below that projection. Another way of looking at this is that if you’re not busy growing, you’re probably busy dying.

As Congress takes up the debate of the next transportation legislation, I believe we need to look at America’s transportation future with these two perspectives in mind. Next, commit ourselves to learn and understand the words contained in the Oberstar Transportation Bill. Finally, line this up with some good American history so we can influence our representatives as they take up the debate.

While I read the transportation bill, I posted my thoughts in the margins of the large three-ring binder I store it in. I wrote things like, “Washington power grab, anti-road, anti-state, Livability? (get definition), Comprehensive street design policy – what is this?, MPO—Metropolitan planning organization/supplants DOT? – What about DOT’s role?, Suburban – bad; Urban – good, Center for Disease Control?” And, finally, “U.S. Bicycle Route System.”

The 775 page, ~135,000 word transportation bill, like others we have seen “pass” in Congress, reads something like an allegory. The “road” as we know it plays the role of antagonist. The protagonist is big government and The Office of Livability.

But, it’s a transportation bill. Drafted by transportation folk, right? I don’t think so. One day, I thought I came across a cliff notes version of our latest transportation bill when I found a 100-page “Blueprint” for America. It was drafted by a group called Transportation For America.

Transportation For America’s co-chair is Geoff Anderson, who is President and CEO of Smart Growth America. From my understanding, Transportation For America is the main umbrella organization of the Sierra Club. While it’s hard to understand who controls what, you will be able to find out what these organizations stand for by spending a few minutes on their Web sites. After all, their language is the language of the transportation bill.

A quick tour of their Web sites reveals the various elements of their policy. One element is Social Equity, which they define with images of abandoned urban sprawl, and which you’ll find on page 201, line 116 of the Oberstar transportation bill.

Just last week [March 23], Missouri’s leading Senator Kit Bond asked Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood for a definition of Livability. It’s a word used 35 separate times in the transportation bill. LaHood offered the following definition: “Communities where people have access to many different forms of transportation and affordable housing and the ability to really have access to all of the things that are important to them, whether it’s a grocery store, drug store access.”

The Senator responded, “I’ve got a lot of constituents for whom livability means having a decent highway. They’ve got to drive between one town and another town.”

History offers the road to answers. The 1950s and the early 1960s provided great debate about America’s roads, on both sides of the aisle. Invariably, representatives all pointed to the benefits of America’s interstate highway system. Surely if these guys were alive today, they wouldn’t be advocating a transportation bill full of federal bike trails.

On Feb. 28, 1961, President Kennedy, in a special message to Congress regarding the Federal Highway Program, said, “it is a key to the development of more modern and efficient industrial complexes—turning marginal land into attractive sites for commercial or industrial development—and to lower motor transportation costs generally.”

A year later, Kennedy commented on the role of Federal Government and transportation. His emphasis on a balance of use of transportation modes didn’t call for Washington controlling every street and sidewalk in individual states. The authors of the current transportation bill beg to differ.

On the issue of financing, President Eisenhower was in favor of a gas tax increase, but his Congress voted it down. Kennedy faced similar challenges. But both couldn’t be more square on one thing: we should only pay for what we can afford to build.

Proposals run large today for a vast new multi-modal transportation network. Few, if any, contain details as to the funding of such. At least Kennedy and Eisenhower talked about the elephant in the room. But we’re locked and loaded to throw out a $1.75 trillion baby with the bathwater in exchange for a panacea in transportation. Sure, the advocates of this bill will say they are for roads. You’ll have to make them prove it.

Practically speaking, roads drive economics. Bikes don’t.

This past weekend, I had lunch with a friend in the beer business. I asked him how roads affect him. Surprisingly, he sprang to with a story.

Federal law mandates that all beer be “dry docked” at a wholesaler’s location prior to being distributed to the customer. Once the beer hits the dock, it’s the property of the wholesaler. One such wholesaler had cited a specific example of the high percentage of broken bottles (shrink) that they have to bear the cost of because a particular road outside their warehouse is in bad shape. They’re considering re-paving the road themselves. That wholesaler is one of a dozen plus that helps to get product to some 16,000 customers throughout the state of Michigan by truck. That beer has been, is and will continue to be delivered to customers by truck. Not a train. Not a bike.

Yet a few days earlier, The Secretary of Transportation gave a press conference at the National Bike Summit thanking its attendees for being such great advocates of livable communities. He later blogged, “Today, I want to announce a sea change. People across America who value bicycling should have a voice when it comes to transportation planning. This is the end of favoring motorized transportation at the expense of non-motorized.”

Does the Secretary mean it? Don’t take my word for it. Oberstar’s bill, page 214, lines 1-6, states “The purpose of the U.S. bicycle route system program shall be to provide for the establishment and support of an interconnected, intercity network of bicycle facilities...to improve and enhance economic development.”

FHWA now becomes FHW&BRA (Federal Highway and Bike Route Administration). As an aside, they actually do deliver beer by bike in China.

The purple frog is an endangered species. I had no idea. I gather few people do.

Sadly, a similar percentage value our roads—until their usefulness is depleted. Nothing against the purple frog, but when the sun starts setting on America’s roads, we’ll feel the pain. Only those of us in the transportation industry know that then it will be too late. Today, we can do our part to keep our legacy busy growing and not dying.

Grab a copy of your transportation bill. Read it. Highlight it. Ask questions.

Educate yourself. Talk to a supplier about it.

Latch onto some of the many industry efforts to be part of this process. Call your senators. It is ultimately they who will help shape the transportation bill. And yes, while we don’t have all the answers for the questions, neither did Eisenhower or Kennedy. For practical and robust legislation to prevail, you must get involved in a serious way. Otherwise, get ready to call in the sign company to the FHWA.

Dag Seagren

Tags: purple frog, U.S. Bicycle Route System, funding, transportation bill

Fund This

2010-05-07T09:36:00.000-07:00

(from the March 2010 Editor's Note in AsphaltPro Magazine)

The Colorado Department of Transportation announced bid deferrals two weeks in a row (as we went to press). The Missouri DOT announced “indefinite” bid delays Feb. 26. An uncertain senator from Kentucky, whom we won’t name or lambaste here, held up flawed but necessary funding extensions Feb. 28. Liquid asphalt prices in most states, as reported on page 48, drifted a little higher…again.

I could list more gloom and doom, but why? We’re all living it. The tireless Jay Hansen, vice president of government affairs for the National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA), Lanham, Md., provided a quick review of the “condition” of the Highway Trust Fund balance on page 30. It’s not pretty, but do you understand why? Hansen’s no-nonsense style spells it out plainly.

He explained in a side note—which didn’t fit on the page—that state agencies are impotent to move forward with projects that could put contractors to work thanks to funding instability. States have got to have an appropriations bill as well as an authorization bill enacted before they can build or repair federally funded highways. Here’s how it works.

“Before a state transportation department commits to fund a highway project it must be able to assign equal amounts of ‘contract authority’ from an authorization bill and ‘obligation authority’ from an appropriations bill. SAFETEA-LU (or an extension) is an authorization bill that provides states with a budget that can be committed for projects. The actual financing or cash for the projects is determined by Congress through the annual appropriations process. Finally, the Highway Trust Fund Highway Account is the source of funds provided in the appropriations bill.”

The next bill to hold industry’s attention is H.R. 2847. A 10-month band-aid doesn’t let states perform long-term planning, but at least clears the stage for immediate, 2010 construction season projects. As of a late press time, the House had just passed the bill and sent it back to the Senate. What industry members need to do is get on the phone to their representatives to encourage them to get H.R. 2847 in place. These cute little 30-day extensions might keep current work current, but they don’t let states make the necessary plans for real business, for a safe summer or autumn 2010.

A monthly publication like AsphaltPro is great for the how-to information and project stories we provide, but the lead time for monthly deadlines doesn’t let us bring up-to-the-minute updates on legislative action to you. For that, we developed this blog. I encourage you to check out the post titled “Funding Wars” for updates and links to funding information. Don’t forget your opportunity to influence legislation.

Stay Safe,

Sandy Lender, Editor

Tags: AsphaltPro Magazine, Asphalt Pro Magazine, funding, legislation

HR 2847 Progress

2010-03-04T14:37:00.000-08:00

Today H.R. 2847 passed 217-207 in the House.
It's now been kicked back to the Senate.

Get a nice summary of the bill (again) and an update on its status as of late in the day March 4 at this AASHTO link.

The "Hire Bill" extends funding for 9 months March 17. Story at AASHTO link.

Tags: Federal Highway Funding, HR 2847, hire bill

The Next Step in Funding

2010-03-03T08:14:00.000-08:00

As reported last night in the post titled "Funding Wars" below, H.R. 4691 passed in the Senate, allowing current road projects to resume (among other important issues for Americans). For the transportation construction industry, this gives a mere one-month window of opportunity to work on safeguarding the nation's roadways and economy. It's not enough for planning or future safeguarding. Luckily, representatives will debate something to keep the industry (and motorists) alive through the summer. As reported at AASHTO:

"The House is expected to debate HR 2847, a jobs bill amended last week by the Senate to include a 10-month Highway Trust Fund authorization extension, $19.5 billion in additional General Fund revenue to keep the Highway Trust Fund solvent into next year, restoration of highway funding this year to $42 billion from a reduced level of $30 billion, and additional federal support for states and municipalities who want to issue Build America Bonds to finance infrastructure construction."

This is still a short-term fix for a long-term industry and economic question, but it offers at least a stop-gap measure while legislators look for real answers to pay for America's infrastructure requirements.

Tags: Highway Trust Fund, General Fund, HR 2847, infrastructure

Funding Wars

2010-03-02T08:24:00.000-08:00

As the fight for Federal Highway Funding rages on, AsphaltPro brings you some links worth reviewing. Most of our readers are well-informed on the issue already, so here are the latest updates on what's happening. Follow editor Sandy Lender on Twitter as well. More links will be added as they deserve attention.

First, I'll announce that HR 4691, Temporary Extension Act of 2010, just passed (9:16 p.m. ET) 78 for, 19 against. It looks like inspectors can return to work, thus road projects can resume. Other updates to be posted as the usual pundits post them tomorrow and beyond.

To follow: older posted items that give play-by-play
CQ Politics, A White House play for attention/relevance
AASHTO, More of the same rhetoric with extra gloom-n-doom thrown in
Federal News Radio, Explains the stalemate and furloughs succinctly
AASHTO followup to HR 4691 passage, good introduction of HR 2847
AASHTO's summary of HR 2847's status as of March 4
AASHTO's report of the HIRE Bill's passage March 17

Tags: AsphaltPro Magazine, Asphalt Pro Magazine, Federal Highway Funding, stalemate, furloughs, Sandy Lender

How to Incorporate Shingle Recycling

2010-03-01T12:10:00.000-08:00

This article was originally published in the February 2010 issue of AsphaltPro magazine. To view sidebars, additional information, and other how-to articles from that issue, contact the circulation department to request a free subscription and copy of February at:
AsphaltPro
2001 Corporate Place
Columbia, MO 65202
(573) 499-1830

By Sandy Lender
Not all European roofs use asphalt shingles, but our colleagues in the Eurobitume association could benefit greatly if they did. Asphalt shingles in Europe contain roughly 40 to 60 percent asphalt content. In the United States, newer shingles contain about 19 to 22 percent asphalt. How can an asphalt professional mine this black gold and use it to his or her benefit? Kent Hansen, the director of engineering for the National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA), spoke at length about the topic at the 55th annual meeting in Maui, Hawaii. Here are some good ideas he brought up to augment information you’ve found in the pages of AsphaltPro before. Also, please note that NAPA has a new publication titled Guidelines for the Use of Reclaimed Asphalt Shingles in Asphalt Pavements available.

First, bringing state departments of transportation (DOTs) and other agencies up to speed on the benefits of recycled asphalt shingle (RAS) use in asphalt mix design is a battle researchers have already begun. The Energy & Recycling Task Force reported during its Jan. 18 meeting that the NAPA strategic plan’s goal for increased recycled asphalt pavement (RAP) use in 2010 looks much the same as the plan for 2009 but now incorporates the use of RAS. Industry members in Iowa are taking part in a pooled fund study to test the benefits and use of RAS. Other states, mostly in the East, according to Hansen, bring their findings to the table as well. Hansen stated that it takes conversations and cooperation among regulators, DOT officials and contractors to bring good specifications for RAS use into agency documents.

Next, look at the way RAS can enhance your bottom line. As experts have pointed out, there’s a significant amount of asphalt in an asphalt shingle (see sidebar above). While not every state has manufacturers of asphalt shingles, those that do contribute to the approximately 1 million tons of manufacturers’ waste produced annually, according to Hansen. The other source of asphalt shingle material is in tear offs, which producers can find everywhere. That amounts to 10 million tons per year.

When roofing contractors and shingle manufacturers take waste to a landfill, they must pay a tipping fee to leave the waste there. If you can offer them a lower tipping fee, they should be interested in bringing that product to you. But Hansen suggested a variety of factors to consider before going into business collecting trash—even if it’s valuable trash.

Permits and licenses for accepting shingle material vary by state and county. You’ll be required to test for contaminants such as asbestos. While asbestos has been banned from shingle manufacturing since the early 1980s, there are old roofs out there with product that could find its way into your stockpile. There are some mastics and caulking that have trace amounts of asbestos, and you don’t want to accept those into your facility. You need to decide if you’ll accept tear offs with that looming—albeit miniscule—threat. If you choose only to accept manufacturers’ waste, you limit your sources and product availability, but also limit some of the processing worries that we’ll discuss next.

Accepting tear offs opens up your sources and product availability, but also opens up testing and processing challenges. You’ll need to make decisions regarding the condition tear offs must be in when you accept them, and make those conditions clear to suppliers. Will you accept material with flashing and wood attached? Or will you require roofers to remove this excess waste before delivering tear offs? You’ll never get shingles devoid of nails, so be prepared for that element of cleanup in your own facility.

Decide if you’ll restrict supply to only tear offs from private residential homes. This is another way to ensure the shingles you receive are of post-1980s manufacture. You can work with roofers to ensure you get clean material for your operation.

Tear offs must be certified free of hazardous substances and suppliers will arrive with some notice of certification from their testing. This won’t clear you of responsibility. In some states or counties, you’ll need to test the product when it arrives and again at various stages of your operation. For instance, the state of Maryland is reported to have three layers of testing for asbestos once shingles are at the asphalt facility.

It’s wise to pave the area where tear offs will be received and processed on your property, not just for aesthetic reasons, but also to make your job of clean-up easier if a hazardous substance is ever detected. For processing, the first thing to do with shingles is send them through a picking conveyor to remove obvious missed waste. Next is grinding, and the article in the August/September 2009 issue of AsphaltPro refers to a variety of grinding machines available at this time. After grinding, the material goes to a screen or may go back through for grinding again. Next it goes to a mix or a stockpile.

Asphalt shingle surface granules and fill are hard and abrasive on equipment; they wear grinding chamber equipment and create heat. Hansen reminded audience members to balance the amount of water used in cooling equipment. Also be sure you perform grinding in optimal conditions. When ambient conditions are too hot, you risk melting and chunking of material in the equipment.

This leads to thoughts on the stockpiles. As with RAP piles, you want to keep the RAS pile out of direct sunlight if possible to prevent re-agglomeration. An 80/20 blend of sand or RAP in the pile can also help keep re-agglomeration down. Cover the pile to protect it from the weather. When it’s time to make mix, pass the RAS material through a lump breaker or grind it again before feeding it into the plant. The goal is not to grind it further or resize it, but merely to break up any chunks and keep it at its proper size for mixing.

From the testing Hansen reported in January, getting density has proved easier with a RAS mix than expected while providing “a significantly stiffer binder.” Field emission testing has shown SO2 and Formaldehyde “to be non-issues,” although workers reported some odor. There are more tests to do and more to report on, but getting started is the first step. For contractors and producers ready to add RAS to their cost-savings arsenal, the news is good. With the decline in tear offs that contain asbestos, the industry sees another recycled product that can enhance the HMA or WMA mix while keeping waste out of landfills and materials costs under control.

Tags: AsphaltPro Magazine, Asphalt Pro Magazine, RAS, shingles, recycle

Save the Dragonflies

2010-03-01T11:54:00.000-08:00

(from the February 2010 Editor's Note of AsphaltPro Magazine)

We could talk about funding all day long and keep telling each other the same thing. We need alternative funding methods and we need to keep that message in front of Congress. Jay Hansen will iterate that more eloquently for you in the March issue. Right now, I want to touch on something environmental that sparked my interest recently.

Dragonflies.

Now, I’ve made it clear to everyone that I’m an environmentalist and a conservationist, as all members of the asphalt industry are. At the recent National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA) 55th annual meeting, talk of our environmental excellence brought our good message to light time and time again. We’ll be covering those good messages in the pages of AsphaltPro, as you’ve become accustomed to, throughout 2010. But right now, I want to talk specifically about dragonflies in Illinois.

The folks at the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) sent out a note about the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority (ISTHA) discovering a problem with a rare insect—the endangered Hine’s emerald dragonfly. It sounds gorgeous. And expensive.

It cost ISTHA $6 million to build man-made ponds and “rivulets” and little insect condos along a highway in the dragonfly’s habitat. They also made sure a $355-million bridge going up across the Will County’s Keepataw Preserve and Black Partridge Woods in Cook County went up “higher” than usual so cars would be above splatter range, if you catch my drift. This means fewer dragonflies find themselves in conflict with windshields.

Personally, I think $6 million is a hefty price to pay to save an insect species. But I won’t begrudge these bugs their place in our world. If the sea turtles needed $6 million, I’d be the first in line to help raise the funds. So I’ll raise my glass to the folks in the ISTHA who came up with the plan to build little homes for the dragonflies and ponds for their better breeding practices. How else do you save a species but by encouraging good breeding, right?

I’m one of those crazy people who frets over the animals when the weather does something unexpected. I let a lizard come live in my house when the weather dipped into the 30s and 40s here in Florida in early January. (I might have fed him a non-endangered species of fly if one had been available.) So, yes, I feel sympathy for dragonflies that teeter on the edge of extinction, and applaud the agency workers who came up with a solution that protected the dragonflies while keeping commerce, economy and American motorists moving.

It’s something asphalt contractors and department of transportation engineers have to throw in the design plans once in a while—making special accommodations for animals in the area or for habitats “downstream.” It’s environmentally responsible. It’s the right thing to do. Sometimes it’s expensive. However it’s worked out, there are members of the industry like me who applaud you for protecting the parts and pieces of our world on one level while protecting the motoring public on another.

Stay Safe,
Sandy Lender, Editor
Tags: AsphaltPro Magazine, Asphalt Pro Magazine, environmental, dragonflies

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes in Funding

2010-01-14T07:46:00.000-08:00

(from the January 2010 Editor's note in AsphaltPro Magazine)

Please allow me to plagiarize for just a moment from the fabulous David Bowie.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
(Turn and face the strain)
Ch-ch-Changes
Oh, look out you rock 'n rollers
Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes

My digression into 1970’s glam rock can be explained by the changes around us. Nearly everyone you talk to is making resolutions about turning over a new leaf. It’s an exciting time for renewal and new starts.

The big change on everyone’s mind in our industry is the funding Congress will bless us with through a set of bills passed in mid-December. The first—House Joint Resolution 64, which extends Defense Department appropriations and surface transportation authorization for about a week to keep projects and the economy from grinding to a sudden and frightening halt—will be a faded memory by the time this issue mails.

HR 3326 is up next. It’s a good stop-gap measure that keeps projects running and workers employed while Congress works toward something more permanent for jobs and the economy. This is the Defense appropriations bill and it extends the surface transportation authorization until Feb. 28.

By that time, HR 2847 should have kicked in. That’s the jobs bill and it’s set until Sept. 30. I’m convinced industry will remain vigilant in lobbying Congress to put a more permanent, reliably-funded transportation plan in place before the September deadline rolls around.

The jobs bill—HR 2847—is the one to keep track of. AASHTO reports that the jobs bill will give industry $53.3 billion for use in fiscal year 2010 for SAFETEA-LU programs in the areas of highways ($41.546 billion), highway safety ($729 million), motor carrier safety ($550 million) and mass transit ($10.508 billion). It will also help out the Highway Trust Fund by 1) putting $19.5 billion into the fund ($14.7 for the highway account and $4.8 for the mass transit account) and 2) changing federal law to allow the fund to collect interest in the future. According to AASHTO, the Transportation & Infrastructure committee says that gain of interest could mean a gain of between $500 million and $1 billion per year. That seems like a pretty big gap in projections, but this is all conjecture right now based on fuel taxes. Remember that when fuel prices rise consumers curb their driving habits. And that takes me back to the idea of lobbying for a more permanent, reliably-funded transportation plan.

There’s more money in HR 2847 earmarked for extra job creation. Also, an important note that AASHTO pointed out about this bill is a provision for states: the bill waives state matching requirements for federal surface transportation grants for the remainder of FY2009. That means states having a tough time making the budget have a bit of grace coming.

Plenty of good changes keep us on our toes this winter season. It’s not just Congress that’s got our industry’s economic future in mind. Equipment manufacturers are pitching new technology at the upcoming World of Asphalt. This publication is making new strides with editorial content and a new Web site to bring not just equipment and technology changes to you, but also to bring new practices and safer work methods to you.

Not all change is scary. We welcome you to write to us here at AsphaltPro and let us know what changes are taking place in your neck of the woods. Let us know how we can help you adapt to those changes. Contact the editor.

Stay Safe,
Sandy Lender, Editor

Tags: AsphaltPro Magazine, Asphalt Pro Magazine, Funding, Jobs Bill, SAFETEA-LU

Enjoy the Small Stuff

2009-12-16T07:07:00.000-08:00

(from the December Editor's Note in AsphaltPro Magazine)

My editorial notes to you rarely sway from industry topics, but this month’s issue is so full of heady material and industry forecasts that I had to give you and me a break. What better time of year to slow down for a moment and enjoy a bit of peace and tranquility than the advent of the holidays? As this issue lands in your mailboxes, you’re probably polishing off the last of the pumpkin pie and turkey sandwiches from Thanksgiving. I have an African Grey parrot who joins you in that. She is addicted to pumpkin pie, and while she’s not old enough to form full words yet, she recognizes what words precede yummy treats.

Something else is happening as the State of the Industry issue arrives this year. The United States, as a nation, is recovering from an economic recession. Because I live in a continual state of paranoia, I won’t be rushing out to invest in anything just yet, but it does my heart good to hear pundits on the news stations advising Americans that the housing market will turn around next and the time to buy stock is now and so on and so on. It gives us hope where there previously has been too much fear.

I don’t want to linger on the subject of funding here, but that’s where our minds wander when we wonder about recovery. The construction sector of this country builds more than infrastructure; it builds families, communities, local economies and that "hope" I mentioned above. Just a few days before I sent this letter to press, The Journal of Commerce reported that 6,547 projects were under way thanks to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Another 3,500 or so had been approved. Think of the number of men and women working on those projects. It may seem only a drop in the bucket, but it’s 6,547 more projects—and that many more workers—than we had in motion prior to the act’s passage in February.

Also at this time, I’m preparing to celebrate Christmas, which always raises my spirits. Don’t let my profession of Christianity frighten you. I have plenty of friends who practice other religions who are celebrating other holidays at this time of year. I wish all of us a peaceful, loving, hope-filled season with loved ones gathered around us. It’s been a difficult year for some. I know of losses we’ve suffered in this industry, in our families. It’s a good time to reflect on those lives and reach out to our friends in love and comfort. It’s a good time to worship with friends and family and thank our God for His provision. It’s a good time to pause and enjoy the small stuff.

I wish you all a merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

Stay Safe,
Sandy Lender, Editor (sandy at theasphaltpro dot com)

Tags: AsphaltPro Magazine, Asphalt Pro Magazine, Merry Christmas, industry forecast, state of the industry, asphalt industry

The Answer: We Must Stop Driving

2009-12-16T06:59:00.000-08:00

(from the November Editor's Note of AsphaltPro Magazine)

Shortly, you will see how simple it is. The answer to our country’s economic problems lies in the fact that we all own cars. What selfish pigs we are to expect freedom.

Let me delve into reality for just a moment. At press time, Congress had voted to extend the currently expired SAFETEA-LU program another seven weeks. That means, by the time you receive this in the mail, we’ve got just more than a month (through Dec. 18) for legislators to come up with a new plan to get funding in place to keep additional monies flowing for federal highways, to accept an 18-month extension, to accept a six-month extension, to accept an extension to Dec. 31, or to accept Oberstar’s approximately $500 billion six-year bill.

At first blush, it seems like a lot of options are on the table and we should be swimming right along with keeping infrastructure up to par. Unfortunately, when the last bill expired Sept. 30, states felt a jolt. Money was rescinded. Some people in this country who have a difficult time understanding the very real need for a healthy and safe highway and roadway system have suggested this is for the best because we shouldn’t be driving cars anyway.

A byproduct of the current rescission of $8.7 billion in federal transportation funds that I don’t think anti-roads lobbyists expected is the cancellation of green projects. For instance, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) reported that officials at the Tennessee Department of Transportation (DOT) pulled $30 million out of its coffers for enhancement grants. That means:
* no restoration of old train stations
* no new bike trails and
* no new sidewalks.
AASHTO also reported that Nevada DOT officials are cutting $8 million from transportation enhancements. They’re also cutting $4 million from their federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) projects and another $4 million from the Safe Routes to School Program.

These are not positive developments, but state money movers have little choice. Back in 2007, Congress decreed that when state officials make cuts (rescind funds) from programs, they have to do so proportionally. That means if you take a little from this road, you have to take a little from that CMAQ project, too.

Even with the worry building around whether or not Congress understands the process involved in realistic transportation, there’s some ray of hope for motorists. Note that states can still let state projects (if there’s a state budget for that). Counties can still let county projects (if there’s a county budget for that). Cities can still work on city projects (if there’s a city budget for that). You catch my drift.

The problem is everyone gets nervous when you talk about cutting his or her budget for next year in half. And rightly so. What’s worse is we’re talking about cutting the budget in half for “who knows how long?” Folks suddenly worry about all their projects.

I’m a proponent for cautious creative funding (I’ll call it CCF). If you’re a state DOT official, you’ve got to get creative with your project funding. There are interstates and bridges that need repair. There are asphalt roadways that might not need repair yet, but by performing preventive maintenance on them, you extend the pavement’s life. You make a small investment now to keep a larger investment from happening 10 or 20 years from now. But if your budget’s just been slashed, what on earth is going to compel you to run out and perform anything but the absolute worst-case reconstructs?

Some municipalities have raised their own bond measures, sales taxes and property taxes to pay for everything from specific road projects to maintenance of specified areas of the grid. What this leads to is shiny streets and well-kept utilities right up to the federal-funded interstate that’s causing high car-maintenance bills for those folks who just voted to have their taxes raised. I bet those citizens won’t be too keen on another tax hike next election season.

Some counties have seen toll measures pass. Funds for future repairs, enhancements and preventive maintenance start rolling in, but motorists unwilling to add $5 to $10 to their weekly commute take alternate routes not built for the increased traffic loads. Safety problems, repair costs and user delays rise on the parallel routes.

The solution to all of this has been suggested already. We must stop driving. Anti-roads lobbyists have actually suggested that people in both rural and urban settings must get out of their cars and into buses (although I’m not sure what the buses will be driving on), trains, trolleys and other people movers. While I can see a logical pattern to mass transit in city situations, it boggles the mind to think this would work in rural areas. But this is the suggestion put forth to clear cars from roadways, thus getting us “off” that horrid road and oil dependency we have.

Obviously, we have to raise taxes and spend inordinate amounts of money to build a metallic people-moving infrastructure. While we’re at it, I suggest we train ourselves to be lackadaisical about deadlines and meeting times because, coming from a purely cynical point of view, I don’t think these things are going to run in a timely fashion. They’re being created by legislative action, after all.

If we recycled our cars into something else (and I’m sure there are people in Canada and Switzerland working on that “something” now) and all moved into cities where the mayors have magically raised the funds to build superfragicagilisticexpialodociocidous (I changed it so as not to get sued) mass transit services to move people around, why, there would be no need for cars or roads or road R&D or safety or innovation or jobs or any of those crazy things that the Federal Highway Fund has been encouraging.

All our goods would be delivered by train because trains never have accidents thus don’t require funding to find ways to make them safer or more efficient or to ensure none of their operators (remote or otherwise) have sleep apnea. And we can conduct all business meetings by teleconference and Internet now so we no longer need airplanes. No one actually has to see their loved ones in person when we have Webcams. Besides, once the current generations kick off, people will be living in those insular inbred cities anyway. There’ll be no need to travel far…

So why is it important to renew funding for transportation? Why think of CCF ideas to supplement a gas-tax-based funding program? Why worry about a road that needs repair? Why worry about bridges that crumble into the waters beneath them? Why make plans to resurface and keep asphalt pavements in pristine condition for maximum safety and perpetual life? I mean, isn’t the world ending December of 2012 anyway?
Stay Safe,
Sandy Lender, Editor (sandy at theasphaltpro dot com)

Tags: AsphaltPro Magazine, Asphalt Pro Magazine, highway funding, Congress, SAFETEA-LU, green projects

New Oil and Sea Turtles

2009-12-16T06:47:00.000-08:00

(from the October Editor's Note in AsphaltPro Magazine)

My name is Sandy Lender and I’m an environmentalist. It’s good to see I’m among friends here in the asphalt industry. Truly, if you’re a member of the asphalt industry, you’re an environmentalist. You’re a conservationist.

I could harp on this industry’s care of the land we mine for aggregates, our caution keeping dust out of the air, our excellent track record keeping contaminants out of the ground, or our successes protecting workers from what minimal fume our end product emits, but people reading this column already know these things. Instead I’m going to tell you something that might surprise you a little bit.

I’m what you would call a “raving” environmentalist. Yes, I abhor the plastic water bottles. I carry cloth bags with me to the grocery store. In fact, when my first novel was published, I had cloth bags with my book cover printed on them made up to hand out as promotional items to help with that whole “Down With Plastic Bags!” movement. I participate in coastal cleanup days and I volunteer with a sea turtle conservation project called Turtle Time.

That brings us around to the Gulf of Mexico, the large body of water near which I live. I moved here from the Midwest for one reason, but stayed for the conservationist opportunities available to me here. I’m not saying you can’t find worthy and rewarding causes to aid in the upper states—and I encourage everyone to get involved in a cause that brings you a sense of accomplishment and joy—but my heart is at home with the marine issues.

Recently, some workers for BP drilling way out by the Keathly Canyon in the Gulf found an incredibly deep, and incredibly flush, reserve of oil. When I say incredibly deep, I mean that they sunk the drill to the depth of the height of Mount Everest (or a little further). That’s how far into the planet the workers probed to extract the blood we need.

This looks like it’s going to bring in about 3 billion barrels of domestic oil once it’s producing. Now, that’s not going to happen until about 2015, give or take, but it’s supposed to make life nicer around these parts.

Some might say the Tiber Project has really come through.

I stopped to consider what I thought of that. Are the folks at BP putting responsible practices in place for pulling that much product up and getting it to shore? We’ve got a declining loggerhead sea turtle population along the Gulf shores of Florida right now. Will increased activity a few years from now worry those turtles right away from one of their few ideal nesting grounds? Maybe the canyon is far enough away, being about 250 miles southeast of Houston, that the turtles will just gracefully glide on by. Maybe the officers at BP care about marine life management enough to take such things into consideration while they plan for increased profits and increased traffic. I’ll be one of the members of the environmentalist asphalt industry watching to see how they handle it.

Stay Safe
Editor, Sandy Lender (sandy at theasphaltpro dot com)

Tags: AsphaltPro Magazine, Asphalt Pro Magazine, oil, loggerhead sea turtle

What Green Job Do Your Workers Participate In?

2009-08-24T11:49:00.000-07:00

The article titled "Green Job Safety" from the August/September 2009 issue of AsphaltPro Magazine asked what environmentally responsible practices have introduced new work habits to your work force. Do your crews participate in green jobs such as:
* Shingle grinding?
* WMA production?
* RAP stockpiling?
* Running mills or rubblizers?
These and other environmentally responsible asphalt industry practices force workers to step out of the normal routine. How does that put them at risk? Have you trained your workers for the new steps in the otherwise daily operation? Let’s discuss it at here at The Asphalt Forum. There's no password needed to participate in this open dialogue, so click on the "comment" link below to voice your opinion or concern.

Tags: AsphaltPro Magazine, Asphalt Pro Magazine, green jobs, environmentally responsible, job safety

Prevent Shorts in Automation Controls at the Hot Mix Asphalt Plant

2009-08-14T10:51:00.000-07:00

From your AsphaltPro Staff and Participating Members of the Automation/Controls Industry

For the August/September issue of AsphaltPro Magazine, we included an informational article on cleaning and maintaining automation controls for minimum downtime and maximum safety. Here are some extra tips from the folks at Systems Equipment, Waukon, Iowa, for preventing shorts or malfunctions in automation controls:

1) Purchase controls that are pre-fabricated, documented units, such as a burner control or silo control.
2) Have your equipment installed by a qualified technician with knowledge of both the control and your equipment.
3) Be sure that all of the old equipment and wiring are removed as part of the installation process.
4) Replace all questionable cables and components. Remember the new controls are only as good as the equipment and cables they are controlling. A new control panel will not correct a bad limit, meter or probe.
5) Have your equipment serviced by a qualified technician with knowledge of both the control and your equipment.

We’d like to thank the automation controls manufacturers who participated in bringing our readers useful, how-to information in the automation article. They are, in alphabetical order:
ADM contact Steve Shawd
B&S Light contact Richard Young
Libra Systems contact Ken Cardy
Systems Equipment contact company
Thermal Cable and Wire contact Joe Dougherty

Tags: AsphaltPro Magazine, Asphalt Pro Magazine, automation, controls

Should We Grow the Ultimately Green Product?

2009-08-14T10:35:00.000-07:00

(from the August/September 2009 Editor's Note in AsphaltPro Magazine)

I’ll start this opinion piece with a surprising question, just to get your fingers itching to respond. What do you think of legalizing marijuana?

I told you it would get you itching to respond. Before you call me irresponsible, let me tell you why I ask. The asphalt industry could get some intriguing benefits from the Cannabis sativa L. plant.

Now, before anyone gets too nervous, I’ll share that I have my reservations about a flat legalization of hemp growth. I’m paranoid enough about our youth and that group’s propensity for using a gateway drug to get into serious trouble with health (and the law) to suggest that any legalization of Cannabis sativa would have to come with close regulations and actual enforcement of those regulations. So when I ask if we should legalize marijuana, I’m not talking about handing a baggie and some rolling papers to a teenager. I’m talking about an ultimate green product for the asphalt industry.

According to the Campaign for the Restoration and Regulation of Hemp (CRRH), the Cannabis sativa plant produces more protein, oil and fiber than any other plant on earth. It’s that “oil” concept that caught my attention. Because the CRRH Web site makes grossly inaccurate, sweeping statements about petroleum, I double-checked its facts about the plant’s benefits against white papers and grant-funded research. Lo and behold, those people are onto something. I also learned that the permit-holding growers who produce medicinal marijuana do so with environmentally responsible practices, whereas the illegal growers are left to literally poison water supplies and animals with their unlawful habits. This leads me to think that legalization and regulation offer yet another benefit to the environment.

The grossly inaccurate, sweeping statements CRRH officers made about petroleum and diesel make me uneasy, though. I’m not going to call anyone a conspiracy theorist (mostly for fear of getting sued), but it sounds a wee bit reactionary of the CRRH organizers to accuse the petrochemical industry as a whole of causing the prohibition of marijuana. I imagine there are some religious groups who fall into lock-step with the concept that teens and tweens getting their hands on readily accessible pot is a negative idea. I would agree with them. I believe in the gateway drug concept. Seen it in practice. Do I believe there are ways to use hemp for good without putting the pretty leaves in the public domain where teens and others will grab it for dangerous entertainment? Of course. And that’s what I’d like to discuss here.

If we as an industry can come up with a suggestion for growing Cannabis sativa plants for positive, productive byproducts such as biofuels, fibers, medicine, etc., do you think we should draft the motion and put it before legislators? California’s looking for a way to tax it already. Find me a legislator who doesn’t like that concept these days. So what do you think? Is this country ready to legalize the growth and use of hemp? Do you think legislators could do it without legalizing the death-use of it?

I’m not suggesting we get into bed with folks who, at first blush, look like lying conspiracy theorists, but instead we could make our own friends in the alternate fuels arena to draft a concept legislators will actually read. Getting oil from alternate, renewable sources is a big win for an industry dependent on oil supply. When that source is something that can also produce fibers and medicines, it looks quite “green.” We just need a way to keep it from getting out of control and harming the population we wish to enhance and protect with our product—good roads.

Stay Safe,
Sandy Lender, Editor

Tags: AsphaltPro Magazine, Asphalt Pro Magazine, legalize marijuana, biofuels, alternate fuels, green product

Asphalt Wins in the Stormwater Management Arena

2009-07-15T11:10:00.000-07:00

(from the June/July Editor's Note in AsphaltPro Magazine)

This is an opinion piece. So here’s my opinion. If you’re going to build a pavement that allows proper stormwater management, the right material to use is hot mix asphalt (HMA) or warm mix asphalt (WMA). I’m basing this opinion on my subjective bias and some pertinent facts, the latter of which I’ll outline now.

First, the idea of using porous asphalt pavements precludes using pervious concrete structures. There’s sound reasoning behind this. I’m not telling you anything new when I remind you that one of the elements in the design of a typical concrete pavement is a steel structure or grid. But consider this: Rebar doesn’t play nicely with water, so allowing stormwater to filter through a concrete pavement, trickling playfully across rusting infrastructure is unwise. Thus the concrete industry left this internal structure out of its pervious concrete design.

As it turns out, some pervious concrete sections placed in Denver metropolitan parking lots looked “unstructured” enough to members of the Urban Drainage and Flood Control District (UDFCD) back in 2008 that they asked Thompson Materials Engineers, Inc., to check out a few of the failing pervious concrete sections. In June 2008, engineers cut samples from four areas. One of the areas was fine, exhibiting no signs of distress. This area, Site A, was used as the control. The other three areas they chose exhibited signs of distress from “minimal” to “significant.”

You can read the entire findings for yourself in the technical paper of Project CT14,571-356 titled Pervious Concrete Evaluation Materials Investigation Denver, Colorado in the downloads section of http://www.udfcd.org/, (or try http://tinyurl.com/PerviousPDF) but one of the sections that stood out to me alluded to concrete’s inability to serve as a viable option in stormwater management.

"Our data indicates elevated chloride concentrations in the bottom portion of the samples for two of the sites. The other two sites exhibit the elevated chloride concentrations near the surface of the sample. Deicing salts (e.g., chlorides) are deleterious to concrete. They are absorbed into the concrete as it dries, and the absorbed salt strongly attracts water during subsequent wet weather events. If the ambient temperature is cold enough, and the sample does not have sufficient drainage capabilities, the water freezes in spite of the deicer, and will contribute to accelerated deterioration from freeze-thaw conditions."

Luckily, the asphalt industry has an answer for agencies and owners who want to control stormwater in an environmentally responsible manner. It’s called porous asphalt and these structures have been constructed, tested and proved since the late 1970s, according to the National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA). Researchers have shown that by designing and constructing a porous asphalt pavement properly, you have a pavement that doesn’t fail. Period.

Another plus researchers have found for these pavements is a reduction in winter maintenance costs. Snow and ice naturally melt more quickly on a porous pavement. If you find it necessary to apply deicing compounds such as salt or liquid deicer, you can reduce quantities from past maintenance practices and you don’t have the fear of negative reactions found with concrete pavements. Researchers warn agencies and public works departments not to use sand or ash on the surface because clogging of the open graded friction course can occur, thus negating the infiltration ability of the structure. So there’s another winter maintenance cost savings porous asphalt offers.

Of course there are oodles more reasons to select a porous asphalt pavement for stormwater management, and NAPA offers publications that outline these. The association also offers publications that assist engineers in designing proper porous asphalt pavement structures. You can find these publications at http://www.hotmix.org/.

Now, what kind of publication would AsphaltPro be if we left you with just this idea? For this special Best Paving Practices issue, you can turn to page 24 to read a professional engineer’s article on how to construct a porous asphalt pavement—from the subbase up.

Stay Safe,
Sandy Lender, Editor (sandy at theasphaltpro dot com)

Tags: AsphaltPro Magazine, Asphalt Pro Magazine, porous asphalt, pervious concrete, construct porous asphalt pavement, stormwater management

Outfit Your Crew With the Tools for the Project

2009-07-15T10:29:00.000-07:00

(This article from the November 2008 issue of AsphaltPro magazine is referenced in the current June/July article titled "Pave Like it Affects Your Pay". It has been edited considerably to fit a blog format. Contact the home office for a subscription to AsphaltPro or for back issues, at 573-499-1830.)

by John Ball
When it comes to top quality paving practices, having the right equipment for the job is essential for success. As the project manager or foreman, you want to make sure the members of your crew have the tools they need to perform well. Here are some of the basic items your team needs to make the paving shift go smoothly.

Putty Knife
Don't underestimate how important the average putty knife is. Make sure the members of your team each have one that is about 3 inches wide. It's go to be stiff. It can't be flexible because you're going to be cleaning the lute, the shovel, the endgate, etc. The two people who'll use the putty knife the most are the lute and shovel guys. These laborers do all the raking and make sure the asphalt is smooth. We don't use diesel fuel to keep tools clean any longer. Instead, get them hot by dipping them in the asphalt; pull them out and scrape them off quickly with the putty knife.

Four-foot Level
The four-foot level is used to check the slope. Metal four-foot levels dont work very well because they heat up and warp. Instead, use a wooden four-foot level. A good one will range from $50 to $80 and will last a long time. Use it in conjunction with the 12-foot straight edge. First, put the 12-foot straight edge down parallel with the transverse joint to determine if you have any deterioration, if the extensions are lined up properly, etc. Place the four-foot level on top of the straight edge to read the slope. Paving crews also use a smart level, which is a battery-operated level made of plastic and metal. it's important to also use this device with the 12-foot straight edge to avoid constant contact with the hot mat.

Measuring Wheel
One of the most important aspects of managing a project is watching your yield. A measuring wheel measures out each load, telling you where you are. It's a necessary tool for the guy on the paver, especially the guy running the screed. He needs to know how many tons are coming in, but he also needs to know the placement. How far is the load going? What is his yield?

Ball of String and Paint
For marking after measuring with the measuring wheel, I recommend something as simple as a ball of string and paint. And I don't mean just a can of paint; I mean a marking stick to ensure the crew member marks a straight line. Be sure the string you choose is nylon string with about a quarter of an inch thickness.

30-foot Wheel Tape
Even with a measuring wheel to help a crew stay on the mark, a 30-foot wheel tape-or measuring tape-is important as well. We use the 30-foot tape because it enables us to go across two mats.

Four-foot Wooden Folding Ruler
The four-foot wooden folding ruler is much like a carpenter's ruler. I always recommend the Lukins Model #1066-D. This one is thicker than other brands and won't break as easily. It features inches on one side, hundredths and tenths on the other side. If I want 2 percent slope, I can actually read the slope on the engineer's side.

Release Agent
Back in the old days, we used to have a 5-gallon pail of diesel for regular cleaning. Crew members used to dip the shovel, lutes and rakes in there. Now we use a biodegradable solution in spray containers. The 5-gallon pail has been replaced with a 3-gallon sprayer.

The project manager is responsible for thousands of details before the project even begins, but making sure crew members have the right tools to take care of details on the project goes a long way toward getting the job done right.

Tags: AsphaltPro Magazine, Asphalt Pro Magazine, paving tools, John Ball

Tell Our Good Story to Your Representatives

2009-07-15T10:16:00.000-07:00

(from the April/May Editor's Note in AsphaltPro Magazine)

I’ve got a friend in the asphalt industry who gets excited about seeing celebrities. I don’t want to embarrass him by throwing his name down in print, but it’s as if the celebrity has some superior element about him or her that non-celebrities don’t. I’ve got another friend who says he could never visit his Congressman because the guy is too “official”. Too important in the world. It’s as if the Congressman has some superior element about him or her that we non-Congressmen don’t.

Now, I’m not suggesting that we ignore the authority of an elected official’s position, but I’d like to remind everyone that our representatives are people just like us. We gave them their jobs when we voted for them, so we shouldn’t be intimidated when it’s time to sit down and visit with them; especially when that visit is over something as important as infrastructure funding.

This is the last issue of AsphaltPro that you’ll receive prior to the May 19 through 20 legislative fly-in to Washington. Can you afford not to send someone from your company to discuss the importance of transportation funding with your representatives? (Visit www.transportationconstructioncoalition.org for details on the fly-in.)

Let me tell you who will fill the void you leave if you don’t participate: multiple members of special interest groups with extreme anti-infrastructure ideas. When Former Speaker of the House Trent Lott spoke to the audience at the National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA) meeting in San Diego in January, he informed us that for every couple of construction representatives calling him to promote safe roadway funding, he could have at least a dozen overly exuberant folks calling for an end to more roads and what they perceived as urban sprawl.

That’s one reason why the good environmental messages of the asphalt industry are so important to get across to our representatives as we make our case for reauthorization of the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU). As recently as March 31, Mike Acott, president of NAPA, sat before the House Science and Technology Subcommittee on Technology and Innovation to brief members on the technologies of asphalt recycling, warm mix, Perpetual Pavement and porous asphalt that offer a sustainable future for the transportation grid of our nation. Acott told representatives: “Within five years, I believe you will see full deployment of warm mix, much higher rates of recycling, and development and application of Perpetual Pavement and porous asphalt technologies leading to a substantial reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental and economic benefits within the asphalt pavement sector.”

As you can see, there are myriad talking points, but the main point is we should each be talking.
For the article “Spread it Around: Black is the New Green” on page 24, industry leaders discussed different safe and sound practices they’ve tried or seen for enhancing air quality, improving neighbor relations, reducing carbon footprint, etc. For the article “Asphalt Proves Correct Choice for LEED Project Credits” on page 20, we show how asphalt products can gain points for engineers designing projects eligible for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Neighborhood Development certification. And, my personal favorite this month, in “When It’s the Right Thing to Do” on page 28, the S.T. Wooten family shares their experiences setting up an ecological masterpiece in Southwest Florida. These are the kind of positive stories and ideas we should be sharing openly and often with not only legislators, but also with the public in general.

Jay Hansen, vice president of government affairs for NAPA, has asked that, even if you can’t make it to the legislative fly-in in Washington, make it a point to meet with your representative in your district office, away from the distractions of D.C. Make it a point to share with representatives that asphalt products can help in mitigating the impact of transportation infrastructure on the environment. Make it a point to let your representative know that environmental issues matter to you as a member of the asphalt industry that can help support economic growth and safe corridors for transportation in this nation.

Stay Safe,
Sandy Lender, Editor (sandy at theasphaltpro dot com)

Tags: AsphaltPro Magazine, Asphalt Pro Magazine, environment, economic growth, air quality, carbon footprint, LEED credits, porous asphalt

Save the Environment, Bottom Line by Increasing Your Recycling Efforts

2009-07-15T10:02:00.000-07:00

(from the March 2009 Editor's Note in AsphaltPro Magazine)

I’m not talking about plastic here. Anyone can put a filter on their kitchen faucet and feel better about saving our landfills from a plastic bottle invasion, but it’s the members of the asphalt industry who can participate in the big carbon footprint savings. We get to work with the No. 1 recycled item in the world: recycled asphalt pavement (RAP). We re-use the liquid asphalt cement (AC) and the aggregate that’s in RAP. We’ve even found a way to do it while decreasing the production temperature of the new mix.

But how much RAP are you, specifically, running at your hot mix asphalt (HMA) facility? What percentage of RAP did you put in that state mix last spring? If the department of transportation (DOT) allows 15 percent in the surface course, did you use 15 percent, or did you over-cautiously only add 5 percent?

It’s perfectly safe to jump on the recycling bandwagon and save yourself some money. Based on the fictional numbers I’ve run in the Economic Example sidebar below, using 5 percent RAP in a mix would save a producer good cash per ton. Imagine how much more he’d save if he increased the amount of RAP further, thus decreasing the amount of virgin materials. And look at the Environmental Example to see how much virgin material he leaves for some other project.

Even if your state agency hasn’t given the green light to run high percentages of RAP, the trend is under way. In fact, as CalTrans’ Terrie Bressette and NCAT’s Andrea Kvasnak pointed out during their presentations at the 54th annual National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA) meeting, many states have higher RAP allowed percentages than producers and contractors take advantage of.

And that’s a shame. We know RAP supplies are easily processed, cleaned materials that present quality mix components. Long gone are the days when shingles contained asbestos or millings came from questionable mixes.

It helps the asphalt industry when we each take positive, proactive steps toward advancing higher percentages of RAP in mixes. Showing progressive state agencies that we, as an industry, are willing and able to tackle those higher percentages is a win-win for us. NAPA has even identified that as an important point on its journey to doubling the amount of RAP used in asphalt mixes during the next five years. Does that sound like a tall order? It’s one of the association’s six core strategies for 2009 and it sounds quite plausible when you read through the enormous list of steps NAPA staff has outlined to bring the dream to fruition.

As with any industry goal, it will involve participation from all segments of industry—and that includes readers of AsphaltPro. Do you think your plant can run high RAP (greater than 50 percent) mixes? Do you think you’re ready to put a “very high RAP content” (70 percent) mix on your next commercial project? Whatever RAP project you’re working on, are you taking measurements and making notes to share with NAPA and AsphaltPro staff? We’ve got to get the word out to others that recycling not only “saves” the environment, but your bottom line as well. Isn’t that something worth increasing?

Stay Safe,
Sandy Lender, Editor (sandy at theasphaltpro dot com)
(See print publication for sidebars referenced in this article.)

Tags: AsphaltPro Magazine, Asphalt Pro Magazine, RAP, recycled asphalt pavement, environment, allowed percentages, landfills

Anticipation

2009-07-15T09:51:00.000-07:00

(from the February 2009 Editor's Note of AsphaltPro Magazine)

We’ll have in-depth coverage of the recent National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA) 54th annual meeting in our March issue, when there’s time to compile all the information for you properly, but I have to say that I came away from the conference sensing an air of anticipation in the asphalt industry. We’re waiting to see what happens with oil prices. We’re waiting to see what happens with transportation funding. We’re waiting to see which equipment manufacturers cut how many jobs. We’re waiting to see if the competitor down the street brings back all his crews or if he works short-handed this paving season.

This waiting around can be stressful if you’re a Type A personality like me.

What do all of the Type As and other interested business persons do while we wait? There’s an excellent opportunity to influence our destiny with legislation. By the time this issue hits the streets, the economic stimulus package should have passed, promising just about $30 billion for roads and bridges. I’ll provide you a breakdown of how that money gets divided among the states once it’s a sure thing—no point in counting the chickens before they’ve hatched.

We also have the 2009 Transportation Appropriations Bill to inject some funds into our coffers and the reauthorization act to get Congress to approve. It’s the reauthorization act that professionals all over the industry are focused on. This is the one we should be talking to our legislators about.

From the very nature of the word “reauthorization” you can guess that, as an industry, we’re asking Congress to give us what we’ve had in the past. But we need, and are asking for, additional funding. That’s going to take effort because no one really relishes the idea of raising the gas tax. Call it a user fee if you like; we’re still asking a legislative body to make people pay more at the pump. Of course, we’re asking for this money to protect those people—to give them safer roadways and economic growth. And that’s a message we need to send to our legislators. By investing in the highway industry, a Congressman invests in his or her constituents’ livelihoods. It’s not a stretch to figure out, but it will take a concerted effort to convince folks when part of the convincing involves money.

Luckily, raising money isn’t unprecedented right now. Look at the example Tulsa has set for us on page 9.

Former Speaker of the House Trent Lott spoke to the attendees at the NAPA meeting last month and told us that the public should participate in transportation funding because it’s in the public’s interest to have safe roads. That sounds like another excellent point to put before our legislators.

But who’s bringing these talking points to the representatives that cast the votes for reauthorization? Are you relying on the staff at NAPA to do all the work? Trust me, Jay Hansen is working hard, but he’s just one person. As Lott told the packed room in San Diego, “This is the time to step up.” Every member of the industry needs to be in communication with the members of Congress to let them know that we’re ready and able to help the economy recover. Funnel the money into the roads and bridges of this nation and we’ll do the rest. We’ll employ workers who buy goods. We’ll fix roads that keep motorists safe. We’ll build corridors that move products from point A to point B. We’ll bring industry to regions that were formerly without economic growth.

I encourage you to get on the phone and tell your legislators that the asphalt industry is, as Lott said, “an important part of our recovery.” If you don’t know how to reach your specific representatives, visit http://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/congdir.tt for a listing.

It’s going to take all of us to help the nation recover once funding funnels to project level. But first it’s going to take all of us to get that funding in place. I encourage you to do your part in controlling your destiny.

Stay Safe,
Sandy Lender, Editor (sandy at theasphaltpro dot com)

Tags: AsphaltPro Magazine, Asphalt Pro Magazine, Federal Highway Funding, economic growth, economic recovery

Map Out Your Warm Mix Asphalt Plan

2009-07-15T09:40:00.000-07:00

(from the January 2009 Editor's Note in AsphaltPro Magazine)

It’s that time of year when people hand you champagne and ask, “What’s your new year’s resolution?” I typically dread the question because I avoid making resolutions. But if you’re going to make a goal for 2009, you should also make a plan to achieve that goal with rollicking success.

I have a two-part system for achieving long-term goals, even though I don’t call them resolutions or generally set them around Jan. 1. I start with a blank piece of paper on which I write the goal in a simple two- or three-word phrase. I then surround this phrase with a hodge-podge of random actions I’ll need to take to meet the central goal. For stage two, I organize all those actions into manageable lists. I don’t remember where I learned this, but I’ve been doing it since I got out of high school and it’s served me well. Let’s see if we can make it make sense to serve you, too.

Let’s say you want to jump into the warm mix asphalt (WMA) arena. Write “Run WMA” or something to that effect in the middle of your piece of blank paper. Now what are the actions you’ll need to take to achieve that goal? Hopefully, the ideas will come at you quickly and you’ll start writing like mad. Pay no attention to penmanship and margins. Start writing things such as “educate ground crew” or “check flighting” or “get new technology” or “bid WMA job” or “attend state seminar.” You see, at this stage of planning, it doesn’t matter in what order you write your ideas—it matters that you write them. You just want to splatter your action items on the page as quickly as you can.

Come back to the page often to read off the ideas and add more that come to you.

Once you feel you’ve exhausted your action ideas and have as many written down as you’re going to come up with, it’s time to organize them. Take a good look at which ones should go first, and which ones are going to involve secondary lists. For instance, if you’ve written “get new technology” as part of your plan to facilitate bringing your operation into the WMA revolution, you need to do some research.

Write that down and figure out where you want your research to start. Online? With fellow state association members who have already begun WMA projects? There are plant equipment manufacturers in the magazine you’re holding who employ experts in the area of WMA, additives and foaming, installation of new components, and modification of existing equipment. It’s in their best interest to guide you gently into this realm and to help you in the most cost-efficient manner possible, not to pressure you with a hard sell that leaves you winded and wondering, so don’t overlook what they can do to help you.

Let’s say you’ve written down something as easy as “attend state seminar” but your state’s annual meeting, complete with seminars on WMA, isn’t until November. Don’t wait until then to start. Use that seminar as a refresher after you’ve attended the NAPA mid-year meeting this July, or after you’ve attended World of Asphalt’s conference sessions in March, or after you’ve attended a state DOT’s continuing education program earlier in the year. The opportunities to learn about WMA abound, and you’ll be seeing more application stories right here in AsphaltPro as producers learn and share their stories with each other. Maybe you’ll be sharing your story by the time your state meeting rolls around.

The secret of the lists is to follow them. As with any new thing, having a partner who holds you accountable is a great way to stay on task, but, considering this is your business and WMA is the wave of the future, I don’t think you’ll have much trouble staying motivated if this is a resolution you’ve made.

Whatever your goals and plans for 2009, may you have a prosperous and blessed new year. It’s not supposed to be an easy one, we’ve all been told, but we have a transportation bill to come together on and plenty of business tips and strategies to help each other with. As the year progresses, I’m sure we’ll see ways to maximize our strengths while we work on our goals. I look forward to working on them with you.

Stay Safe,
Sandy Lender, Editor (sandy at theasphaltpro dot com)

Tags: AsphaltPro Magazine, Asphalt Pro Magazine, WMA, warm mix asphalt, implementation, equipment

How Are You Doing?

2009-07-15T09:23:00.000-07:00

(from the December 2008 Editor's Note in AsphaltPro Magazine)

It's difficult to avoid gluttonous imagery during the holiday season. By the time you read this, we'll have just recovered from a turkey coma and be hard-pressed to find a news station not bemoaning this year's consumer reports and what they mean for retailers. The focus around us is on "how much" we should be spending, taking in and consuming. No matter which religion you claim, I think this time of year should bring something more peaceful to mind instead.

In light of current market conditions, your AsphaltPro staff has offered cost-cutting strategies and equipment-stretching maintenance tips in the past few months. We'll continue to do so, but, this month, as you prepare for the holiday season, winter downtime, seasonal layoffs, end-of-year accounting, annual maintenance, etc., I wanted to ask a sensitive question.

How are you doing?

Are you taking the current down-swing in stride and working diligently toward the day when we start our up-swing? Are you making phone calls and sending e-mails to your representatives so they know how important the new highway funding bill will be? Are you keeping your equipment in tip-top shape so it performs beautifully for you on every commercial, residential, county, city or state job? Are you maintaining a positive attitude?

I know that positive affirmation stuff often comes off sounding trite. I've sat through a couple of those "power-up" seminars in my day. But let me tell you something. There are eyes in Washington watching our industry-watching for the signs of readiness. The great and wonderful news is that the asphalt industry sits poised and ready to pounce on the projects that will heal and protect our nation's infrastructure when funding rises to the occasion. The asphalt industry still researches and develops the environmentally safe, innovative ways to restore our roadways even while funding falters because we know to be ready. When funding slides back in place, we'll be there to come to the rescue.

That's a pretty positive picture.

In this issue of AsphaltPro, industry experts have offered not just their opinions on the state of the construction industry today, but their tips for getting through a prolonged downturn in the industry's cycle. I can't imagine how irresponsible a reporter would be to leave you with the gloom and doom of "we're in a down cycle." Instead, the folks who have offered their insights to you also offer words of wisdom to keep your spirits up. When I ask how you're doing, I want to know. I want to know how readers are implementing the ideas experts offer in AsphaltPro pages. I want to know how you're using ideas passed down through your family business. I want to know how you're keeping your positive attitude alive in your business-in your employees-as you stride through the current marketplace.

I also want to wish you a peaceful, hope-filled holiday season. There is much to be thankful for this year, no matter what the economists say. I'll start by thanking each one of you for reading the magazine. It's a pleasure to bring you industry information each month, and I look forward to spending the next year with you!

Stay safe,
Sandy Lender, Editor

Tags: AsphaltPro Magazine, Asphalt Pro Magazine, Editor's Note

Gambling on the Future

2008-11-07T13:17:00.000-08:00

(from the November Editor's Note in AsphaltPro Magazine)

Something John Ball told me for the cost-cutting article in this month's issue got me to thinking. He suggested that owners incorporate the bonuses they anticipate achieving on a project into the project's bid. Well, yes, I've known folks to do this. If you have faith that your crew can exceed the density spec or can finish ahead of schedule garnering a smoothness or early completion bonus, why not factor that into the estimate to make sure your bid is lower than the bid from the folks down the road?

It's a gamble.

But there are aspects of this industry that aren't a gamble. When you stock up on liquid asphalt cement (AC) in the winter, you know you'll use that grade in that quantity while prices are rising in the marketplace during the regular construction season. Now, given this past year's prices, that would have been a good risk to take in December 2007.

Another good risk this year is equipment purchases. Manufacturers are willing to wheel and deal, and the economic stimulus package that went into effect back in the winter still stands—to the tune of a $200,000 deduction for some businesses.

Something I view as a bad gamble is reducing personnel. Given the safety concerns and the complexity of most jobs in quarries, at the hot mix asphalt (HMA) plant and at the paving site, firing a trained employee to save the cost of his or her salary—plus benefits—is short-sighted. You might think another employee—or two—can put on an additional hat and take on that now-missing person's responsibilities, but there's no replacing his or her experience.

Often, a veteran employee with many years of experience and knowledge is the one with the higher salary; he's the one targeted to reduce costs. How negligent is an owner who releases that employee and expects a less-skilled worker to take over at his station the next day? Does anyone think a project's quality control will improve with this business practice in place?

Eventually, the construction industry's bell curve will swing back up and you'll need to hire new workers. Who's going to show them the specific nuances of the machines and operations in your business if the folks with the inside knowledge have been released to seek employment with your competitors? By releasing skilled workers now, you not only cripple current operations, but also sabotage future projects.

How about instigating new, good business practices with less risk? Industry experts weighed in with some excellent ideas for saving money/cutting costs no matter what the size of your business and we assembled them in one massive article starting on page 10. Now, there are a few ideas that take capital upfront. Those you can put in the "gamble" category if you're living close to the edge in this turbulent economic climate, but other business practices that don't take a substantial initial investment start saving you money right away. Anything from reducing fuel costs, utility bills and equipment loss to increasing efficiency of individual pieces of equipment and office systems can help cushion the increased costs of materials these days.

If you know your costs are lowering, your systems are increasing in efficiency and your skilled employees are on board and working hard for you, then the numbers you put on the next bid aren't quite as large a gamble as they were before. You can have more faith in your operation and can bid with more confidence, less risk.

Stay safe,
Sandy Lender

Tags: AsphaltPro, Asphalt Pro, fuel costs, employees

Alternative Fuels Lead to Alternative Funding

2008-11-07T13:10:00.000-08:00

(from the October Editor's Note of AsphaltPro Magazine)

During my first sojourn into the asphalt industry, I worked for an entrepreneur named Bill Neeley. Bill would often come flying into my office, pull a chair up close to my desk, and say in a half-whisper, half-yawp, "Lady, I've got an idea!" Somehow, that half-whisper filled the room with electricity. No matter what the idea, something exciting was about to happen. Or…maybe something that would have to be handled delicately to bring Bill back down to reality. It depended on the idea, you know. One day Bill introduced me to a book called Only the Paranoid Survive by Andrew S. Grove.

That sounded about my speed.

The principle I came away with from the book was this: pay attention to what could be coming down the pike. Now, I want to put a different spin on it. I like to think of it as only the prepared survive. You never know when a great idea is going to affect your industry or your company or your little neck of the woods. In the case of the transportation industry, right now, these next few years, this election season, there's a lot to pay attention to. Bill's little book is stirring in the back of my mind as we watch the various factors that impact highway transportation funding.

Think about the marketplace. Drivers are sick of paying high prices at the gas pump, so they're driving less. Carpooling is back in vogue and family vacations lean closer to home. The less consumers put in their gas tanks, the less they put in the highway funding coffers.

Consider also the alternative fuels that keep new engines running cleanly and efficiently. With less taxable parts going in, there's less funding coming out.

Where do we make up the difference to keep highways and byways safe for the traveling public? Where do we make up the difference to keep American infrastructure strong and the workers building that infrastructure a part of the American economy? And when was the last time we defined "infrastructure" for the taxpayers who are casting their votes next month? One person's idea of infrastructure can encapsulate museums and schools. Let's get our terminology straight with some taxpayer and legislator education while we get our alternative funding ideas set as well. Already, contractors and DOT officials are coming together in places like Colorado and out east where forward thinkers are considering the ramifications of losing highway funding to the alternative fuels revolution. This strategic planning needs to take hold at our state and national meetings this winter. Now is a great time to take advantage of downtime and plan ahead for what's coming down the pike.

My friend Bill passed away a few months ago, and it broke my heart to hear of it. I'd like to think that if he's paying attention now, he'd be pleased to see this industry he was so involved in planning on surviving. I wouldn't say we're being paranoid, but being prepared. And that's survival of the fit.

Stay Safe,
Sandy Lender

Tags: AsphaltPro, Asphalt Pro, alternative fuels, alternative funding

Industry Controls Dust, Water

2008-11-07T13:03:00.000-08:00

(from the August/September Editor's Note of AsphaltPro Magazine)

Welcome to the issue dedicated to aggregate concerns. Of course we have plenty of hot mix discussions in this edition of AsphaltPro, but, if you readers don't mind, I feel the need to ramble a bit about rocks and crushing and how nicely our industry is watching out for dust. (I'll call your attention to our Here's How it Works department featuring the DustPro system on page 37 as just one example, and I'll dive into the topic here in a minute.) First, I have to tell you why the aggregate issue is so intriguing to me.

Maybe I was just a strange girl, but I thought it was pretty neat when my dad gave me a geode 30 someodd years ago. The outside of the rock was just your average ol' rocky brown and gray stuff you see in any ol' pile, but when I turned it over—oh, wow! It was purple inside. And crystal-like. And there were layers of color and sharpness angled down through a hollowed crevice in the center. That, my friends, was cool.

During my childhood, I wanted to hear stories of Grandpa working in the coal mines and how they got the material up out of the ground. When I had science electives in college, this English major took geology. When I sat down to write a fantasy trilogy, I gave my main character the all-important-to-the-plot birthmark of an amethyst on her cheekbone, high up near the corner of her right eye. (And, yes, it's under contract; the second book is due out this fall.)

All of that interest in rocks translates to overzealous research now that I'm including so much information about crushing, screening, stockpiling, monitoring, hauling, weighing, testing, mix designing, etc., in a professional asphalt magazine. In my research for this issue, I focused quite a bit on dust control and the recent Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) Subpart OOO from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). All that is also called "the opacity rule" and it deals with the visible emissions/dust that a non-metallic mineral processing plant gives off around crushers, screens, conveyor transfer points, etc.

The folks at the National Stone, Sand and Gravel Association (NSSGA) seem confident that the EPA final changes to the opacity rule won't require big changes to producers' current equipment or visible emissions testing. That's excellent news, especially considering the controls both aggregate and HMA producers already have in place to keep stray dust down.

Most equipment manufacturers are a little gunshy when it comes to talking about environmental issues, but the folks at Astec Industries, Chattanooga, and National Environmental Service Co. (NESCO), Mendham, N.J., were eager to point out how cautious industry members are and how effective current equipment is at controlling dust from normal operations. As Larry Thomas, an engineer at Astec pointed out, a 40 mile-an-hour gust of wind will kick up dust on any site, be it a ball field, nursery lot, or crushing operation, but plant owners have means of keeping dust under control with hoods and covers, dust return systems, baghouses and, of course, water. As Thomas reminded me, though, producers use caution with water, as well.

"Controlling dust at the site is not just a matter of throwing water on it," he said. He recommended producers use high pressure (100 to 200 psi), low volume systems to spray small droplets of water over areas to "capture" and weigh down dust. The small droplets allow producers to keep dust down without allowing enormous amounts of water into the material, which would increase drying times. And we all know what that leads to.

The dust suppression systems the Astec family incorporates in its conveying, crushing and screening equipment use this high pressure, low volume spray of water to help keep dust down at the areas producers target. Other companies using similar systems and producers incorporating such retrofits and aftermarket systems prove the conscientious effort this industry makes to keep visible dust to a minimum.

One of the reasons to watch your water spray is, of course, the time and fuel consumption rate it adds when overly wet material hits the HMA drum, but another is compliance with the Clean Water Act. While current issues focus on storm water runoff, any water runoff is up for scrutiny. This issue is a point for the aggregate industry to keep an eye on. While EPA currently focuses on storm water runoff at ready mixed concrete plants, the entity's officers also look at potential storm water runoff issues from aggregate facilities co-located with ready mixed concrete plants.

I checked with NSSGA to make sure HMA plants weren't a target yet, and Vice President of Environmental Services John Hayden reported that EPA's "priorities" for 2008 don't include asphalt plants. It looks as though this segment of the industry is still trusted to regulate itself when it comes to water issues. NSSGA is working with EPA to develop educational materials to help aggregate producers understand what's required of them under the storm water requirements of the Clean Water Act, and additional water runoff from water trucks and spray systems needs to be kept to a minimum. Hayden reminded me that NSSGA has a storm water management guide for aggregate producers that evaluates their permitting and control operations for storm water available at www.nssga.org.

As luck would have it, OEMs already have their customers in the aggregate and asphalt industry covered when it comes to keeping dust and water runoff under control. With high pressure, low volume systems delivering atomized mists and small droplets of water to coat and suppress dust, minimal water is left to pool or run off the site.

Who would have thought that as a 6- or 7-year-old child I would some day look at that pretty purple rock from Dad and wonder how much dust was suppressed to get it out of the ground? Or how much water was used in the suppression of the dust? Luckily, we have an industry that takes the neighbors' children into consideration when getting rock out of the ground, processing it, transporting it and putting it in HMA mixes. What we end up with is an industry that considers the environmental aspects of beginning, operating and closing down aggregate facilities before the first blasting charge goes off. It's an intriguing part of asphalt production to me.

Stay Safe,
Sandy Lender

Tags: AsphaltPro, Asphalt Pro, aggregate, dust suppression

Double Up on Summer Safety Devices

2008-11-07T12:51:00.000-08:00

(from the June/July Editor's Note of AsphaltPro Magazine)

An online article about dangerous jobs prompted this editorial. Those of you who know me know I harp on safety ad nauseum. This magazine includes an Accident Report in every issue where I agonize for hours trying to find a tactful and respectful way to turn some poor family's tragedy and loss into a useful guide to help others avoid similar accidents.

So when a reporter outside our industry listed "construction" as the top dangerous job, I took an interest.

She didn't tell her readers anything we members of the construction industry didn't already know. The article, as most online articles are, was a generic sort of piece with little substance, telling us it's more dangerous, according to numbers the author gleaned from a Bureau of Labor Statistics site, to be a construction worker than a stunt man. Surprise.

For as harsh as I'm being, I did find something in the article that I've not read in the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) or in the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) recommendations or in the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) reports that I summarize for you on a regular basis. What she suggested was this: Double up.

She wasn't talking about the buddy system that we often illustrate in our Accident Report—where you have a co-worker responsible for tracking your movements and safety during your shift. She was talking about the availability of your personal protective equipment (PPE).

How many of you take an extra safety vest with you to the work zone? Stop and consider how your vest's effectiveness is reduced if you're sprayed with mud and grime from passing motorists half-way through your shift. The point of the glowing orange or yellow stripes is to catch a driver's eye, and that purpose is negated if your vest is covered with a layer of road camouflage. Take the time to put on a clean vest from the cab of your truck or whatever company vehicle brought you to the site.

When you're working at the plant, have a spare set of gloves nearby. You never know when a loose belt will rip one of yours or when a hot spill will make your current pair "less than comfortable."

How about your safety goggles? An extra pair will keep you safe and everyone working smoothly if a stray piece of aggregate chips the pair you're wearing.

The point is you never want to be without all your PPE in place. So having spare pieces on hand means no downtime in the event of a minor mishap while you go looking for replacement parts. You certainly don't want to continue working without gloves, goggles, a hard hat or a vest (a clean, visible vest), so doubling up on PPE for the summer construction season is a wise and safe suggestion.

One company that we recommend for ordering supplies is Sierra Safety Co., Newcastle, Calif. You can reach them at (916) 663-2026 or visit their Web site at this link. Don't wait to have your safety materials in place. Personal protection is a serious and important aspect of every job. And, as mentioned above, the Accident Report department featured in each issue of AsphaltPro has often referred to NIOSH's recommendation of on-board camera systems to enhance safety. I had the good fortune of meeting up with a representative of ECCO, a Division of ECCO Group, Boise, Idaho, while at CONEXPO, and learned more about that company's monitoring systems. They have an extensive catalog of safety lighting and monitoring devices for construction equipment, and can be contacted at (800) 635-5900 or by visiting their Web site at this link. Also watch the pages of AsphaltPro for examples of their safety products.

Stay Safe,
Sandy Lender

Tags: AsphaltPro, Asphalt Pro, personal protective, safety

Add This to the Federal Highway Funding Mix

2008-05-07T09:59:00.000-07:00

(from the April/May Editor's Note of AsphaltPro magazine)

Senator John McCain suggested in mid-April that we remove taxes from gasoline for about three months to help families foot rising costs. I wasn't sure I heard the report correctly so I researched it. Luckily, it looked like enough folks were reeling from the announcement that he'd back off the idea.

But it struck me. When I lived 26 miles from my office, I counted my pennies to fill up the oh-so-sensible sedan that I keep in clean and constant repair, right down to the nitrogen-inflated tires, for excellent fuel economy. Trust me, that thing is still in constant repair. It has 173,000-plus miles on it. I'll drive it until it gasps its final cough and sputters to a stop at the side of the road. (Hopefully, one of you faithful readers will be in a work zone nearby.)

My point is I'm not about to buy one of these gas-guzzlers that McCain knows so many consumers own. He suggested we forego putting money into the economy-stimulating Federal Highway Trust Fund to help consumers save some cash. In turn, we'd spend the money saved in other areas, and transportation-dependent businesses, such as delivery services, would get a break as well.

While one of those goals is laudable, the other is not. As the editor of AsphaltPro, a magazine that speaks to the road construction industry, I would prefer having a job to saving a few dollars at the pump next month. Wouldn't you prefer to be employed as well? I can see a swell in the number of layoffs in this industry if we suddenly lose a couple billion dollars in highway funding this spring.

Here's the good news.

Consumers, while driving a bit less than we were this time last year, according to the Energy Information Administration (see Last Cut on pages 41-42), haven't given up driving altogether. Families may opt for vacations closer to home this summer, but they're not hitching up horses to a buggy to go. Trade and commerce still rely on over-the-road transportation to get goods to market, thus truck drivers still fill up the tank and carry the load. The folks who were my neighbors when I lived 26 miles from my office still drive to town to work every day and still buy gas to do it. And guess what? That getting-to-work phenomenon happens all over the United States (and beyond).

It's apparent in the accommodations manufacturers build into their automobiles that consumers expect long commutes. Look at the features you can select for multi-tasking ease while spending an inordinate amount of time in the family car. From sending text messages to searching XM stations to finding your way through foreign streets to relaxing against a pre-warmed back massager, cars are designed to let you forget how long you've been sitting in a leather bucket recliner while the engine in front of you burned the gas for which you spent $3.70 a gallon.

The moral of the story is consumers still demand gas for their vehicles, thus crude oil is still purchased, thus AC is still made, thus asphalt producers can still track prices through supply chains. The wheel keeps on turning. Consumers will continue to put much-needed funds into highway funding coffers as long as the tax is in place. Now, keeping that tax in place is up to us.

You can let your representatives know how important the current user fee is to your livelihood, to the maintenance of safe roads in this country, and to the building of needed infrastructure to reduce congestion and pollution by writing to them. Get their contact information at http://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/congdir.tt.

Stay Safe,
Sandy Lender, Editor

Tags: AsphaltPro, Asphalt Pro, McCain, Federal Highway Funding, Senator John McCain, Federal Highway Trust Fund, taxes

You Want to do WHAT in an Election Year?

2008-05-07T09:48:00.000-07:00

(from the March Editor's Note of AsphaltPro magazine)

We ought to just label this "the tax issue" of AsphaltPro. We've got an article about transportation funding compiled from AASHTO Executive Director John Horsley's presentation at the recent NAPA meeting, our coverage of the NAPA meeting includes a hefty dose of info on transportation funding, and I'm about to rail on the topic here.

You have to understand, I don't like paying taxes. I live in a state where there is no state income tax, and that makes me pretty happy. (One less surprise to pay in April.) But a fuel tax that makes the roads I drive on safer is one of those inconvenient things that I almost welcome (almost) because it makes sense. And let's argue the word "inconvenient" for a moment, shall we?

How inconvenient is it to absorb an extra 40 cents that got worked into the system somewhere up the chain so I'm paying a couple cents extra at the pump? The steps:

1. insert debit card
2. pump gas
3. hang up nozzle
4. drive away

That wasn't so inconvenient, now, was it? It's not as if I was asked to write a large check to the state specifically to take care of the roads I want repaired so I can be safe, so my groceries can be delivered in a timely fashion to the store down the street, so the ambulance whisking a friend to the emergency room gets there without an additional accident, so the airplane taking me to CONEXPO doesn't have to wait in a long line because Runway C is too cracked for use.

Do you see my point? We don't feel the shock of a 40-cent user fee increase at the pump, but we sure will feel the shock of losing $70 billion in Federal Highway Funding next fall when the current user fee expires.

Consider the number of roads the construction industry can maintain if DOTs and counties see a sudden and sharp decrease in funding. How many new projects, intended to mitigate gridlock and congestion, do you think will go through if states suddenly can't go to the well for monies to pay contractors? And if states can't afford to let projects, how can producers and contractors afford to keep employees?

If your job is at risk, you must let your representative know. Why vote for him or her this fall if he or she isn't interested in protecting your welfare on not just that basic employment level, but on a safety level, too? The roads we all drive on should, at the very least, be preserved and maintained to keep them safe for travel. (Heck, about 4 to 6 percent of the roads in this country are concrete pavements that need to be replaced and/or resurfaced!)

The argument I present to you is that your representative in Congress should be concerned about your livelihood and your safety. If that person isn't willing to reinstate and up the user fee that funds highway and infrastructure expenses, then that person isn't willing to reinstate your job. Why should you be willing to reinstate his (or hers)?

Congress has to act this summer to get a user fee in place to replace the one that's expiring. Without it, we won't have the funds to continue maintaining and improving the nation's highways and bridges. Safety, thus lives, are at risk. Jobs, thus livelihoods, are at risk. It's time to make some phone calls. You can find your representatives' contact information at http://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/congdir.tt.

Stay Safe,
Sandy Lender, Editor

Tags: AsphaltPro, Asphalt Pro, Federal Highway Funding

Transportation Funding Needs Your Voice

2008-05-07T09:37:00.000-07:00

Join the Transportation Construction Coalition (TCC) this May 20 to 21 as members of the asphalt industry participate in the legislative process. Let your representatives know that the expiration of Federal Highway Funding Sept. 30, 2009, means the expiration of safe roads, economic growth and construction industry jobs.

If you can't participate in the 2008 TCC Legislative Fly-In this month, let your representatives know of your interest in the nation's future by writing or calling them directly. You can find their contact information at the site link below:

http://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/congdir.tt

Tags: Transportation Construction Coalition, TCC, Federal Highway Funding, Legislative Fly-In

AsphaltPro's Focus is Asphalt

2008-05-07T09:28:00.000-07:00

(from the February Editor's Note of AsphaltPro magazine)

I'm going to come right out and say it. AsphaltPro magazine's owner has no interest in the concrete industry. Therefore, when I hit the roof and started ranting about the American Concrete Pavement Association's (ACPA) manipulation of data to make asphalt pavements appear more expensive to produce than concrete pavements, Chris (the publisher) knew what was coming next. I complained (loudly) about what I considered unfair tactics while I pilfered the Internet and better primary sources to get the scoop, and then I prepared a scathing editorial for you readers. We're not offending any family members' advertisers by telling asphalt contractors the truth.

In a nutshell, ACPA developed a software program called StreetPave to assist contractors in determining lifecycle costs for both asphalt and concrete pavements based on what the software determines to be "equivalent" pavement parameters. The software, according to Asphalt Institute's Dwight Walker, uses AI's SW-1 software paradigm, but makes a modification to the data in the asphalt equation. "They made some sort of modification without explaining to the user what it was," Walker said.

My attempts to clarify that with other engineers went unanswered, but it looks like the StreetPave software literally reduces the subgrade strength of the asphalt design when the user punches in a number. This forces the program to add inches of asphalt subgrade to the asphalt pavement in the comparison. This means more material and more materials cost in the asphalt equation.

According to AI's Nov. 28, 2007, post on its Web site, "StreetPave takes the single subgrade strength value input by the user (only one value is allowed) and inappropriately reduces it prior to running the asphalt thickness design calculation." Because the concrete pavement design doesn't receive a similar reduction, the two pavements cannot be considered equivalent after all, and the asphalt pavement ends up being extraordinarily thick. In other words, the asphalt pavement turns out more expensive to build, in the StreetPave model, than it actually needs to be.

Now, how many people purchasing the ACPA product are making a roadbuilding decision between HMA and PCC? One would assume concrete producers purchase software to maximize their concrete-production efficiency from concrete industry members, just as asphalt producers purchase software to maximize their asphalt-production efficiency from asphalt industry members, so perhaps it doesn't matter that ACPA has something that appears blatantly underhanded in its marketing arsenal. Or perhaps it does.

Consider how precious the few projects being let in your county are. Do you want the local concrete producer to walk into the DOT office with a copy of StreetPave to show the materials engineer how much more expensive it makes the next pavement look over its lifetime if he elects to use HMA instead of PCC? You would be well served to let the engineer know that the subgrade number for the asphalt pavement becomes less than reliable in the StreetPave program.

It's a manipulation of data that needs to be fixed before the comparisons in the program can truly be considered "equivalent". After reading up on the product on the AI Web site, I wondered if anyone from AI had contacted ACPA to alert them to the problem (in case it was an honest error) and what the response had been. I didn't get answers to those questions, but they're good ones for asphalt industry members to follow up on. At the ACPA Web site, owners of the software can download a StreetPave v1.2 patch that mentions nothing about fixing a data-manipulation error. So it sounds to me as if the concrete industry still has a mistake to fix.

Stay Safe,
Sandy Lender

(Postscript: Since the publication of the February issue of AsphaltPro, I've learned that Asphalt Institute engineers have not received word from ACPA concerning their mistakes in software engineering, thus the apparent StreetPave error remains in place.)

Tags: AsphaltPro, Asphalt Pro, StreetPave

List of EPA Sites to Accompany "Permit This Asphalt Plant to Serve the Community"

2008-02-06T06:57:00.000-08:00

As additional information to accompany the plant permitting article titled "Permit This Asphalt Plant to Serve the Community" in the February 2008 issue of AsphaltPro magazine, the following information is provided as a courtesy to our readers and others. If you'd like to obtain a free subscription to AsphaltPro, starting with the February issue, please write to us at the headquarters office, stating your type of business within the asphalt industry and your position within your company.
AsphaltPro Magazine
c/o Business Times
2001 Corporate Place
Columbia, MO 65202

State EPA Divisions
Each state has an environmental and/or air protection division responsible for assisting in granting permits and assessing whether or not an applicant will meet air quality standards. Each state's environmental protection agency also has the responsibility of providing an ombudsman to assist applicants who haven't the funds to hire consultants or attorneys to assist in the permit application process. To find information on the regulations and process in your area, or to contact an ombudsman to assist you, find your state in the list below and click on the link to begin your research.

Alabama http://www.adem.state.al.us/AirDivision/AirDivisionPP.htm
Alaska http://www.dec.state.ak.us/air/index.htm
Arizona http://www.azdeq.gov/environ/air/index.html
Arkansas http://www.adeq.state.ar.us/default.htm
California http://www.arb.ca.gov/homepage.htm
Colorado http://www.cdphe.state.co.us/ap/index.html
Connecticut http://www.ct.gov/dep/site/default.asp
Delaware http://www.dnrec.state.de.us/air/aqm_page/aqm_nets.htm
Florida http://www.dep.state.fl.us/Air/default.htm
Georgia http://www.gaepd.org/
Hawaii http://hawaii.gov/health/environmental/air/cab/index.html
Idaho http://www.deq.state.id.us/
Illinois http://www.epa.state.il.us/
Indiana http://www.in.gov/idem/
Iowa http://www.iowadnr.com/
Kansas http://www.kdheks.gov/bar/index.html
Kentucky http://www.air.ky.gov/
Louisiana http://www.deq.louisiana.gov/portal/
Maine http://www.maine.gov/dep/index.shtml
Maryland http://www.mde.state.md.us/Programs/AirPrograms/index.asp
Massachusetts http://www.mass.gov/dep/dephome.htm
Michigan http://www.michigan.gov/deq
Minnesota http://www.pca.state.mn.us/air/index.html
Mississippi http://www.deq.state.ms.us/MDEQ.nsf/page/Main_Home?OpenDocument
Missouri http://www.dnr.mo.gov/env/index.html
Montana http://www.deq.state.mt.us/
Nebraska http://www.deq.state.ne.us/
Nevada http://ndep.nv.gov/bapc/index.htm
New Hampshire http://www.des.state.nh.us/ard_intro.htm
New Jersey http://www.state.nj.us/dep/infofinder/topics/air.htm
New Mexico http://www.nmenv.state.nm.us/aqb/index.html
New York http://www.dec.ny.gov/
North Carolina http://www.enr.state.nc.us/
North Dakota http://www.health.state.nd.us/ehs/
Ohio http://www.epa.state.oh.us/dapc/
Oklahoma http://www.deq.state.ok.us/AQDnew/index.htm
Oregon http://www.oregon.gov/DEQ/AQ/
Pennsylvania http://www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/deputate/airwaste/aq/default.htm
Rhode Island http://www.dem.ri.gov/programs/benviron/air/index.htm
South Carolina http://www.scdhec.gov/environment/baq/
South Dakota http://www.state.sd.us/denr/DES/AirQuality/airprogr.htm
Tennessee http://www.state.tn.us/environment/
Texas http://www.tceq.state.tx.us/subject/subject_air.html
Utah http://www.airquality.utah.gov/
Vermont http://www.anr.state.vt.us/air/index.htm
Virginia http://www.deq.virginia.gov/air/
Washington http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/air/airhome.html
Washington, D.C. http://doh.dc.gov/doh/site/default.asp
West Virginia http://www.wvdep.org/item.cfm?ssid=8
Wisconsin http://dnr.wi.gov/air/index.asp
Wyoming http://deq.state.wy.us/aqd/index.asp

Tags: AsphaltPro Magazine, Asphalt Pro, asphalt plant

Mayor Bloomberg Joins Governors Rendell And Schwarzenegger To Create "Building America's Future" - A Non-Partisan Coalition For Federal Infrastructure Investment | Mike Bloomberg

2008-01-24T10:10:00.000-08:00

Mayor Bloomberg Joins Governors Rendell And Schwarzenegger To Create "Building America's Future" - A Non-Partisan Coalition For Federal Infrastructure Investment Mike Bloomberg

We Build and Maintain the Infrastructure We Need

2008-01-16T05:18:00.000-08:00

(from the January Editor's Note of AsphaltPro magazine)

When I told the people at my last place of employment the type of magazine I was going to work fulltime for, one of my co-workers released a controlled tirade about sensible alternative transportation and how "everyone wants sustainable modes of transportation and not more roads," or something to that effect. I stopped listening to her at about the fifth or sixth word to prevent my unplanned launch across the lunch table, because I like her and didn't think strangling her would prove it.

Sometimes you can inform people that properly maintained roads mean safer driving conditions for the end user (my former co-worker's driving-age children, for example). Sometimes you can inform people that asphalt is the most recycled product on the planet. Sometimes you can inform people that an entire industry is united in its efforts to build energy-efficient production facilities and to practically eliminate water vapor and particulate emissions from its production process. And sometimes you just have to sit back and listen to people harp on the fact that when they lived in New York they didn't even own a car. You know, if I lived in the heart of New York City, I wouldn't own a car either. But that's a self-preservation tactic, not fuel-conservation. I own a car for more than the convenience of getting to random appointments. I own it for the sense of freedom.

A more zealous tree-hugger than I might point out that taking a plane or train would free up a percentage of my money. But we environmentalists purchase carbon offset credits after purchasing plane tickets—thus negating the cash saved on car expenses—and at least one train system is causing a new kind of tax burden. City Council members in Olathe, Kan., are spending $5.1 million to figure out how to silence the train whistle blows yet keep the general driving public safe near junctions. Residents want "quiet zones" in some of the hoity toity areas of greater Kansas City, so taxpayers get to spend spend spend while City Council members research how to get rid of those pesky noises. Before I speak too harshly about Kansas, please note in the State-by-State department this month, page 8, that KDOT is supporting the use of RAP in higher quantities in its surface layers of road projects, so that might balance out the bizarre-factor, but I don't know if it'll make up for the dollars wasted. $5.1 million is difficult to replace.

Don't get me wrong. I'm all for public transportation (when you have armed federal marshals on board), but I'm also a proponent for maintaining our current infrastructure with asphalt products so that the general public has safe driving surfaces. Where growth necessitates it, I'm a proponent for proper, well-planned, full-depth asphalt new construction. The beauty of our industry's product is it can be assembled with a percentage of reclaimed materials whether it's an in-place recycle project, a full-depth new construction project or something in between. No matter what it is, the tree-hugger in me proposes good tunnels for the wildlife to get through to the other side.

Stay Safe,
Sandy Lender

Tags: AsphaltPro, Asphalt Pro, RAP

An Asphalt Video Game

2008-01-11T13:48:00.000-08:00

Call it a fun thing to play over the weekend.

http://www.asphaltmagazine.com/ai_mag/speed_paver/speed_paver.html

I managed to score above 42,000 points and was granted the fabulous "Speed Paver" rating. (I won't divulge how long it took my non-video-gaming fingers to get to that rating...) Kudos to the folks at Asphalt Institute for providing this little gem.

Enjoy!

Sandy Lender
Editor, AsphaltPro Magazine

Tags: asphalt video game, AsphaltPro

Bring 'Em On and Keep 'Em On

2007-12-25T11:05:00.000-08:00

Thinking of committing corporate piracy?

(from the December Editor's Note of AsphaltPro Magazine)

Or grabbing up an employee from a neighboring company? The company doesn't necessarily have to be a competitor. Let's say the lure of doing your own mix design testing instead of incurring that expense on every project has finally gotten the best of you. The local lab design group isn't your competitor, but they've got this A+ mix design tech that you want on your team. When he's on the phone telling you what you need to get the PG70-28 to work with the size aggregate your supplier wants to sell you and you subtly suggest he could make $5 grand more per year working in your lab, well, that's not exactly playing fair with his boss, now is it? It's not in keeping with the holiday season.

Let's say you manage the local quarry and you want to hire a crusher operator. Whatever your need, finding quality help isn't always easy. You might not have a high salary budgeted into the plan to draw the kind of talent your competitors have. That could work in your favor when it comes to bidding projects because your overhead isn't as high, but you want workers who produce a quality project for you and bring you in under bid and on spec.

Good workers are out there, and not just because a nearby professional didn't have the benefits package or high-dollar salary structure in place to retain them. Short of sneaking over to a night project and asking the paver operator if he'd rather work at your company, consider lurking at one of the many training venues where smart, career-oriented workers are hanging out. Staff at the Tennessee Department of Transportation's Division of Materials and Tests finished conducting asphalt roadway certification courses in Chattanooga Dec. 18 through 20 in Knoxville. The course cost the attendee $180 and certified him for five years. Now, while most folks attend such things already employed, career-minded workers will attend to get educated for a future job. I know a fellow right now who's taking $3,000 worth of courses in Florida to become a truck operator. Think of how qualified and safe this driver is going to be when he's done. A company would be nuts not to grab up someone willing to invest in himself, and thus his future employer, like that.

Tennessee and Florida aren't the only states offering such opportunities. It happens everywhere. The Mississippi Asphalt Pavement Association (MAPA) is offering a course Jan. 7 through 11 for mix design technicians. The Texas Asphalt Pavement Association (TxAPA) has a Level 1A course this January for $1,000 that trains and certifies a person in plant production. Visit www.txhotmix.org to get information about it or their courses for an HMA roadway specialist or mix design specialist.

Now, if you find someone who took a course in preparation for a job in HMA production or laydown, you can bet they'll expect a higher salary than will the fellows you get at the day labor stop. They're going to be well-versed in your business, and you won't have to explain (in another language) what the "pinching the joint" is when you bring one of them out to the site. Is it a fair trade? Of course it is. You get what you pay for, especially in employees. And once you've paid for him, you want to keep him.

Consider that an employee who took a course or two prior to coming to work for you is probably interested in remaining "in the know" as new technology comes into the picture. When an equipment manufacturer comes in to demonstrate a new product, this employee is going to be interested. Don't block him out. Remember that on-the-job training is a chance not just to advance an employee into more advantageous roles within your company; it's a chance to show your appreciation for the job he's doing. As utilitarian as this is going to sound, it's also your chance to get more production out of him. Employers in any industry would do well to factor such perks into a new employee's benefits package. And hang on tight.

This is a pretty hot topic for managers and owners, and it's a good one to share ideas about. You can write your thoughts to me at sandy at theasphaltpro dot com, and I'd be happy to pass those ideas along to other readers, or you can speak directly in a forum environment right here.

Stay safe and have a Merry Christmas,
Sandy Lender, Editor of AsphaltPro Magazine

Tags: asphaltpro magazine, asphalt, employment, asphalt information

Rules of Posting on The Asphalt Forum

2007-11-27T07:11:00.000-08:00

The only rules the sponsors of The Asphalt Forum wish to impose are those that will make this forum a friendly and welcoming place to visit to share information with one another. Any posted comments that include rude or inappropriate comments will be deleted. Any posted comments that include blatant advertisements will also be deleted.

1. Be kind and courteous in your language and sharing of information.
2. Be aware of the promotional language you might be using in your commentary so that it doesn't get deleted.

Folks wishing to advertise have two opportunities to do so with the template that this site offers, and can contact Sally Shoemaker, the advertising representative for AsphaltPro magazine (quickly) to discuss those and their potentially rotating nature. (Sally's e-mail is sally at theasphaltpro dot com.) Otherwise, this site is a great place to meet and share ideas for improving your business, safety, production, environmental practices, permitting efforts, etc.

Welcome to The Asphalt Forum!
I look forward to cyber-chatting with all of you,
Sandy Lender

Tags: The Asphalt Forum, AsphaltPro Magazine, Sandy Lender, Sally Shoemaker

How to Post Comments on The Asphalt Forum

2007-11-27T06:35:00.001-08:00

To post comments on The Asphalt Forum you will need to have a Blogger account/identification. To get Blogger identification, you need an e-mail address through either Yahoo or Google mail. These are both free services.

Once you set up your free e-mail account and Blogger ID, posting a comment on this blog will be as simple as reading the post you're interested in and clicking on the "comments" link beneath it. Just make sure you hit the word "comments" directly beneath the article/post you're interested in or you'll end up commenting on something completely different.

Keep in mind that any comment you post will be public record and "findable" by search engines. If you wish to post with your real name, which the publishers of AsphaltPro Magazine encourage, just remember to keep your comments professional and courteous at all times so you've nothing to regret in the future.

Welcome to The Asphalt Forum,
Sandy Lender

Tags: The Asphalt Forum, AsphaltPro Magazine, Sandy Lender