AsphaltPro Staff

The automated asphalt extraction is an innovative, efficient, quick and safe solvent-based extraction of asphalt binder from asphalt mixtures, to characterize and control the quality of asphalt mixtures by measuring asphalt content and studying the aggregate gradations. This method is used for quality control and assurance, acceptance criteria, and research activities. The PaveAnalyzer is designed […]

Minimal Impact of Operator Variables when using the Automated Extraction Machine (PaveAnalyzer) for asphalt binder and filler extraction from Asphalt Mixtures (Preliminary Results)

How many hours of service does your favorite breakdown roller have as of end-of-season 2018? Have you updated the company’s 10-year-old milling machine with a dust suppression kit? I could list off a few dozen maintenance items to cause heart palpitations in your mechanic if this was already late April 2019, but you’re in luck. […]

City and County of Denver makes the most of small space for its maintenance matters

The recent completion of Interstate 11 in southern Nevada marks the first addition to the nation’s Interstate Highway System since it was deemed complete in 1992.

NIOSH’s new FAST software program monitor workers’ exposure to silica much faster than traditional methods allow.

NAPA has developed a new work zone impact cost tool to calculate the impacts of construction. The tool allows agencies and contractors to run scenarios based on the parameters of a job and calculate various costs.

Road Dryer’s RD-1200XT aims to minimize delays from wet conditions and make it easier for contractors and agencies to meet timetables. Here’s how it works.

Over 95 percent of the dryers and drum mixers on hot-mix asphalt (HMA) plants no longer have the flights installed as built from the factory. Here’s how to change those flights correctly.

Get more mileage from your machines by following these tips to take care of your machine’s rubber track undercarriage.

Ralph Petta outlines what contractors need to know about new lease accounting standards.

AsphaltPro introduces the incoming chairman of the National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA), 2019 Chairman John Lyles Harper.

WisDOT has implemented an approach known as “regressed air voids” as they work to improve pavement durability and cracking resistance by increasing the amount of binder in their asphalt mixtures.

Owners at Lonesome Prairie Sand & Gravel of Canada recognized they had profits buried in millions of tons of sand. Here’s how they solved the sand problem.

Here’s how Asphalt Materials’ J-Band® Void Reducing Asphalt Membrane works.

As asphalt contractors clean, repair and store paving and pavement maintenance equipment for the offseason, it’s time to make hard decisions. The workhorses of your fleet may be ready to retire, forcing you to take a long look at financing options for a new or used paver, etc. Maybe you know your trusty sweeper has […]

Volvo shares its top five tips for sustainable fuel use.

Fabric structures provide business owners with the unique opportunity to establish sustainable and profitable operations, while having a low startup cost.

Australia At the end of October, Austroads published online updated editions of its Guide to Pavement Technology Part 4F: Bituminous Binders and Part 4K: Selection and Design of Sprayed Seals. It included a webinar to provide an overview of the key changes to the guides and the significant advances in the areas of binder specifications […]

For decades, the driving public has taken advantage of their cars’ cruise control features, so it’s no surprise that many of us are already accustomed to foot-free driving. However, with semi-autonomous driving tools becoming available from car manufacturers such as Cadillac and Tesla, hands-free driving is also becoming a reality. Vehicles with these semi-autonomous features […]

Mississippi Asphalt Pavement Association (MAPA) was first formed in 1966. Now, the Jackson, Mississippi-based association includes 12 producer members, representing roughly 92 percent of the asphalt tonnage let to contract in Mississippi. In April of 2018, Michael Baker Arnemann took over as MAPA’s executive director, a position previously held by Tone Garrett. AsphaltPro spent time […]

Asphalt cement (AC) tanks and emulsion tanks wear out over time. Here’s how to solve asphalt cement tank wear.

Today, Rose Paving performs pavement maintenance and reconstruction on parking lots and structures nationwide for well-known brands, including Home Depot, Lowe’s and PetSmart.

Johnson & Sons Paving, Lannon, Wisconsin, has seen growth since opening its doors Spring 2014. In fact, the commercial paving contractor was recently named one of the “Milwaukee Area’s Future 50” companies, which recognizes fast-growing companies in business for at least three years and showing significant revenue and employment growth. Today, Johnson & Sons has […]

One of the biggest recycling firms of ferrous and non-ferrous metals in West-Europe uses the Magna MA10 on its wheel loaders now. The company in Belgium started testing and monitoring the Magna tyres mid-2015. Here’s what management learned. After various tests, management found the quality of the Magna tyres equal to the tyres previously used. […]

CMI’s Warm-Mix Asphalt System is a single-point injection WMA system, by which water and AC emulsion produce aggregate encapsulation at lower temperatures. Here’s how it works.

The Pavijet MG7 from Hitek, Kenosha, Wisconsin, is a mini paver that can be used for road widening, shoulder work, and maintenance and repair work. It can also be used to pave cycling paths, sidewalks and other narrow paving jobs. Here’s how it works.

We’ve all looked at different lighting sources to get a good view of the mat or the operator’s platform or a look into the hopper when we’re paving at night. One idea I’ve seen recently and that I recommend for the crew is to pick up a light you can stick to the paver anywhere you need it to shine.

Boxley Materials Company, a Summit Company, rubblizes a 25-year-old jointed plain concrete pavement and performs an asphalt overlay for the rehabilitation of US 460 in Appomattox, Virginia.

Colony Construction grows its Virginia footprint year by year.

Grace Industries LLC embraces new technology to mill John F. Kennedy Airport taxiways.

With the November edition of AsphaltPro, we turn our product gallery to the production side of the industry.

Stone matrix asphalt (SMA) blends are gaining popularity on interstates and high truck-traffic routes across the United States. One state that is having success with this technology is Illinois.

50 states. 4.12 million miles of road.1 More than 2.6 million miles of highways and paved roads, 94 percent of which use asphalt.2 With such a significant impact, asphalt producers and contractors keep this country up and running. This makes the work they do, and the equipment they do it with, critical to safety and […]

Each year, asphalt professionals gather to share the latest technical information and review field reports in the area of hot-mix asphalt (HMA) construction at the Illinois Bituminous Paving Conference. It’s a compact, one-day program that brings together highway and technical engineers, contractors, government officials, and consultants. The conference is designed specifically for people actively involved […]

One of the most important aspects of construction is delivering a quality project. Owners hire contractors to perform a specific function, and they expect a superior product. Implementing a quality control program that evaluates the work process from initial steps all the way through to completion ensures customer satisfaction and long-term success, according to Eric […]

United States Congratulations to Mary E. Peters, who is the 2019 recipient of the Frank Turner Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Transportation. Peters is former U.S. Secretary of Transportation, Administrator of the Federal Highway Administration, and Director of the Arizona Department of Transportation. She is currently principal of Mary Peters Consulting Group LLC. Source: Transportation […]

You may already be aware of autonomous equipment use in mining operations. What you may not know is that this autonomous technology is also making its way into asphalt paving jobs.

Cargill partners with NCAT, MnROAD to demonstrate reliability of performance-based evaluations of high RAP mixes.

Construction Angels Inc., Lighthouse Point, Florida, offers financial support to families of construction workers who have lost their lives while working on a construction job site. Kristi Lyn Ronyak has been the national executive director of the non-profit since its founding in 2011. AsphaltPro spent some time getting to know Ronyak and learning about how […]

A selection of ALLU D-Series Transformers helped process a variety of materials in four different countries in Asia and the Middle East. The ALLU equipment has been provided and supported by ALLU’s dealers in the countries. The ALLU Transformer D-Series comprises an excavator/ loader/ tractor-mounted attachment which screens, crushes, aerates, blends, mixes, separates, feeds and […]

iCone Products LLC, Cato, New York, developed its iCone real-time traffic message board system. Here’s how it works.

Intercounty Paving, Carmel, New York, has performed asphalt paving for more than 60 years.

Superior Paving’s Entry Prevention Interactive Control (EPIC) Safety System keeps workers from breaking the “electronic tether” between the MTV and paver and prevents workers from getting struck by equipment.

Sweeping is an essential part of road construction operations. Over the years, Broce has led the way in safety innovations by being the first to include a fully enclosed cab with air conditioning on their sweepers.

Trouble-shooting tips for roller operators to minimize downtime at the job

Kyle Neisen, product manager for pavers & MTVs at Roadtec Inc., Chattanooga, shared some ways to keep your pavers running smoothly.

Easy cold mill start-up begins with the kind of care the machine gets the evening before.

Chemung Contracting partners with Germanna Community College, Culpeper, Virginia, to develop an apprenticeship program for new talent.

Lakeside Industries (Lakeside) was first established when Rhoady Lee Jr. and three family members purchased Lakeside Sand & Gravel Co. of Bellevue, Washington, in 1954 (just a few miles east of Seattle).

Asia GlobalData reports construction output in the member states of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) should expand by over 6 percent yearly on average during 2018 to 2022. Belgium Experienced senior bitumen and asphalt industry professional and former EAPA Secretary General Max von Devivere is the new person heading up Eurobitume Benelux, the […]

The team from Heatec discusses one solution for monitoring multiple tanks across multiple facilities with a case study at C.W. Matthews Contracting Co. Inc., headquartered in Marietta, Georgia.

Today, Green Asphalt’s 100 percent RAP asphalt mix is approved for use in New York DOT and New York City Department of Design and Construction projects, and Capasso has a new goal in mind.

Maine Asphalt Pavement Association’s Tanya Bentley talks about how MAPA is working to promote the asphalt industry in the state.

Let’s look at how internal gear pump technology can be the ideal choice for the most challenging bitumen- and asphalt-handling applications.

CPWR’s new Best Built Plans program aims to improve the way the construction industry manages manually material handling.

American Asphalt invests in a modern software platform for estimating and operations to improve how his organization captures, manages and uses data to improve performance.

As the construction season winds down in some northern parts of the country, pavement maintenance season heats up in other parts. No matter how much work you have on the books for the remainder of the season, you’re probably looking at the deals original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are rolling out to finish 2018 and help […]

Here are some tips to ensure employee confidence in leadership’s commitment to fairness in the workplace.

Predictive maintenance can reduce equipment downtime and repair costs, improve operator safety and increase resale value of equipment. Here’s how OEMs are taking advantage of what predictive maintenance has to offer.

Maxam’s patented ConVector™ liquid asphalt heater/agitator takes advantage of the physical properties of an eductor to both improve heating efficiency and create non mechanical agitation of liquid asphalt in storage tanks. Here’s how it works.

How to use asphalt plant control add-ons to make operation easier while reducing downtime

Quality starts way back at the quarry and refinery. It continues at the asphalt mix plant. For this edition focused on quality control and best lab practices, it only makes sense that we present some of the latest and greatest offerings for the production of a mix that’s on spec. Asphalt Drum Mixers Inc. Asphalt […]

OAPA has been led by Executive Director Larry Patrick for the past six years. AsphaltPro spent some time getting to know Patrick and learning about how OAPA is working to promote the asphalt industry in the state of Oklahoma.

RS Asphalt invests in a SealMaster 575-gallon tanker trailer to expand its offerings to include water-based sealing.

The National Asphalt Pavement Association has conducted the survey of the U.S. asphalt pavement mix production industry for each construction season since 2009. Here are the 2017 results.

Asphalt Contractors Association of Florida (ACAF) announced the 2018 winners of its annual Excellence in Pavement Awards in Florida, at the annual awards banquet June 16. Here they are.

A well designed and implemented process control program should improve quality, prevent failures, reduce cost, and add value to HMA plant customers.

There are three specific areas where projects could be deficient in testing and summarizing data. Here are three steps to improve your quality control (QC).

The Myers Mobile Training Center is a fundamental tool to train Allan Myers’ 2,000 employees at its 20 locations in the mid-Atlantic.

Anywhere you observe visible dust clouds at your facility, set up a way to monitor the actual exposure level at that location. Check out this and more tips to solve dust at the plant.

Rieth-Riley Construction Co. Inc. uses iCone’s real-time message board on its a 73-mile-long reconstruction project on the Indiana Toll Road.

The California Supreme Court’s ruling in Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court of Los Angeles alters the way California businesses must classify independent contractors. Here’s what you need to know.

Starting a business in any field can be an involved and complicated process, but the construction industry can be even more arduous. Here are four tips to starting a paving company.

OEMs have begun to offer parts online that are shipped directly to the customer. This can reduce lead times, increase price transparency and offer customers a wider array of parts.

Vögele’s Passive Remixing Insert with an Active Remixing Module can help avoid segregation of your asphalt mix. Here’s how it works.

If you want to reduce the variability of your gyratory specimen test results, you must improve the uniformity of the asphalt specimens you produce. Here are a few basic tips for compacting better asphalt specimens.

The Estonian Road Administration (ERA) carried out a pilot project in 2017 to measure the retroreflectivity of road markings on all main state roads, altogether 3721.6 kilometres, in Estonia.

Water use restrictions and permitting challenges continue to increase, making it harder for operations to find ways to stay profitable while using fewer resources. As a result, aggregates and mining operations are moving toward new technology to conserve natural resources while increasing long-term savings and return on investment. Here’s how. Reduce Water Use One way […]

Deloitte Global identified 10 key trends facing the industry in its recent Tracking the Trends report.

In April 2017, construction of a new taxiway was completed at a 400-acre, three-runway air field on the crystal coast in Beaufort, North Carolina. Originally named the Beaufort-Morehead City Airport, the facility was renamed Michael J. Smith Field to honor one of the Space Shuttle Challenger pilots who was born and raised in Beaufort. We […]

International asphalt news in August 2018

AsphaltPro spent some time getting to know Michael W. Johnson and learning more about NSSGA and the benefits it provides to its members in the aggregate industry.

Florida has tackled occasional premature failures of high friction surface treatments (HFSTs) with a new specification and guidebook for use in the Sunshine State.

Have you heard the old fable about boiling a frog? It goes something like this: if you drop a frog into boiling water, it will immediately jump out. But, if you place it in tepid water and slowly bring it to a boil, the frog will not perceive the rising temperature. However morbid the metaphor […]

Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), including Cat and Volvo, are making the opportunity to remotely control and monitor equipment a reality.

Oklahoma-based contractor Sherwood Construction takes asphalt matters into its own hands on turnpike project

Grooving roads or airport taxiways requires precision work; the team at Diamond Products Ltd. built the PC1504 pavement grinder & groover to take care of that.

Taking the bumps out of roads takes precise work; the team at Diamond Road, located in American Fork, Utah, built the Diamond Road Smoother to perform that precision grinding. Here’s how it works.

Adequate space and ease of accessibility are essential in every aggregate storage building, but neither makes a difference if water damage occurs. Tension fabric structures are one way to keep materials dry.

This month’s product gallery headline felt a little odd as I typed it because the product gallery typically focuses on robust pieces of iron. I noticed, though, the news releases I’ve received this spring and early summer have been for the “accessories” to paving. You know what I mean: putty knives and temperature guns. Of […]

Midwestern County Improves Its Patching and Coating Processes with Electric Heat

The concept of pavement preservation—in which the right treatment to the right pavement at the right time forestalls or eliminates future high costs of reconstruction—is hitting its stride, and the nation’s road agencies are benefiting from it.

The latest in pavement preservation news.

Beckage Sealcoating has grown into an 18-person operation with four crews servicing central New Jersey. Investing in top-quality equipment is key to the company’s continued growth.

Intermountain Slurry Seal uses special provision spec on Utah Department of Transportation’s SR 36 in the City of Tooele.

How Yeager Asphalt grew from a teenager with a truck and a barrel of sealer to starting its own asphalt plant under the name of U.S. Paving and Stone.

In the first installment of this three-part series, we get to know heavy civil highway contracting company Texas Cordia. Over the next few months, we’ll follow them as they establish their first asphalt plant, get it set up, and start selling hot mix asphalt.

Discussing the asphalt plant and aggregate operations this month includes a look at trucking. MyLogic Inc., headquartered in Pennsylvania, has released a free app called Dump Truck Math, which is available on iOS and Android devices, to help estimators, foremen, and truck drivers streamline simple hauling calculations. The app started as an Excel spreadsheet MyLogic […]

The team at PSS has developed the RoadQuake® RAPTOR™ Rumble Strip Handling Machine that fits on the front of a work truck to transport, deploy, realign and retrieve RoadQuake 2F Temporary Portable Rumble Strips (TPRS). Here’s how it works.

Asphalt industry events around the world

A new protocol has been put in place regarding asphalt storage tank inspections. Does your AC tank inspection program pass the test?

Over more than two decades in business, Southeast Asphalt and Maintenance LLC has expanded its reach nationally.

Here are five key tech trends that will change manufacturing for good. Some of these trends are already affecting how business is done, while others are expected to become more prominent in the years ahead.

The National Center for Asphalt Technology (NCAT) and Jiangsu Sinyue Asphalt Co. of China have established a 10-year research and development agreement focused on advancing cost-effective and sustainable asphalt pavement practices in China and throughout the world.

If you need to take liquid asphalt cement (AC) samples from your 4-inch or 6-inch line that feeds liquid AC to your mixer, the engineers at Maxam Equipment, Kansas City, Mo., have developed a sampling device to assist you. This in-line capture features an enclosed sampling system to dispense the asphalt into quart or gallon […]

The latest new and innovative products for asphalt paving contractors

What’s happening in the world of asphalt in June of 2018

Rubber modified asphalts (RMA) have been around for decades to offer excellent performance with environmental and cost benefits. Despite real-world experience, RMA still constitutes less than 20 percent of modified asphalts. We see two primary drivers for this: limited application field and processability. Here, Tom Rosenmayer shares his vision of the future of rubber modified asphalts.

Pace Construction, St. Louis, Missouri, applies innovative practices through the value engineering process for a 55,000-ton mill-and-fill project spanning a stretch of 22 miles of Highway 63 just south of Rolla for MoDOT.

In the wake of the June 2016 completion of the Panama Canal expansion, Gulf Coast–an Oldcastle Materials Company–constructed an overpass for a Houston ship channel project. 

AsphaltPro spent some time getting to know more about Asphalt Pavement Association of New Mexico and its executive director, Brian Jones, and what they’re doing to promote asphalt in New Mexico.

Sometimes samples are sent to an outside lab to perform a test you cannot perform in-house. Sometimes you’ll have a contract dispute that requires testing performed by a third party. In either case, following a few best practices will save a lot of headaches and ensure the sample you sent represents the material produced. Here are four keys for the best lab tests.

Rebounderz CEO outlines what it takes to turn another party’s infringement on your intellectual property into an ancillary income stream for you

NCAT offers pressure aging vessel tips and tricks for your new lab tech to age the binder properly for testing.

The two mounds known as the Pirmin Hills situated in the Ortenau district in the heart of the town of Sasbach, Switzerland, needed to be levelled to create space for a new supermarket. Four multi-family dwellings and an underground garage will be constructed in parallel in the direct vicinity of the supermarket. All in all, […]

Roadtec’s CB-100 Conveyor Broom is designed to clean the surface behind the milling machine, as well as capture fines for use back at the asphalt plant. Here’s how it works.

Carolina Sunrock LLC paved an award-winning project on Sandy Forks Road in North Raleigh, winning a Quality in Construction Award from the National Asphalt Pavement Association, but was also recognized as the first project in the state to receive a silver certification from Greenroads Foundation.

Kraemer North America and Martin Marietta bring innovation and cost savings to an award-winning 8-mile job on E-470 in Colorado.

The Daniel K. Inouye Highway (DKI), also known as Saddle Road, spans nearly the entire width of Hawaii Island, from Hilo on the east coast to Route 190 south of Waimea. Recent improvements to the road have made it safer and more well-traveled.

CJ Miller received four awards for paving quality at the Maryland Asphalt Association’s 56th annual paving conference in March. The awards come just one year shy of the company’s 60th year in business, demonstrating just how accurate a motto can be.

Washington Asphalt Pavement Association was formed in 1954, and its regular (HMA producing) members represent 98 percent of HMA/WMA production capacity in the state. AsphaltPro spent some time getting to know Executive Director Dave Gent, WAPA and what they’re doing to promote asphalt in Washington.

This month’s product gallery focuses on equipment and services that are designed to help the bottom line of the asphalt and aggregate producer.

Asphalt industry news and events in May 2018

Precise specimen preparation is a key step in performing reliable performance testing, regardless of the material tested or the sophistication of your testing systems. Let’s explore some basic steps for achieving the appropriate range of specimen preparation.

Among Midwest Construction Workers, Jill Manzo shines a light on a broad-ranging public health crisis that killed nearly 1,000 Midwest construction workers at a cost of more than $5 billion in 2015.

Blythe Construction uses GSB-88® asphalt emulsion as the base material to produce its 2017 fog seal projects.

At the AGG1/World of Asphalt 2018 show in Houston, Terex EvoQuip displayed the Cobra 230 impact crusher with output potential up to 275 tons per hour.

With the increase in polymer-modified asphalts (PMAs) in our industry comes the need to blend polymers into product efficiently. The team at Heatec, an Astec Industries company, Chattanooga, Tennessee, has built the Polymer-blending skid to facilitate the process and offer return for additional blending. Here’s how it works. While the process is “quick” enough that […]

Imagine this. Your road crew is doing a single-lane shutdown at night. Someone drives past your jobsite, pulls over and walks back to the flagger, asking to speak to the site manager. What do you think he might say? “He told the site manager that he could see the entire crew due to their Halo […]

When Chuck Calvert started Hot Mix Materials, Inc., Kansas City, Missouri, in 2007, he had already been operating a successful asphalt laydown business. As he continued to need more and more asphalt for his jobs, he began to run into issues getting everything he needed from existing asphalt plants in the Kansas City metro area. […]

Researchers in Canada give new hope to the use of recycled glass in asphalt pavements with the work of a large partnership. During a Dec. 1, 2015, press conference, Robert Poëti, Quebec’s Minister of Transport, lauded the integration of glass as a component of road manufacturing in the industry’s overall efforts to limit green house […]

If you see an attenuator driving through a Florida road construction zone with no one in the cab sometime soon, don’t worry. You just might be seeing the first autonomous TMA, or truck mounted attenuator, at work. Royal Truck & Equipment Inc. of Coopersburg, Pennsylvania, is currently at work to deploy the first driverless TMA […]

What does “clean” smell like? “If you ask your Grandma, she’d probably say bleach. Mom would say Pine Sol, but we usually think of citrus—lemon or orange,” Andy Shafer said. He’s the executive vice president of sales and market development at Elevance Renewable Sciences, Inc., Woodbridge, Illinois. Citrus ingredients are commonly used in cleaning products […]