CONEXPO/CON-AGG Highlights to Guide Your Asphalt Business

You can look anywhere online to see wrap-ups of CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2026 touting the final square footage and attendance, but let’s focus on your bottom line. The tradeshow could be called “overwhelming” with the abundance of new iron and technology to wade through to find the nuggets that will help the asphalt mix designer, producer, paver and maintenance contractor increase profits for the 2026 paving season and beyond. Let’s start with a business aspect of the show and work our way into the iron.

Vice President of Rogers Group Inc. (RGI) Nick DiBartolo, spoke during a workforce development ceremony March 4 to validate and honor the advancing and retiring members of our industry. Richard Warren (at left) was recognized for his service at RGI. He is set to retire in May 2026 after 49 years of hard-earned, real-world knowledge—knowledge that strengthens the industry and will continue to do so through the many individuals he has mentored. Brianna Overstreet (at right) was recognized for her contributions to RGI since joining in 2013. She has been promoted to assistant corporate asphalt plants manager.

Asphalt Business

Most conversations included the topic of bringing workers to the industry and training them on the skills necessary for success. Reliable Asphalt Products, Inc., Shelbyville, Kentucky, gathered attendees for a special workforce development ceremony at its booth to celebrate Rogers Group, Inc. (RGI), Nashville, Tennessee, and its commitment to fostering an ongoing workforce of safe and engaged asphalt employees.

Reliable Asphalt Products worked with AsphaltPro Magazine, Fayette, Missouri, to honor the asphalt industry’s workers.

Brianna Overstreet was recognized for her contributions to RGI since joining in 2013 and her promotion to assistant corporate asphalt plants manager. Richard Warren was recognized for his service as asphalt plants manager for the southern half of Middle Tennessee and his pending retirement after 49 years of hard-earned, real-world knowledge.

After the workforce development ceremony, Richard Warren and Brianna Overstreet of Rogers Group Inc. remained in the Reliable Asphalt Products booth for a few minutes to share industry knowledge and experiences with fellow contractors and members of the press.

Vice President of Rogers Group Nick DiBartolo took to the podium to validate and honor the advancing and retiring members of our industry, saying, “Rogers Group is welcoming a number of new faces for the 2026 construction season. We’re honored by the responsibility of bringing these individuals into the asphalt industry—of making them feel at home, making them feel safe, and making them feel part of one of the strongest road-building communities in the country. We hope those joining us this spring will look at this ceremony as a reflection of who we are—an organization committed to developing our people, celebrating their growth, and recognizing their contributions for years to come. On stage with us today is a powerful example of that commitment.”

Education, Training IRL

The Ask the Expert sessions bring the pages of AsphaltPro Magazine to life during tradeshow events. In these pictures, Ben Everett (at left) and Ray Eisner (at right) discuss the options for building an unconfined longitudinal joint. John Ball (center) visits with a contractor and Eisner during one of his Ask the Expert sessions. To gain insight from these paving gurus—and other leaders in the industry—check out the Training tab at TheAsphaltPro.com.

In other areas of workforce development, the show offered more than 150 education sessions. If you filtered for “asphalt,” you could find 12 in the west hall classrooms alone.

Bryce Wuori, CEO of Pavewise, Bismarck, North Dakota, alongside Foster Ladlee of BOMAG Americas, presented “Smarter Paving: Real-World Lessons in Intelligent Compaction and Emerging Technologies” wherein crowd questions and involvement about new technologies, specifications, and struggles with technology from a cost standpoint took about half of the session. Wuori also served as the technology expert during AsphaltPro’s Ask the Expert series in our grand lobby booth.

“The most memorable moment of the Ask the Expert session was my conversation with a QC manager about field data and its future,” Wuori said. “He expressed enthusiasm for how it could shape the industry’s future, particularly by enabling the younger workforce to transition into the field.”

The Ask the Expert sessions bring the pages of AsphaltPro Magazine to life during tradeshow events. In these pictures, Ben Everett (at left) and Ray Eisner (at right) discuss the options for building an unconfined longitudinal joint. John Ball (center) visits with a contractor and Eisner during one of his Ask the Expert sessions. To gain insight from these paving gurus—and other leaders in the industry—check out the Training tab at TheAsphaltPro.com.

For business questions, AsphaltPro hosted bestselling author Ed Wallace. His two sold-out sessions, “Relational Leadership” and “Accelerating Business Relationships” were geared toward business relationships. He shared, “My main takeaway is that relationships are alive and well in the construction industry and while important, AI is not a substitute.”

For paving questions, AsphaltPro hosted consultants John Ball of Top Quality Paving & Training, Manchester, New Hampshire, and Ben Everett of About Asphalt Ltd., New Zealand, with a guest appearance by Ray Eisner, formerly of Brannon Sand & Gravel. For asphalt material questions, expert Bob Kluttz of Asphalt Technology Consultant LLC was available at the booth as well.

Cuda Grit, which crushes and recycles scrap to create tungsten carbide grit, had a worker melting metal to draw attention to their booth in the north hall. In the Kenco Engineering booth, Brian Handshoe showed the crushed pieces and flakes of tungsten that go into the Tungsten Impregnated Carbide (TCI) wear strips his company uses to strengthen parts for the construction industry. Watch his explanation of the process and its importance to wear life, cost savings and even fuel savings at the AsphaltPro Magazine YouTube channel.

All around the show’s 3 million square feet, training and education included the buzzword: “simulator.” At the Caterpillar stand in the festival lot, Simformotion, which is the team that designs and manufactures Cat® Simulators, met with AsphaltPro to discuss the current and future role of simulators in heavy equipment operator training, how customers feel the reality of the controls using the simulation training, and benchmarking for asphalt operators with training technology. You can see that interview on our YouTube channel.

Attendees could try out simulators in a variety of booths from Caterpillar to FAYAT to Volvo to CM Labs and others. The CM Labs booth included live demonstrations and the chance to participate in a skills-based excavator challenge. The CM Labs simulators include curriculum within the Intellia Workforce Training System, which now includes the award-winning Intellia Single Drum Roller Simulator Training Pack.

Iron, Tech

In addition to expanded training, attendees were exposed to hundreds of new pieces of equipment and new technological advances for using and optimizing that equipment, as well as their businesses. Some of those new technologies were up for awards on site, and throughout the show, attendees voted for the Next Level Award winners. This year’s program culminated with a ceremony on the Ground Breaker’s Stage, sponsored by Sherwin Williams, in the west hall. Prior to the show, 237 companies submitted their equipment and technology offerings for judging. The panel of judges comprised experts from:

• Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC)
• Association of Equipment Management Professionals (AEMP)
• National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA)
• National Ready Mixed Concrete Association (NRMCA)
• National Stone Sand and Gravel Association (NSSGA)

The judges narrowed down the field to 20 finalists, which were highlighted throughout the show. This provided industry the Contractors’ Choice winners of Husco’s GenSteer™ system in the Equipment Next Level Power category and Gravis Robotics’ Gravis Rack platform in the Technology Next Level Impact category.

CEO & Founder of Gravis Robotics, Ryan Luke Johns (holding award) celebrates with his team on the Ground Breakers Stage. The company won the Contractors’ Choice Technology Next Level Impact category for its Gravis Rack platform, which adds 3D sensing, cameras, and onboard computing across a wide range of earthmoving equipment brands and sizes. In the cab, the system acts as a copilot, providing real-time cut/fill visibility, analytics, augmented-reality guidance, and people-detection. The same platform also enables autonomous excavation tasks such as trenching, bulk excavation, and truck loading, allowing operators to command and monitor one or more machines through a single portable tablet interface.

Also in the technology realm, Command Alkon hosted a press conference highlighting how digital platforms and artificial intelligence (AI) are transforming operations across the heavy building materials industry. The briefing, led by Martin Willoughby, CEO, and Ranjeev Teelock, chief product officer, outlined the company’s vision for what it calls the “Era of Intelligent Operations.” Willoughby and Teelock shared how the industry is entering a generational shift driven by connected data, automation, and AI designed specifically for concrete, aggregate, and asphalt producers.

A highlight of the press conference was a preview of Command Intelligence, which is Command Alkon’s new agentic AI capability within the Command Cloud platform. Teelock introduced the capability as the company’s next step in bringing AI directly into operational decision-making for materials producers. Command Intelligence enables users to interact with operational data in a more intuitive and actionable way through the Command Intelligence Assistant.

Cuda Grit, which crushes and recycles scrap to create tungsten carbide grit, had a worker melting metal to draw attention to their booth in the north hall. In the Kenco Engineering booth, Brian Handshoe showed the crushed pieces and flakes of tungsten that go into the Tungsten Impregnated Carbide (TCI) wear strips his company uses to strengthen parts for the construction industry. Watch his explanation of the process and its importance to wear life, cost savings and even fuel savings at the Asphalt Pro Magazine YouTube channel.

The assistant allows teams to access key performance indicators and operational metrics to support faster and more informed business decisions, such as evaluating delivery priorities in the dispatch center or letting the assistant identify and adjust incorrectly priced tickets, and more. The goal is to simplify how users run their business while reducing reliance on tribal knowledge by providing consistent, data-driven insights.

Command Alkon celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. Today, the company serves producers across the globe with a team of more than 800 employees and a collective 5,000+ years of industry experience, supporting operations across the concrete, aggregates, and asphalt sectors.

Another agentic AI demonstrated at CONEXPO was the Agent XBE from XBE. The company refers to it as “the outcome-driven superworkforce.” The user in the dispatch office suggests to the AI what outcome he or she wants from a particular project, and the Agent XBE figures out how to get everything done for that outcome. Because it’s built to integrate with other servers and platforms, it offers ideas for managing all manner of projects at the plant, on the job and in the dispatch room.

During the many stops AsphaltPro personnel made at the show, Publisher Chris Harrison sat down to talk about the Motive Beacon compact tracking device with Director of Product Robert Higdon.

In live demonstrations, experts explained the Agent XBE can be used in three main ways:

• Live, such as prompting in real time;
• Scheduled, such as setting up a routine task to be performed at the end of the day; and
• Event-based.

Personnel showed you can ask the Agent XBE to suggest areas for improvement while tracking KPIs and activity. For example, if you recognize your company had 27 late starts in Q4 2025, you may wish to address this problem. By asking the Agent XBE to analyze the late starts, it can break down what was happening by plant, by job planner, by mix type at the plant, and so on. It can show you which combinations of elements most often resulted in real-world instances of late starts. Then it can offer suggestions for plant maintenance, stocking up on material/inventory, training of personnel, and so on. And speaking of stocking material, with inventory tracking and management, you can offer the agent as simple of a command as “keep the silos full” and it will monitor for purchase and delivery of material to execute that command.

While at the booth, AsphaltPro learned that the data Agent XBE filters and analyzes lets it return results as forward-thinking as suggestions on when to acquire a subcontractor rather than continue to hire out their services.

Other plant-centric technologies around show included the Signal Connectivity Suite from Astec Digital, which offers seamless communication and monitoring across all plant and mobile assets. This allows managers to stay connected, gain actionable insights, and optimize operations. There’s more detailed information on this system in this month’s product gallery.

When a machine has a malfunction, the Jaltest device onboard sends the alert plus diagnostic information to headquarters. Rather than waiting for a mechanic to be dispatched to the scene, the assessment takes place via the Jaltest technology. If the system can make the repair and reset the machine, it does so. If the system can offer guidance to the operator, then the system is able to reset the machine at the conclusion of the repair. If the system can predict a potential breakdown and schedule routine or special maintenance ahead of that emergency, downtime can be prevented entirely.

Cojali offers communication and monitoring across mobile assets as well. Its Jaltest technology is more than telematics, offering not only predictive maintenance for hundreds of equipment types, but also offering advanced diagnostics to personnel. When a machine experiences a critical error, the Jaltest device onboard sends an alert plus diagnostic information to headquarters, letting assessment and action take place without delays.

The system is “visibility plus action” to save contractors time and headache. Given Cojali’s 30+ years in heavy-duty diagnostic and continued work with over 100,000 shops around the world, they are uniquely positioned to handle repair for a multitude of brands including Cat, John Deere, Komatsu, SANY, and more. While visiting the Cojali booth, AsphaltPro confirmed the availability of the technology for systems on HAMM rollers, Cat pavers, and other equipment relevant to the asphalt industry. We also found the intuitive platform not only easy to navigate but also comprehensive with detailed, color pictures of systems and components within the explanations of errors and codes.

The Metso Materials booth was one of many displaying “sold” signs by Saturday morning.

These technologies not only support workers but also the iron. And the iron was on display everywhere you turned. We’ll be highlighting new paving and production equipment in the next few product gallery departments.

What’s great news for the construction industry is the number of machines going straight to the field. Road Builders out of Hawaii not only bought a package from Boom Light in the central hall, but also scooped up a new material transfer vehicle from Weiler. “They got the 2181,” Ball said. “It’s got new doors on the reservoir for conveyor 2 that slide out, and the cleanout on that is so much easier now. It’s a gamechanger.”

Attendees were able to experience remote operation of a BOMAG single drum roller from the company’s booth. The simulator allowed visitors to remotely operate a BOMAG BW 177 DH-5 PL roller located thousands of miles away in Ridgeway, South Carolina. The simulator design gives those operating the roller the same feeling as if they were sitting inside the BW 177’s cab. The seat, lever and controls are the same as inside the roller far away. Multiple screens provide the operators with full visibility of the area surrounding the roller, helping to increase operating safety. Working through an internet connection, all roller functions—forward/reverse, speed, turning, and vibration—were controlled from the simulator station.

At the Eagle Crusher booth, multiple items were spoken for by the end of the show, with the 1400-CV crushing plant with a built-in front discharge conveyor, originally built for a dealer, reverting to a customer in the booth. A spokesperson for Sakai confirmed four rollers shipped from the show to their new homes: the TW354 combination roller, SW774 asphalt roller, SV204 soil compactor, and SV544 soil compactor. On Saturday morning, everywhere you looked, “sold” signs accompanied proudly displayed contractor logos on equipment, signifying a healthy CECA 2026.