Data Under Pressure

Indulge the Gen-Xer in me for a moment while I channel Bowie + Queen and regale you with this: “That’s the terror of knowing what this world is about, watching some good friends screaming ‘Let me out!’”

The asphalt industry is under pressure to prove all manner of data points. Prove we’ve put the proper silica mitigation devices and methods in place. Prove we’ve lowered emissions and fuel use at the plant. Prove we’ve lengthened the life of a pavement through exact density specs, VMA targets and IRIs. And more. To offer this proof to the various environmental groups and agencies demanding it, we’ve gathered data.

Clouds of data that AI systems are supposedly tracking.

During her opening remarks for the “Iron, Data, and Dust: The Real Future of Automation and the Workforce” panel discussion at CONEXPO-CON/AGG March 5, Procore Senior Director Sasha Reed shared results from her company’s “The Future State of Construction” report showing an alarming inefficiency in the industry. The construction industry is spending the equivalent of one day per week searching for data. “We’ve become less efficient because we have more to grapple with,” she told the audience.

Can you relate?

From the editor’s desk, I see that concept in action when I ask a source how a mix design performed behind the screed or what densities they were getting on the long joint and the response is a variation of, “We have a ton of data to sort through before we’ll know that.”

In this issue, we offer a look at an online method of creating a written silica exposure mitigation plan to help with at least a portion of the reporting (page 8). We also examine the Vortex™ burner, launched during the show, to assist industry with efficient combustion at the asphalt dryer. Because the ACCU-Fire™ system controls it, plant managers have access to its performance data (page 50). There are myriad examples of technology introduced during the recent tradeshow to help asphalt professionals gather and parse information, but are we noticing the trend toward data overwhelm and how it might be influencing our workers for bad rather than good?

The United States Attorney’s Office Southern District of Ohio posted a press release in February stating, “Two asphalt companies have agreed to pay $30 million total to resolve False Claims Act allegations that they submitted fraudulent test results to the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) for federally funded asphalt projects in Ohio.” We don’t need to drag anyone’s name through the mud here, but we do need to point out; those companies were winning paving awards during the total 13 years of questioned activity. Entities that relied on solid data were misled, undermining confidence in systems and structure.

I can’t state with certainty that the underlying cause for submitting already existing test results is an overwhelming amount of requested data. I suggest that pressure could be a factor.

Every state requires some level of testing and proof of good, solid metrics for payment, so the taxpayers are guaranteed the best quality of the low-bid system. But are those data-heavy requirements now setting contractors up for unnecessary anxiety? Or is that the new paradigm? Execute the project to exacting standards; then prove you’ve done so beyond a reasonable doubt with mountains of data the AIs have stored.

Or you don’t get paid.

My hope is systems like Astec’s Signal Connectivity Suite, XBE’s Agent XBE, Command Alkon’s Command Intelligence, Pavewise’s PavewisePro, and others to be discussed in our pages this summer, will help contractors not only identify best practices for improvement but will also help track the information and offer the provable data to agencies (and award committees) as it’s demanded. Again, the pressure is on to learn how to leverage these systems for their most efficient use, so we aren’t spending a day per week searching for the information.

Stay Safe,

Sandy Lender