Asphalt Pro - May 2021 by Asphalt Pro LLC

Paving for Bonus Issue

asphaltPRO PRODUCTION – PROFESSIONALS – PRODUCTS

• Protect Workers’ Hearing • Choose Subcontractors Wisely • Use the Straight Edge for Best QC/QA • Wooten Gets Creative with Median Access • Atlantic Southern Paves, Seals in the West

Boh Bros. Manages Fleets Across the Bayou Spring 2021 PreservationPro Inside MAY 2021 WWW.THEASPHALTPRO.COM

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CONTENTS

asphaltPRO May 2021

departments

Editor’s Letter 6 – Build it Right the First Time

SAFETY SPOTLIGHT 8 – Hearing Protection is Always a Priority By Sarah Redohl

TRAINING 10 – Train Proper Straight Edge Use for Bonus Quality Paving By John Ball

PRODUCER PROFILE 14 – Atlantic Southern Paving Heads West By Sarah Redohl

Feature articles

WOMEN of ASPHALT PROFILE 16 – A Woman of Asphalt: Meet Maymead’s Dawn McGee By Sandy Lender

INTERNATIONAL SNAPSHOT 22 – PGXpand Makes Way for PMB in India’s Highway Mixes By Deepak Madan, Ph.D.

PRODUCT GALLERY 30 – More Money, More Tons, More Production Equipment By AsphaltPro Staff

NEW TECH 48 – Boh Bros. Construction Adds Tracking By Jim Wahl

OFF THE MAT 52 – Mitigate Subcontractor Risk By Sean Rizer 54 – Go Local for Workforce Development From AEM

HERE'S HOW IT WORKS

26 – I-40 Gets a Redesign in Raleigh By Dustin Jones

PRESERVATIONPRO SPECIAL SECTION 36 – Keathley Defines Striping Precision, Professionalism By Sarah Redohl Paving for Bonus Issue

40 – San Antonio Takes Pothole Patching to the Next Level By Mary Foster

58 – ASV’s Posi-Track Technology 60 – Dynapac’s TH E Screed System

42 – Checklists Make Preservation Perfect By Sarah Redohl

ONLINE UPDATE

44 – Vermont’s Most Populous City Executes, Monitors Sustainable Fog Seal By Paul Fournier

62 – AsphaltPro Online

asphaltPRO PRODUCTION – PROFESSIONALS – PRODUCTS

• Protect Workers’ Hearing • Choose Subcontractors Wisely • Use the Straight Edge for Best QC/QA • Wooten Gets Creative with Median Access • Atlantic Southern Paves, Seals in the West

Boh Bros. Manages Fleets Across the Bayou Spring 2021 PreservationPro Inside MAY 2021 WWW.THEASPHALTPRO.COM

on the cover With 112 years of experience, Boh Bros. saw the opportunity to re-manage its fleet in Louisiana. See related article on page 48. Photo courtesy of Earthwave Technologies

editor’s Letter Build it Right the First Time

We can design beautiful, balanced mixes, tested for perfect performance against rutting, cracking, and stripping, but the system can fail if we build it carelessly. If we hire lackadaisical dudes who are more interested in updating their Instagram accounts than in getting hot mix to a low area on the mat, we have a work ethic problem to solve. Quality control in the lab, at the stockpiles, along the feeds and conveyors and weigh bridges of the plant, is wasted if the paving crew accepts a two-hour-delayed haul truck with crusted-over mix or parks a half-empty paver with a settling screed for a long lunch break. Is the laborer raking the joint and casting cooled material across the mat instead of leaving that material in the joint where it’s desperately needed for density? I put it to you: balanced mix designs and onerous DOT specs are meaningless if the paving crew is untrained and unaware of its impact on performance. We have an opportunity with this “Paving for Bonus” edition—and with this new paving season—to bring new workers up to speed on the definition of quality and pride in workmanship. Let’s take advantage of that opportunity and train a solid work ethic into the newbies setting foot on our jobsites. These young men and women who are entering our workforce deserve the best training we can offer them not only to safeguard them against injury out there in a dangerous profession, but also to see them succeed in a worthy profession. We build America. We build the infrastructure that supports a national economy. We are stewards of the environment and sustainers of families and livelihoods. To join this industry is nothing short of great and we need to convey that message to each and every worker we onboard for paving season 2021. We should be proud of the work we do and take the time to instill that pride in the new workers around us. Train them well today and we’ll see the results in the long-lasting asphalt pavements of tomorrow. Of course, I encourage companies to enroll in the Asphalt Paving 101 online course the AsphaltPro magazine put together. By purchasing the course once, you have it at your fingertips forever after, letting you train all your new workers each new season or refresh workers during the season when you have a rainy day. Reach out to your state associations for training opportunities. Reach out to industry consultants—such as John Ball, who shares a bevy of training tips on page 10 this month—for guidance. Reach out to your equipment dealers to see what resources they have for training throughout the season. We’re all in this together to ensure safe and efficient workers are building the best asphalt pavements possible. Stay Safe,

Sandy Lender

6 // May 2021

May 2021 • Vol. 14 No.7

asphaltPRO

602 W. Morrison, Box 6a • Fayette, MO 65248

(573) 823-6297 • www.theasphaltpro.com GROUP PUBLISHER Chris Harrison chris@ theasphaltpro.com PUBLISHER Sally Shoemaker sally@theasphaltpro.com (573) 823-6297 EDITOR Sandy Lender sandy@theasphaltpro.com (239) 272-8613 ASSOCIATE EDITOR Sarah Redohl sarah@theasphaltpro.com (573) 355-9775 MEDIA SALES Cara Owings cara@theasphaltpro.com (660) 537-0778 ART DIRECTOR Kristin Branscom BUSINESS MANAGER Susan Campbell (660) 728-5007

AsphaltPro is published 11 times per year. Writers expressing views in AsphaltPro Magazine or on the AsphaltPro website are professionals with sound, professional advice. Views expressed herein are not necessarily the same as the views of AsphaltPro, thus producers/contractors are still encouraged to use best practices when implementing new advice. SUBSCRIPTION POLICY: Individual subscriptions are available without charge in the United Sates, Canada and Mexico to qualified individuals. One year subscription to non-qualifying Individuals: United States $90, Canada and Mexico $125.00. For the international digital edition, visit theasphaltpro.com/subscribe/.

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Safety Spotlight

Hearing Protection is Always a Priority Please hear this loud and clear: Hearing protection should always be a priority. According to the Center for Construction Research and Training (CPWR), construction workers are exposed to noise levels about the limit set by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) 73 percent of the time. As a result of these working conditions, more than half of all construction workers have experienced hearing loss. This begins from day one on the job. According to Shari Smith, senior technical specialist at 3M, St. Paul, Minnesota, it’s common for construction workers to have the hearing of workers twice their age, meaning that a 30-year-old construction worker’s hearing is equivalent to that of a 60-year-old working in a non-noise exposed environment. This issue is compounded, Smith said, by the fact that many young people are joining the construction industry with some hearing loss already from the use of earbuds. Most people may not even realize they’re losing their hearing until it’s too late, Smith said during a webinar about preventing hearing loss presented by 3M. Even with personal protective equipment, we must ensure workers (or safety directors) don’t get complacent about protecting workers’ hearing. According to Smith, fit testing is an integral component of any hearing protection plan. Key factors to consider when selecting hearing protection devices are not limited to noise exposure and noise reduction rating (NRR); following best practices also requires attention to comfort, ease of use, fit, environment, compatibility with other personal protective equipment (PPE) and audibility. “The most appropriate hearing protector is the one that best meets the workers’ needs when a multitude of factors are considered,” Smith said, “and ultimately the one that they will wear.” “If it isn’t comfortable, people aren’t going to wear it,” Smith said. Hearing protection also needs to be easy to use. Although roll-down earplugs are common and easy to use, they may not be suitable for a construction site where workers’ hands are often dirty and/or they are wearing gloves. “They may not want to handle those earplugs with dirty hands, or take off their gloves to do so, so you have to think about choosing a plug that’s better-suited to the construction job site.” According to Smith’s research, 70 percent of people are able to properly insert earplugs on the first attempt. The remainder either need additional training or require other styles of ear protection. For example, 11 percent of people have what she calls “an earplug-ear canal mismatch.” This means that no matter how much they try or how much you train them, earplugs may not work for them. “Some peoples’ ear canal is shaped so differently, they really need earmuffs. It's important to identify them so you can supply them with hearing protection that works for them.” How much protection workers are getting is also important. According to Smith, if employees are equipped with hearing protection such that they are only experiencing 90 dB, 17 to 25 percent of people

8 // May 2021

“The most appropriate hearing protector is the one that best meets the workers’ needs when a multitude of factors are considered and ultimately the one that they will wear.”—Shari Smith will still experience hearing loss. If employees are equipped such that they only experience 85 dB, between 6 and 8 percent of people will still experience hearing loss. That number drops to less than 1 percent if you protect employees such that they only experience 80 dB. However, Smith warns against overprotecting due to its impact on auditory situational awareness. She recommends aiming to reduce noise levels to 70 or 80 dB. Smith reminds us that employees who do not wear hearing protection throughout the whole shift are not getting the level of protection claimed on the box. For example, if an employee is taking his or her earplugs out to have a 15-minute conversation four times throughout their shift, that’s an entire hour of exposure that you need to account for. A solution to these problems may be found in advanced hearing protection and communication solutions. “Environmental listening devices are helpful when moving between quiet and loud areas or when working near moving vehicles,” Smith said. These devices amplify sound when things are quiet and clip loud sounds down to 82 dB. “This allows you to have a better idea of what’s happening around you. The protection automatically adjusts as noise levels change.” Protective communication takes hearing protection one step further by allowing crews to better understand one another on the job. AsphaltPro has covered these devices before, such as their use by the team at The Earle Companies in Farmingdale, New Jersey. “These devices may be particularly helpful during the current COVID-19 environment, where we can’t get as close to one another as we might normally need to have clear communication,” Smith said. They work by amplifying the signal (what you want to hear) above the noise (the background sounds). “They are also useful in environments where it’s critical to hear warning signals from machinery.” Smith spent 20 years of her career helping to reduce struck-by accidents, mostly through the use of highly visible PPE clothing. “Now, we have another technology in the toolkit to reduce struck-by accidents,” she said. The majority of struck-bys, she added, occur by vehicles within the job site rather than the traveling public. “Imagine if the spotter and driver could talk to one another? That’s something to think about. Beyond protecting our hearing, these devices can also be a way to reduce accidents.” – BY SARAH REDOHL

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Train Proper Straight Edge Use for Bonus Quality Paving T

This article will talk about the proper use of the metal straight edge for good quality control during paving, but we have some extra tips to point out along the way. Let’s start with the reason for having a straight edge out on the paving job. The untrained or new laborer might not understand why the crew has an 8-footlong, 11- or 14-gauge, 2 by 4 steel tube on the deck of the paver or in the back of the work truck. This vital tool will help all the laborers—from the new guy with the rake to the foreman trying to figure yield. It helps you keep track of slope, high and low spots, crown, and proper takeoff depth in the mat. You’ll use the straight edge to check joints, match height and any number of quality control/quality assurance (QC/QA) factors that affect your pay. Before you even begin the paving day, here are some steps we need to do first. • Step #1 null out tow point cylinders while the screed is on the ground. • Step #2 with another worker, null out the depth cranks on each side of the screed. • Step #3 on each side of the paver, make the endgates level with the screed. With those steps done, you’ll raise the screed and place the straight edge against its underside to double-check the smoothness of the screed plate. For this quality check, make sure the slope extensions are not engaged. You’ll place the straight edge against the trailing edge of the screed for this check. A sixteenth of an inch of crown in the screed is acceptable/normal. Anything more than that is a problem. These back-to-basics steps are spelled out in detail in the online training course at https://training.theasphaltpro.com/.

Back in the old days, when screed plates were 36 inches wide, we had the lead crown and tail crown to consider. Don’t worry about multiple readings now that the typical screed plate is only 18 inches.

10 // May 2021

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In this picture, the crew places the straight edge transversely across the mat behindCONTROLS the screed to double-check the crown in the mat.

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The orange arrow points to the area where beginning-of-load segregation showed up in this binder course. You can minimize this if you avoid running the hopper empty between trucks.

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training QUICK TIP: You can build a “trough” on the back of the screed with a set of metal U-brackets to store the metal straight edge when it’s not in use. This keeps it off the paver deck so it’s less of a tripping hazard and it gives the crew an easy way to keep track of the QC device.

When you place the straight edge parallel to the long joint, you can see where any dips or rises in the mat might affect the smoothness of the ride down the travel lane. Once you’re ready to pave, you may be starting the project with a takeoff pad. You can read the article “Get Basics Right for Top Quality Overall” on TheAsphaltPro.com about how to build one of those in a parking lot scenario. As the paver operator paves forward, one of the laborers needs to place the straight edge on the mat to check the fluff factor. He will place the straight edge parallel to the longitudinal joint, behind the left side of the screed first. This initial 8- or 12-foot section will let you see if there’s a dip or a bump in the mat where the screed may have settled when you took off. If you see a dip or bump, you know to adjust your angle of attack. Read the article “Check the Angle of Attack” on TheAsphaltPro.com for a primer on that. After checking this section of the mat for quality, the laborer will move the straight edge to parallel to the longitudinal joint, but behind the right screed plate. You want to check both sides of the mat because both

QUICK TIP: You can paint the metal straight edge a bright, safety color to reduce tripping hazards and to make it less likely to be left behind in the grass at the side of your paving project.

12 // May 2021

depth cranks are controlled independently; if one has more height in it than the other, you could have different results happening on the right and left sides of the mat. Another element to watch out for when taking off is the beginning-of-load segregation seen in the picture on page 10. The area of segregation occurred because the crew ran out of mix in the hopper when they sat down. They moved the material to the auger while the paver was stationary. You can end up with a full auger section, but an empty hopper, if you run the augers while the paver is sitting and waiting for trucks. When the next truck arrives and charges the hopper, you introduce new, hot mix to the system. The material at the auger chamber is one temperature and one consistency. It’s not homogenized with the new material coming in. You’re introducing beginning-of-load segregation, which will show up in the mat. Avoid beginning-of-load segregation by waiting for the truck to back into position and to charge the hopper as you simultaneously move material with the feed conveyors to the auger chamber. Depending on the type of project, you may want a crown in the mat or a hint of slope to drain toward the shoulder or so on. In the picture on page 10, the straight edge shows that the crew has about a quar-

ter-inch of crown in the mat. This means there’s slope in the extension. This crew is paving the first 15-foot-wide binder course pass of a 30-foot road. When we look more closely at the space under the straight edge, we can see that we have about half an inch of discrepancy. If we didn’t want the crown in the mat, we would need to adjust the match height down the quarter inch on that side, bringing the extension level with the main screed plate. By balancing the screed all the way across, we would remove the slope. We double-check our success with the metal straight edge. If you receive the Monday morning toolbox tips from AsphaltPro, then you know about having a wooden 2 by 4 on the paving project for supporting the uncompacted edge and other best practices. For QC/QA checks, you want your straight edge to be steel, not wood or string between a couple stakes. The metal straight edge is less likely to warp from moisture and heat than a lumber 2 by 4; it also won’t stretch the way string will. That means the metal straight edge will stay useful for checking quality. – BY JOHN BALL

John Ball is the proprietor of Top Quality Paving & Training, Manchester, New Hampshire. He provides personal, on-site paving consulting services around the United States and into Canada. For more information, contact him at (603) 493-1458 or tqpaving@yahoo.com.

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Atlantic Southern Paving Heads West W

When Michael “Mickey” Curry started Atlantic Southern Paving and Sealcoating, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in the early 1990s, he had to borrow $1,500 from a friend to buy a pickup truck and a few 5-gallon buckets of sealer. After three decades of hard work, the company has not only grown to offer its services nationwide, but it has also begun to acquire additional paving and sealcoating companies to continue its growth. In January 2021, Atlantic Southern acquired Emerald Paving Company, Westminster, California, to expand its operations in the western United States. Atlantic Southern performs paving and pavement maintenance services in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Its clients range from retail, hotel, restaurant and other chains, small and large, regional and national. Roughly 70 percent of the company’s work is asphalt paving. “The appeal of Atlantic Southern is that we are a one-stop shop that can handle a large volume of projects,” said Michael Curry Jr., CEO of Atlantic Southern and Mickey Curry’s eldest son. “Instead of dealing with multiple contractors on multiple projects and the headaches that can entail, the client only has to deal with one contractor for all of their projects.” Curry Jr. has been involved in the business since the beginning, offering an “extra pair of hands” whenever the crew was short a worker on weekends and during school breaks. Although he was never pressured to go into the family business, Curry Jr. started working at the company full-time in 1998 after finishing his undergraduate degree at the University of Central Florida. Then, in 2004, Curry Sr.’s son, Dan, joined the family business and helped expand its operations around southern Florida. In 2010, they hired Terry Smith as its chief operating officer and decided to take the company national. “Many of our clients had been asking us if we could do jobs for them outside of southern Florida,” Curry Jr. said. Atlantic South-

From left to right: Terry Smith, COO; Michael Curry Jr., CEO; Dan Curry, vice president. Photographs by Favian A. Roldan ern began performing work for its clients in a wider region and eventually across the nation. “They enjoyed working with us, and we wanted to grow with them, so it’s been a good business relationship.”

CONTR

A NATIONAL APPROACH

Before the acquisition of Emerald Paving, Atlantic Southern employed 160 employees. With the acquisition, that has expanded to nearly 200 employees, roughly 120 of them on the company’s crews. Atlantic Southern’s in-house crew performs work regionally, around the company’s Florida offices in Sunrise, Fort Myers, Orlando and Cocoa. The majority of Atlantic Southern’s work across the nation is contracted out to local companies and managed and overseen by an on-site Atlantic Southern project manager. “The fact that we not only manage work on a national level, but that we also perform the work in-house in Florida, is definitely an advantage,” Curry Jr. said. “The company’s project managers are already well-versed in paving and pavement maintenance. They know the ins and outs because they’ve physically done the work before they manage it.”

CONTR

Emerald Paving had a similar approach. Both companies served a similar group of clients and performed work nationwide, though Atlantic Southern didn’t do much work out west and Emerald didn’t do much in the eastern and central parts of the country. Curry Jr. had known Derek Davis, CEO of Emerald, for years before the two began to discuss the acquisition. Curry Jr. said: “By working together, we could leverage where each of the companies is, geographically.” Curry Jr. said the company plans to continue to acquire other paving and pavement maintenance companies, particularly in the American south, Sunbelt and mid-Atlantic regions.

CONTR

– BY SARAH REDOHL

CONTR

14 // May 2021

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Women of asphalt

A Woman of Asphalt: Meet Maymead’s Dawn McGee AsphaltPro: What do you think is the most important skill you’ve brought to your position as a distributor operator in the asphalt industry? Dawn McGee: Patience has been my most valuable skill coming into my job. I have also learned how to be more patient. I would advise any women coming into the construction industry to be patient with yourself and others teaching you. Remember, you are training. Nothing is ever perfect, but it is okay and it will work out. Set goals for yourself as you learn and conquer those one at a time. When I began, I gave myself a timeframe to learn everything and feel comfortable before moving on. You can ask questions because if you do not ask, then how will you know? And there is never a stupid question.

She started out in customer service, which lends itself well to a career in asphalt paving. Dawn McGee is now a tack truck operator for Maymead Inc., headquartered in Mountain City, Tennessee, and she’s sharing with us the path she took to become a woman of asphalt, starting in 2018 when she joined the all-female paving crew.

AsphaltPro: Could you share with the readers your career trajectory and what challenges you’ve overcome along the way? Dawn McGee: I had worked in customer service after high school, and decided to go to college in my 30s to teach. I still was not satisfied with my career. Browsing job listings, I came across the ad for the all-female paving crew. I decided to apply and have been here since—I love it. Shovel (laborer) I think it is still my favorite job. I started with the shovel and learned how to do that properly before learning how to operate and perform each job that makes up our paving crew, including the dump truck, milling machine, rollers, broom, skid steer and backhoe.

I have to be able to fix the truck or anything like an air leak or busted line if necessary.

AsphaltPro: Could you share with the readers what your job as a distributor operator for Maymead requires? Dawn McGee: Being the distributor (tack truck) operator, I have to be an hour (or sometimes two hours) earlier than everyone else because of heating, filling, and getting it to the job on time and ready to go. You must be dependable and responsible because normally there isn’t a person to fill in your position. I have also had to learn a lot about diesel mechanics and the Etnyre distributor controls, pumps, and spray bar.

AsphaltPro: Why did you become a distributor operator? What about that position is “most cool” to you? Dawn McGee: To be honest, the crew at the time needed someone for the position. I kind of just went with it and it has stuck with me. I wanted to learn everything to be able to help where needed. The coolest thing about my job is driving the big Freightliner or International truck. When I arrive on a job, people do not expect this little lady to jump out. Their faces can be priceless!

16 // May 2021

Dawn McGee is a distributor operator for Maymead Inc. She’s been with the company since 2018, starting out as a laborer and working in a number of positions, including operating the dump truck, milling machine, rollers, broom, skid steer and backhoe.

AsphaltPro: What would you say was the most challenging “obstacle” you, as a female on the asphalt team, had to overcome in the past three years, and how did you overcome it? Dawn McGee: The biggest challenge I have faced is being a female wanting to work in a mostly male-dominated career. Being overlooked when something happens on the job and decisions are being made, I sometimes feel like my ideas or advice weren’t needed or heard, even if they were correct or helpful. I have learned to be louder when speaking or just fix it and not say anything. I know it's scary sometimes feeling like the outsider but you have to realize you are not really—this is your crew or “my people,” as I like to say. Just learn when to speak up! Normally they are never excited to see me come in on a new job but they always want me to come back—not because I am a woman, but because I work hard and show them how capable I am.

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Women of asphalt

AsphaltPro: Let’s talk about teamwork. Dawn McGee: “Teamwork makes a dream work.” My old foreman used to repeat this daily. It doesn’t matter what sort of issue may come up—and there will be plenty— if you work together with your crew, it will work out. AsphaltPro: It’s a fact that asphalt production can be hot and dusty. How do you respond to people who say it’s a “dirty job?” Dawn McGee: Asphalt paving is definitely hot and dirty work. Before this job I had no idea about sweat, dirt under my nails, or blisters. I was never the “girly” girl but I wasn’t the “tomboy” either. I now have a section in my closest for work and have dirty boots. It makes my mom laugh because she says she cannot believe I am okay with it. But I learned real quick that going home so dirty just means today I can feel accomplished. AsphaltPro: What do you think is an incorrect perception that we, as an industry, can re-educate young people about to encourage more women to consider a career in the asphalt business?

18 // May 2021

TOP: McGee operates the screed as one of her many skills on the paving crew. BOTTOM: McGee said being in the asphalt business is the most rewarding thing for her: “I love the smell of it every day, not to mention driving on a road I took part in paving or even building.” Dawn McGee: I think a common misconception is that this career choice is only for men. Women like you, myself, and ones I have had the pleasure of working with are changing that as we speak. I am proud to be a part of something important. If we could start in the high schools offering programs or mentors for young women and men con-

sidering this career choice I believe it would help them see what a rewarding industry it is.

AsphaltPro: What is the most challenging aspect for you of being in the asphalt business? Dawn McGee: The most challenging aspect is the long hours. I am a single mother to a

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Women of asphalt 15-year-old young man. I miss a lot of things going on for him. He now understands and his “best mom ever” reminder doesn’t hurt either. It reminds me to keep pushing and doing it all.

AsphaltPro: What is the most rewarding aspect for you, personally, of being in the asphalt business? Dawn McGee: If you repeat your question my answer is right there—you said it: “Being in the asphalt business.” That is the most rewarding thing to me. I love the smell of it every day, not to mention driving on a road I took part in paving or even building.

McGee believes in the mantra that “teamwork makes the dream work.” Here she works the mat with a colleague with precision and attention to detail.

AsphaltPro: Will you tell us about a person who served as a mentor for you? Dawn McGee: I have three people, not just one, who have been there as a mentor whether they realized or not. Mary Katherine, Brandon and Tom. Each one teaching me and encouraging me throughout ev-

erything since the beginning—making sure I have had the opportunities to learn, operate equipment, and stick it out with me, while also allowing me to see them work and get things done. Mary Katherine has kept my spirit up when I have been ready to throw in the towel and made me feel worthy of what I do. Brandon took me onto his crew when there wasn’t really a place for me anywhere and taught me how to run the distributor and other equipment. Tom coming out to the job after working with his crew all night to help me with the truck or any issues and being patient with my mess ups. They all have pushed me harder and encouraged me to do things because they believed in me, and if they didn't they sure haven't let on to me once. The best advice I have learned from them all is nothing is ever perfect. It will be okay—deal with it. Sounds harsh, but it is true and I can say it helps.

Stop Accidents Before They Stop You! Overhead loadout mishaps put your employees, your vehicles, and your entire operation at risk! Silo Safety System is: Completely stand-alone and can be up and running in a few days. Useful for any overhead loadout situation – asphalt, aggregate, ready mix, or other materials. Able to work with any loadout system you have in place – Libra, Apex, COMMANDbatch, and more! A cost-effective solution that allows you to quickly capture value by immediately eliminating costly mistakes!

20 // May 2021

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s a family-owned and operated business offering state-of-the art portable and stationary asphalt plant equipment, having a personal touch with our customers is important to us. People always come first. When you call, you can speak to an owner. We are large enough to supply your equipment needs, while still being flexible and responsive. Contact us today to learn more about how CWMF Corporation goes the extra mile.

International snapshot

This successful paving trial used Sripath Technologies’ PGXpand to lay down a wear layer surface in Andhra Pradesh, India. Photos courtesy of Sripath Technologies

PGXpand Makes Way for PMB in India’s Highway Mixes S

Sripath Technologies® successfully conducted a joint trial with Cube Highways, paving a wear layer surface on a 1.25-mile (2-kilometer) stretch of SH-2 in Andhra Pradesh, India. State Highway SH-2 acts as a major roadway between National Highways NH-65 and NH-16, predominantly for heavy traffic between Hyderabad and Chennai. As a provider of innovative products and solutions for asphalt pavement mixes, Sripath is a global company, reliably serving its customers with unmatched logistics and on-time deliveries. Cube Highways, based in Singapore, has one of the largest portfolios of new highway projects in India, and it used

22 // May 2021

A. R. Thermosets Pvt. Ltd. as the paving contractor for this trial. Sripath’s PGXpand® polymer was used for this trial to enhance the performance of a locally available VG-30 grade of liquid asphalt cement (AC) to produce the polymer modified bitumen (PMB). In paving mixes, PGXpand has been shown to boost the high-temperature paving grade and pavement rutting properties, without adversely affecting the low-temperature grade and pavement fatigue performance. Imparting reduced viscosity in asphalt blends, PGXpand improves workability, and acts as a compaction aid. It readily mixes into the AC with low shear.

Prior to the trial, an independent study was conducted in India to verify the impact of PGXpand on improving properties and performance of VG-30 blends. These results became the basis for the trial pictured here. As seen in the table, the AC mix dosed with 1.5 percent PGXpand has similar properties to AC dosed with 3.5 percent SBS. The AC was mixed with 1.25 to 1.5 percent PGXpand in 20 MT tanks equipped with rotary agitators. Workers found the PGXpand® easy to incorporate into the AC using existing equipment and operating procedures. They described the resultant mix as smooth, well coated and easy to lay down.

Properties of VG-30 Blends

VG-30 Base

VG-30 + 3.5% SBS

VG-30 + 1.5% PGXpand®

Softening Point, °C

Penetration, dmm

PG High Grade, °C

64.1

74.5

Ravi Kumar is a paver operator “The mixture was really very smooth. I could feel the difference from what we normally use,” explained Ravi Kumar, the paver operator. With experience paving roads and airstrips all over the world, including Afghanistan and the Middle East, Kumar shared his thoughts at the end of the trial: “The paving operation was noticeably easier. The auger remained clean—with no material sticking to it, unlike the SBS mix. We could even have paved at a lower temperature. Overall, I am really happy with the new mix laydown and compaction.” Bhanoj Dokku of Cube Highways and H. P. Singh of A. R. Thermosets were also impressed with the ease of incorporating PGXpand into the AC using existing equipment and procedures; the excellent properties and workability of the mix; and the quality of the wear layer surface. According to Sachin Raje of BitPath Pvt. Ltd. (Sripath’s affiliate in India): “The potential for cost savings while improving performance is a winning proposition for

Cube Highways and for the Indian bitumen industry.” It appears that Sripath is at the forefront of an emerging consensus in India that more roadways need to be built using PMB to handle India’s future highway network and heavy traffic needs. According to Nitin Gadkari, Indian Minister of Road Transport and Highways, the ministry is looking into regulations to make the use of PMB mandatory in India. The ministry welcomes working with contractors and foreign experts to help India adopt successful technology or practices from around the world. India plans to construct 37,000 miles (60,000 km) of new roads and highways over the next five years. In addition to PGXpand, Sripath offers a number of other additives for paving applications, including: NuMixer® and ReNUBIT® to improve low temperature performance; ReLIXER® to rejuvenate high levels of reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) and recycled asphalt shingles (RAS) mixes; PGXtend® to increase high temperature grade of asphalt; and SriCote™, an amine-free anti-stripping agent as a solution to demanding moisture-damage and fuel-resistant applications. Sripath also offers a range of products and solutions for roofing applications.

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– BY DEEPAK MADAN, PH.D.

Deepak Madan is the president of Danik Innovations LLC, a consulting firm that guides and helps its clients within the infrastructure industry to develop and implement a comprehensive business strategy to enhance business value. For more information, visit www.DanikInnovations.com. For more information on Sripath’s products and solutions, visit www.Sripath.com. In India, visit Bitpath at www.BitPath.co.in.

Oregon, IL etnyre.com 800.995.2116 815.440.2959 www.THeAsphaltpro.com // 23

AND YOU KNOW WE DO THIS... Our commitment to serving our customers in the asphalt pavement industry drives us to be our best, from our full-service engineering department eager work with you to configure a plant to meet your needs, to our logistics and construction crews ready to get that plant delivered and operational. Astec plants are all backed by after the sale parts and service support. You can count on us as your single source for complete plants, component equipment, parts and service.

SALES: 423.867.4210 All specifications subject to change with or without notice. | Products shown are representative, details may vary. | Equipment shown with options at additional cost.

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I-40 Gets a Redesign in Raleigh BY DUSTIN JONES

The S.T. Wooten team built a temporary ramp off the old East Garner Rd. bridge to provide construction traffic access to the median. This included asphalt haul trucks, offering consistent delivery times for consistent temperatures and so on. A spokesperson for S.T. Wooten said the ramp and existing bridge will be removed once the median has been constructed. Photos courtesy of S.T. Wooten Corporation Steady economic development combined with a growing arts and entertainment scene have ushered in a population boom for the Raleigh area. However, one challenge that comes with rapid growth is the strain on infrastructure and ensuring there’s room for everybody on the roads. One of Raleigh’s most troublesome traffic spots is a stretch of Interstate 40 (I-40) between the Interstate 440 beltline and the suburbs in Johnston County. In 2018, our team at S.T. Wooten began working on a multi-year widening and redesign project for the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) to improve traffic conditions and ensure safety for the rising number of travelers in the area.

One of the biggest obstacles anticipated with this job is the amount of traffic flowing through the work zone. There are several hauling and lane closure restrictions that our team has to keep in mind, which also means a lot of the paving work must be done at night during limited hours. These restrictions also make planning and scheduling of the utmost importance. To help manage the project and keep different activities running efficiently across this large stretch of highway, S.T. Wooten worked with the NCDOT to establish six separate work areas. These are different sections where construction is happening simultaneously to help with phasing and traffic management.

BUILDING THE BATTING LINEUP

ROUNDING FIRST BASE

The I-40 design-build project covers nearly 13 miles of the highway extending from the I-440 divide in Raleigh to two miles east of the busy N.C. 42 interchange in Johnston County. Our crews are adding two new lanes in each direction of the interstate, extending four-lane sections to eight lanes and six-lane sections to ten lanes.

26 // May 2021

One of our first major initiatives on the I-40 project was to put down 1.5 inches of asphalt overlay across the existing concrete lanes. Crews applied a special coating during this process to adhere the asphalt mix with the underlying concrete. The formula uses additives and polymers to create a monolithic bond for strength and longevity. S.T.

Wooten is using a similar product for all other paving operations. This trackless tack sets in less than 15 minutes, creating a strong interlayer bond to reduce slipping, shoving and cracking. Paving has started on a three-mile section of the highway from East Garner Rd. to the I-440 interchange with careful attention to traffic management. For this stretch, crews paved the inside lanes first and had vehicles pushed to the outside lanes around construction. Then, we reversed course with paving taking place on the outside lanes and had traffic pushed to inside lanes. Crews are leveraging CAT 1055 pavers equipped with Trimble 3D grade control systems for efficiency and accuracy. The systems give us the ability to conquer complex designs that include transitions, changing cross slopes and super elevated curves. Our crews also use the systems to take out the high and low areas early on in the process while placing base and binder. Additionally, the systems increase road smoothness.

ADJUSTING TO THE CURVE

Facing the prospect of some heavy-hitting traffic on this project, we have taken some unique measures to keep work running smoothly. For convenience, we’ve installed two asphalt plants close to the project in the towns of Garner and Clayton. The Garner plant provides us with several advantages. Nearby, it is also equipped with a temporary ramp that runs from a closed highway bridge right down into the median for direct site access. This ramp will eliminate thousands of loads of asphalt from being hauled in traffic. The ramp off the old East Garner Rd. bridge was built to provide access to the median for construction traffic, which would include asphalt, stone, concrete and dirt trucks. The ramp and existing bridge will be removed once the median has been constructed. Additionally, there is a temporary road built adjacent to the plant that gives us access to the outside shoulder in the westbound direction. Some of the mix is already down with more to be placed as the highway project is completed. At the Clayton plant, we will be using a materials conveyer that will allow us to deliver loads directly to the median and bypass traffic. This conveyor is expected to help save thousands of loads from being hauled in traffic.

HITTING THE DIAMOND

In addition to widening the highway, our crews are also managing construction of 15 new or revamped bridges along I-40 as part of the design-build project. One notable structure is a new flyover bridge coming from I-440 westbound to I-40 eastbound. Along with these activities, crews are reconstructing the entire interchange where I-40 merges with N.C. 42 and converting it into a Diverging Diamond Interchange (DDI) with dual bridges. A DDI allows two directions of traffic—guided by traffic signals, pavement markings and concrete barriers—to cross over each other at traffic signals to get onto the interstate. The DDI concept is fairly new in North Carolina, but it has proven successful in allowing drivers to come through an intersection more smoothly and safely. This will be the second DDI that S.T. Wooten has worked on, having previously helped the state build the second-ever DDI near the coast.

The crew used a material transfer vehicle to feed the paver on its I-40 widening project.

One of the first major initiatives on the I-40 project was to put down 1.5 inches of asphalt overlay across the existing concrete lanes. Crews applied a special coating during this process to adhere the asphalt mix with the underlying concrete. North Carolina Department of Transportation specification 605-1 requires contractors to “[a]pply a tack coat beneath each layer of asphalt plant mix to be placed.” The formula uses additives and polymers to create a monolithic bond for strength and longevity. S.T. Wooten is using a similar product for all other paving operations. This trackless tack S.T. Wooten uses is designed to set in less than 15 minutes and create a strong interlayer bond to reduce slipping, shoving and cracking. critical personnel in place who embrace the challenges that this project brings; they always have the company’s best interest in mind when coming up with a solution. Our crews have proven up for the challenge and their main focus continues to be on building continued momentum toward our 2022 target deadline. With our team fielded in the right positions, we’ll round third to a successful finish and a more open highway for travelers in North Carolina’s capital city. Dustin Jones is a project manager for S.T. Wooten, Wilson, North Carolina.

HEADED FOR HOME

While solid planning and the use of technology is helping our team adjust to challenges on the I-40 project, it’s the hard work from our crews that has really brought us this far. We are extremely lucky to have the

WEB EXTRA: Read more about the I-40 project parameters at https://www.ncdot.gov/projects/i40-nc42/Pages/default.aspx

www.THeAsphaltpro.com // 27

Product Gallery

More Money, More Tons, More Production Equipment T

There’s renewed talk—and renewed hope—for an injection of monies to the transportation and infrastructure industry from the new administration. The Associated Equipment Distributors (AED) released a statement March 31 breaking down the key components of the “American Jobs Plan” and how it’s supposed to be funded: • $621 billion for transportation, including roads, bridges, transit, ports and airports as well as electrifying vehicles • $111 billion to upgrade drinking and wastewater infrastructure • $100 billion for high-speed broadband infrastructure • $100 billion to upgrade the U.S. power infrastructure • $213 billion to “produce, preserve, and retrofit affordable and sustainable places to live” • $137 billion for physical upgrades to public schools, community colleges, child-care facilities, VA hospitals and federal buildings • $300 billion to invest in U.S. manufacturing and strengthen critical supply chains • $100 billion for workforce development and jobs training programs • $400 billion for “expanding access to quality, affordable homeor community-based care for aging relatives and people with disabilities” “The administration is proposing to pay-for the American Jobs Plan through a variety of tax changes targeted to corporations, including increasing the corporate rate to 28 percent, creating a 15 percent minimum tax on the income corporations use to report their profits to investors (book income), eliminating tax preferences for the fossil fuel industry, greater tax liability on U.S. multinational corporations and more robust IRS tax enforcement. “Of course, this is merely the Biden-Harris administration’s infrastructure plan. Ultimately, it will be up to lawmakers in Congress to draft legislation and settle on funding mechanisms. Stay tuned to AED for further information as the process moves forward.” Kip Eideberg, the senior vice president of government and industry relations for the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM), stated on that same day the association is ready to work with the president in making bold investments in workforce and infrastructure development. “At the same time, we strongly urge him to make sure that we preserve the predictability and stability in the tax code that keeps equipment manufacturers competitive and drives job creation and good wages. Tax reform made equipment manufacturers more competitive in the global economy. It is imperative that we do not undo that progress.” Later that evening, the National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association (NSSGA) President and CEO Michael Johnson issued a statement that should encourage asphalt and aggregate producers alike: “NSSGA will continue to fight to make sure that any infrastructure package rightly prioritizes surface transportation and provides significant long-term investment, including a fix to the Highway Trust Fund.” While industry associations call on each of us to participate at a grassroots level in communicating these messages to our representatives,

28 // May 2021

we still have day-to-day work to accomplish. We’re still making asphalt pavement mix to create long-lasting roadways and pavement repairs. Even a pandemic with a range of political reactions couldn’t stop an industry as essential as ours. According to a mid-March press release from the American Road and Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA), state governments leveraged $29 billion in federal funds to advance $70 billion in highway improvements during fiscal year (FY) 2020. That’s only federal data talking about 22,000 highway projects that moved forward last year. Consider the number of local, private and other projects contractors were scrambling to complete as construction season drew to a wintery end—projects alluded to in articles in this publication—and we see that work is waiting for 2021 to catch up.

Nationally, 47 percent of project funds were dedicated to major repair or reconstruction work on existing highways in 2020. Adding capacity (19 percent of funds), planning, design, and construction engineering (13 percent), new construction (6 percent), planning, environmental, and research and administration (3 percent), are among the other featured categories. Learn more: artbahighwaydashboard.org. Take a look over the next few pages at the plant and production OEMs and service providers who are poised to assist you in meeting the demands of the 2021 construction season. No matter how the funding trickles down to your specific bend in the road, these companies are prepared to discuss enhancing your bottom line to meet the challenges around the asphalt industry.

BROCK

BROCK, Georgetown, Tennessee, is pleased to announce the addition of a dryer/mixer drum to its product line. While this style dryer/mixer drum has been in the industry for over 30 years, BROCK is now one of only two companies building this style drum. As a result, BROCK now offers the market a viable option for drum replacement and/or refurbishment.

BROCK has added this dryer/mixer style drum to its product line.

The company has already shipped multiple drum mixers to customers with more new drums in its backlog. BROCK now supplies most non-proprietary parts and components for all makes and models of hot mix asphalt plants. BROCK also provides in-field construction services for hot-mix asphalt plants including repairs, maintenance and plant relocation services. Commenting on the announcement President and CEO Ben Brock said, “We are pleased to announce our new dryer/mixer drum product and we thank our customers for their support in purchasing drums from us—we could not do it without our customers. We remain excited and energized by our opportunities. To that end, stay tuned for more announcements as we move ahead.” For more information, contact Travis Sneed at (423) 476-9900 or visit www.brock.industries.

CATERPILLAR

The new Cat 963 Track Loader offers up to 10 percent better fuel efficiency, more productivity, and cab and control improvements, according to the manufacturer. The new 963 crawler loader replaces the 963K, and meets U.S. EPA Tier 4 Final/EU Stage V emission standards. The 963 is powered by a Cat C7.1 engine that produces 15 percent more peak torque than the previous model. Auto Mode can reduce fuel consumption by up to 10 percent by adapting the engine speed to the load. The 963 also has Eco Mode, which lowers speed for further reduction in fuel consumption in lighter duty applications, and Power Mode, which keeps the engine speed high to feel readily available power at all times. The updated cab is equipped with a suspension seat and adjustable armrests and controls, as well as a 10-inch touchscreen dash display and rearview camera. According to the manufacturer, Slope Indicate makes operation easier by showing machine mainfall and cross slope right on the display. For more information, visit your local CAT dealer.

COMMAND ALKON

Command Alkon, Birmingham, Alabama, and Libra Systems, a subsidiary of Command Alkon, are pleased to offer the Silo Safety System to ensure the safety of the driver and vehicle and eliminate loss of material in overhead silo loadout situations. The standalone system is designed to support operations that have any type of overhead loadout scenario. “Once the gates on the silo open, a literal ton of material, sometimes at 320 degrees Fahrenheit for asphalt loadout, is being dropped from the silo in the matter of one second,” said Greg Fleisch, Libra sales manager. “If the vehicle is not in the correct location, this puts the driver at risk for serious injury and can cause extremely expensive damage to the cab of the truck as well as lost time and materials in the production process. The Silo Safety System could more than pay for itself with the price of one accident.” “Now that Libra Systems is under the umbrella of Command Alkon, we can offer this solution across our base of customers using Libra and Apex for asphalt and aggregate operations, as well as COMMANDbatch customers in ready mix operations to ensure

The Silo Safety System from Command Alkon and Libra Systems prevents the operator from accidentally opening the wrong silo gate. safety and mitigate the risk of lost materials,” said Lori Allen, director of corporate marketing at Command Alkon. The Silo Safety System features infrared sensors to enable each silo, if and only if, the truck is in the proper position. As the truck pulls through to the loadout station, it will break the infrared sensor beam to enable the silo to be opened. The Silo Safety System includes these important features and benefits: • Completely stand-alone system compatible for use with any overhead loadout scenario and automation system. • Two Infrared sensor sets indicate when vehicle is appropriately placed for loading and silo gate activation. • Three sensor set configuration allows for detection of space between cab and trailer. • Fully graphic touch screen display indicates sensor and silo gate activation to operator. Available with pedestal stand for desktop placement or can be panel mounted. • Manual override mode with redundant loadout system interlock for scenarios not meeting standard vehicle and loadout situations. • Real-time alerts indicate potential defective sensor situations. • Stand-alone Junction Box and PLC controls ensure ease in wiring, installation, and sensor location tuning. “This solution saved us the first day that we had it,” said Dewey East, owner and founder of Southeast Plant Services. “One of our operators tried to open the incorrect silo immediately after the installation, and the Silo Safety System prevented the gate from opening.” For more information, visit www.commandalkon.com/getsilosafety.

www.THeAsphaltpro.com // 29

Product Gallery CONVEYOR COMPONENTS

The Model RS-27P cable support, manufactured by Conveyor Components Company, Croswell, Michigan, joins the ranks of the RS-23 and RS-27 and provides another way to properly support e-stop cable for the product line of engineered safety stop switches. The RS-27P “pig-tail” or “corkscrew” cable support allows the installer to quickly install the pull cable without having to thread the cable through a traditional eye. E-stops or emergency cable pull controls are required in many parts of the world to protect personnel from dangerous situations, and are designed to act as an emergency stop for conveyors and other moving machinery. The RS-27P cable support consists of zinc plated steel support with spiral eye and comes complete with two hex nuts and a lock washer. Installation involves a ½-inch diameter hole in the conveyor side-rail or frame. For more information, contact Conveyor Components Company at (800) 233-3233.

CWMF

The Wedge-Lok™ Tire Suspension System from CWMF Inc., Waite Park, Minnesota, has been in use for over 25 years. The design allows the end user to secure the tire to the drum and eliminate tire slippage by simply adjusting setscrews. The inclined plane mechanism provides superb holding strength and there is no need to apply shim stock, according to the manufacturer. A secured and balance tire extends the life expectancy and reduces costly downtime. CWMF will be introducing a new featured

video onto their website (summer 2021), which will demonstrate how to properly install the Wedge-Lok™ Tire Suspension System. For more information, contact sales@cwmfcorp.com or visit www. cwmfcorp.com.

CURRY

Curry Supply Company, Martinsburg, Pennsylvania, has appointed Cory Wilson as the company’s vice president of operations. In this role, Wilson oversees all elements of the company’s supply chain, manufacturing, and engineering, ensuring that excellence in quality remains central to Curry’s customer value proposition and growth strategy. Wilson joins Curry after serving in various roles at JLG Industries in McConnellsburg, Pennsylvania, for the past 17 years.

DOOSAN

The front of the wheel loader has been considered a major safety issue due to blind spots. That's why Doosan Infracore, Seoul, South Korea, has introduced a “transparent bucket” function on a wheel loader. The system allows wheel loader drivers to see blind spots in front of the bucket via a monitor in the cab. The system records images in front of the wheel loader with cameras installed at the top and bottom of the bucket and shows the combined images in real time using a curved projection method. According to the manufacturer, Doosan Infracore is the first company to develop and apply a front projection function like this for a construction machine.

EVOQUIP

EvoQuip®, a Terex brand, has launched the revamped Bison 120 jaw crusher with a new fuel efficient Deutz 2.2 L3 Engine Stage V engine, larger crusher drive motor and easily adjustable belt tensioner to aid tensioning and belt replacement. The new style panels offer access to the engine bay from all three sides, making maintenance and servicing easy, according to the manufacturer. The revamped model now has the addition of a programmable logic controller (PLC) with intuitive push button control panel as standard along with a remote control to enable the operator to adjust the jaw’s closed side setting (CSS) and to start or stop from the cab. The Bison 120 features a 680 mm by 400 mm single toggle jaw crusher. The jaw is driven hydraulically, allowing the customer the ability to reverse the crusher to clear a blockage as well as being able to run in reverse permanently for sticky applications such as asphalt. The ability to adjust the jaw setting and operate the plant from the remote control allows for a fast and simple set up for the customer. For more information, contact your local Terex dealer.

H&B

The Wedge-Lok™ from CWMF retrofits on this CMI drum. 30 // May 2021

Haver & Boecker Niagara, St. Catharines, Ontario, highlights the advantages of pairing eccentric screening technology with polyurethane screen media. The combination of the eccentric machines in its Niagara F-Class and Niagara N-Class with polyurethane media, such as Ty-Max and Ty-Deck, are designed to offer more uptime, fewer screening problems and higher screening efficiency. Here’s what they’ve learned:

“We pride ourselves on providing our customers technology that advances their operations’ productivity and profitability,” said Karen Thompson, president of Haver & Boecker Niagara’s North American and Australian operations. “Though each of these two technologies are highly beneficial on their own, their benefits dramatically increase when combined. The result for our customers is less downtime and better screening.” Advanced eccentric screening technology implemented by Haver & Boecker Niagara, combined with the benefits of the manufacturer’s polyurethane media has been shown to reduce pegging and blinding; handle high impacts; improve screening action and increase screening efficiency; and lessen vibrations transmitted to the structure. Eccentric screening optimizes vibrating screens for handling heavy-duty applications, such as classifying and scalping. The eccentric shaft design forces the screen body to follow the shaft movement. While it travels upward, the counterbalance weights move in the opposite direction and create an equal force to that generated by the body. As a result, the forces cancel each other out while generating a consistent positive stroke that minimizes structural vibration and handles material volume spikes without losing momentum. This leads to the machine transmitting fewer vibrations to the structure and allows for longer component life. Additionally, the design creates a self-cleaning action that reduces blinding and pegging while improving overall screening efficiency. Haver & Boecker Niagara’s polyurethane media then offers a combination of open area and wear life for both wet and dry applications. It is poured open cast, resulting in 1.5 to 2 times longer wear life than injection-molded products sold at comparable prices, according to the manufacturer. In addition, open cast polyurethane permanently hardens when cured to maintain its chemical properties to improve wear life. Operations can choose wear liners for improved screen media protection and even higher performance and longevity from their machines. Liners for vibrating screen cross beams are also available. For more information, visit the H&B website.

JOHN DEERE

Deere & Company, Moline, Illinois, announced the four companies that will be part of the 2021 cohort of the Startup Collaborator program. This program was launched in 2019 to enhance and deepen its interaction with startup companies whose technology could add value for John Deere customers. “The Startup Collaborator program continues to build tremendous interactions between startups and John Deere,” said Julian Sanchez, director, Emerging Technology for John Deere. “This year is no different as this diverse group of companies has great potential to transform our markets.” Deere is pleased to welcome into the Startup Collaborator four leading startups that are working to transform their industries. These companies include:

www.THeAsphaltpro.com // 31

Product Gallery • Nori—A company working to reverse climate change by building a carbon market where all types of consumers can purchase carbon credits directly from farmers. • NVision Ag—A company working to help corn farmers make nitrogen management decisions based on data modeling and aerial imaging. • Scanit—A company that provides physical detection and classification of airborne plant pathogens before widespread disease onset. • Teleo—A company that is converting construction and mining equipment into tele-operated robots controlled by operators working remotely from a desk, thus unlocking productivity and operational gains for contractors. The Startup Collaborator is a year-long program that provides flexibility for Deere and startup companies to test innovative technologies with customers and dealers without a more formal business relationship. Startups also gain affiliation with and mentoring from a world-class leader in technology for agricultural and construction equipment. “Innovation is one of our company’s core values. The Startup Collaborator program is one way we can continue the innovative spirit that has helped define Deere for more than 180 years,” Sanchez said.

PLASTIQ

Plastiq, headquartered in San Francisco, announced its end-to-end Intuit QuickBooks online integration in the payments industry to offer businesses an up-to-date, accurate record of all outgoing payments, with no manual entry required. The new integration will import invoices directly from QuickBooks, quickly identifying and populating all essential information such as vendor, amount due, invoice due date and more. Once the invoice has been paid through Plastiq, the platform will then export the payment information back into QuickBooks, including differentiating the portion of the payment applied to the invoice from Plastiq’s transaction fee. Plastiq has revolutionized how its more than 1.5 million customers optimize working capital by providing an all-in-one solution that enables them to pay or accept payment for anything with cash or a credit card, even where credit cards or digital payments are not accepted. Thanks to strategic partnerships with companies including US Bank, Visa, Mastercard, Silicon Valley Bank and more, any business can use Plastiq to pay or get paid.

PYRAMEX

Wearing your prescription eyewear is not enough on the job site. Pyramex® Safety has designed four impressive over-the-spectacle protective eyewear options that are so lightweight, you’ll barely know you have them on. Select from four models—OTS®, OTS XL, Cappture™ or Cappture™ Plus—all constructed of hard-wearing materials for durability and featuring lens technology that works to protect your eyes blocking high percentages of harmful UV rays. All are ANSI rated and impact tested. Pyramex Safety has more than 2,000 distributors in over 60 countries and is committed to investing countless hours to research, design and testing to ensure Pyramex products meet the highest industry safety standards.

32 // May 2021

STANSTEEL

Asphalt plant safety is the No. 1 priority for every asphalt producer. It is vital to take steps to keep everyone on the asphalt plant safe from harm. The largest number of asphalt plant injuries comes from hot liquid asphalt cement. With the ever-changing governmental regulations of having to sample liquid AC more frequently, it is time to remove the person from the process. Stansteel and Hotmix Parts, Louisville, Kentucky, engineered the asphalt Safe-T The Safe-T Station from Stansteel Station to do just that. The Safe-T Station is an in- and Hotmix Parts was designed with line liquid AC sample port plant personnel and safety in mind. that encloses the sample container, immediately removing any harm of burn or injury. The Safe-T Station is large enough to fit a one-gallon sample container but also provides the safety of taking a quart size sample. The door of the enclosed collection container includes a viewing glass so the person collecting the sample can get the amount needed. The Safe-T Station takes safety another step further by not allowing the plug valve to release AC unless the door is securely closed. There is also a safety latch for the plug valve handle when not in use. This ensures the plug valve is never accidently activated when no one is present. The Safe-T Station is versatile to your plant setup. The Safe-T Station can be incorporated into all brands and manufactures of asphalt plants. The AC line is fully jacketed and comes in 3-inch or 4-inch lines and can also be horizontal or vertical. Many have even begun using the Safe-T Station after the unloading pump to ensure they are receiving the correct AC from the refinery for total quality assurance. For more information, visit https://stansteel.com/asphalt-plantcomponents/.

TRUX

TRUX™, Waltham, Massachusetts, has launched a new widget within its Order Delivery Tracker tool for material producers. The debut of the delivery velocity visualization provides customers with greater insights into their scheduled deliveries and helps them monitor and improve their jobsite operations and efficiency. With the addition of this widget to the Order Delivery Tracker, material producers can provide a more enhanced customer service experience to their customers. The new tool builds on the existing ability to track deliveries throughout the day and get an accurate estimated time of arrival for material en route to the jobsite. The widget displays the number of tons delivered per hour, the number of scheduled tons per hour and the average delivered tons per hour, all designed to measure delivery velocity on a broader order level.

“Since we launched the Order Delivery Tracker in October of 2019, we have been able to provide material producers with a detailed view of delivery progress for their customers,” said Bart Ronan, CEO of TRUX. “The introduction of this new widget takes our tool one step further and provides order-level insights to help material producers provide a differentiated service to their end-customers. Jobsite operations are significantly impacted by the number of tons delivered per hour and there was not an accurate way to capture this information in the field. Time-sensitive materials, like asphalt, or equipment that is rated for a particular velocity rely on accurate delivery velocity and now we are able to provide that through our Order Delivery Tracker.” The delivery velocity widget is the first in a series of widgets TRUX plans to launch in the coming months aimed at helping material producers optimize delivery management and prepare contractors to receive material on-site. The additional visualizations, expected later this year, will allow material producers to provide even more value to their customers, with deeper insights into delivery status, jobsite efficiency, and overall material supply.

TSURUMI

Tsurumi America has launched a new content website for pumping specialists called Built For Work. Its site at TsurumiPump will continue to serve as Tsurumi’s main website for company and product information. “Tsurumi’s new content website is an effort to consolidate our fantastic customer stories, engineering breakthroughs, maintenance tips, repair videos and other educational materials into one place,” said Glenn Wieczorek, managing director of Tsurumi America. Visitors can find information on pump applications in the construction, wastewater, mining and industrial, and water feature sectors. A pump education section will help homeowners and professionals find pump maintenance tips, best practices and other technical and industry-related information.

WESTERN GLOBAL

Western Global, Troy, Michigan, which provides portable tanks and dispensing equipment for the storage and handling of fuels, lubricants and other fluids, announces the addition of Jayna Rodgers as its Central U.S. regional sales manager. Rodgers will be responsible for building the territory while bringing in new business and maintaining current clientele in Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota. Rodgers’ 16 years of industry experience includes five years as a senior fuel consultant for 4Refuel, a refueling service company with U.S. locations centered in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. There she received the top sales award five years in a row and played a crucial role in building the company’s construction division. Prior to that, Rodgers owned a construction company in Houston where she managed the day-to-day fuel needs of the company.

www.THeAsphaltpro.com // 33

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KLS exclusively uses Graco LineLazers and LineDrivers to perform its work. “They’re top of the line,” Keathley said. “We also enhance our stripers with the latest gadgets in order to help us perform our work in an efficient manner.”

Keathley Defines Striping Precision, Professionalism By Sarah Redohl

When Mike Keathley first opened Keathley Line Striping (KLS), LaVernia, Texas, three years ago, he used to mention to potential customers that everyone on his crew is deaf. “We found that this kept losing us bids,” he said. “There is a stigma that comes with being deaf. People don’t understand what we can do and therefore become hesitant to allow us to submit a bid.” KLS is a 100 percent deaf-owned and employed company. After facing this early discrimination, Keathley no longer mentions this to prospective clients. “When customers call us, they are not asking us for a medical history,” he said. “They are asking us to perform a job so there is no reason to share that we are deaf. When we show up on a job site, whether we’re doing an estimate, a walk-through or performing the job requested, we find that people are blown away. They can see we are professionals and leaders in our industry.”

A Culturally Deaf Crew KLS has a crew of three and additional part-time staff as needed. Every member of the crew is culturally deaf, including Keathley. A person is culturally deaf if he or she has always been in a predominantly deaf environment. In Keathley’s case, he attended a deaf school, his children are deaf and most of his friends are deaf. 36 MAY 2021

“I live in a world of sign language and closed captioning,” Keathley said. “The only time I interact with hearing people is when I go shopping or go to work.” Although Keathley’s whole team is deaf, he doesn’t hire based on disability status. “I hire them because I know what they are capable of,” he said. “As a result, I am blessed to be able to provide an equal footing for a disenfranchised group of people.” Having a deaf team also improves communication on the crew, which uses American Sign Language as its primary language. Furthermore, Keathley said he and his crew have a strong desire to prove its work ethic and overcome discrimination. “We always bust our butts and want to make our customers happy with our work,” he said. “Nobody has anything to fear by hiring deaf employees.” However, KLS still regularly faces discrimination as a deaf-owned and operated business. Recently, the company was awarded some work by a major industry player. While performing the work, a store manager became upset when the crew asked him to either remove his mask, so the crew could read his lips, or to write down what he was saying. “He got very agitated that we could not understand him and kept yelling at us,” Keathley said. “I kept telling him we are deaf and that we

Every member of KLS’s crew is culturally deaf, including Keathley. Not only does this provide jobs to a disenfranchised group of people, Keathley said, but it also improves communication on the crew, which uses American Sign Language as its primary language.

can’t tell what he’s saying, but he became so agitated by this that I could do nothing but walk away and continue to finish our work.” Although the team finished the job and the customer was happy with the results, Keathley was shocked by their lack of understanding when it comes to communicating with deaf people. “What if another customer refuses to proactively communicate with me or my team?” he said. Although his company appreciated the work, it put Keathley in a difficult situation. “We cannot allow them to hold our disability against us as a condition of employment, so we chose to let them go as a customer.” In another instance, a store manager insisted that Keathley’s team needed to have a hearing person on site while striping the facility. Keathley himself arrived on the job shortly after the manager’s request. “When I introduced myself as the deaf owner of the company, the manager’s eyes got so big and he got so flustered,” Keathley recalls, but the manager remained adamant that they needed to have a hearing person on site. “He felt we needed to be supervised; he just didn’t know what deaf people can do.” The crew packed up and left, but Keathley didn’t quit. He reached out to the property owner who hired his company for the job, who was furious at the manager’s behavior. “The property owner had us return to complete the job and happily paid us for the extra time.” “We know most people don’t maliciously discriminate,” Keathley said, “but people do discriminate and that nonsense needs to stop.” Although the company battles audism from time to time, Keathley is heartened that many of his customers find their story uplifting and inspiring. “We actually get a ton of work from it.” Safety Without Sound Keathley reiterates that his company adheres to all OSHA rules and federal, state, county and city laws. He has generally modeled KLS to avoid work situations that would require him to obtain an exemption based on his crew’s disability. However, he knows how to handle these situations when they arise. For example, there is a hearing test required to obtain a Department of Transportation medical card, for which KLS was able to request an exemption from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) because they are protected by the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

The Rehabilitation Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in programs conducted by federal agencies, in programs receiving federal financial assistance, in federal employment, and in the employment practices of federal contractors. “Safety is paramount when working in active roadways and parking lots,” Keathley said, regardless of circumstances. KLS has invested in approximately 24 LED safety warning lights on its truck and enclosed trailer, and four on its line drivers, in addition to wearing bright colored reflective safety uniforms. However, Keathley recognizes that there are only so many safety products one can implement. “We also run a crew that’s usually one man larger than the average striping crew so we have an extra set of eyes on our job sites,” he said. “We keep our heads on a swivel and we look out for each other.” He’s also found this approach a bit easier because roughly 80 percent of KLS’s work is parking lots. Fifteen percent are unique jobs such as helipads, basketball courts, playgrounds, athletic fields, etc. Only 5 percent are roadways. “We’re not a long line striping company, so public roads aren’t a big part of what we do, but that could always change in the future as we grow,” Keathley said. KLS exclusively uses Graco LineLazers and LineDrivers to perform its work. “They’re top of the line,” Keathley said. “We also enhance our stripers with the latest gadgets in order to help us perform our work in an efficient manner.” For example, its stripers are equipped with gun raisers to raise and lower the paint guns without getting off the machine. “I firmly believe we remain safer by keeping our butts in our seats, instead of getting off and fiddling around with our machines in an open parking lot,” Keathley said. A Self-Taught Striper Before launching KLS, Keathley had been performing repair work for friends of his mother and sign language interpreters. When his mother passed away, Keathley struggled to find new work and began exploring the commercial market. However, he faced regular discrimination and rejection. WWW.THEASPHALTPRO.COM 37

LEFT: KLS is a 100 percent deaf-owned and employed company. CENTER: Although the company battles audism from time to time, Keathley is heartened that many of his customers find their story uplifting and inspiring. “We actually get a ton of work from it,” he said. RIGHT: Roughly 80 percent of KLS’s work is parking lots.

“On my last bid to a general contractor, I was basically told we had the job,” he said. “When I went to discuss the work with him, he ran me off and said he couldn’t be responsible for me. I was crushed. I had a kid on the way and no money. I walked out of that building destroyed.” He sat down on a bench right out front and stared into the parking lot nearly in tears. “Then it hit me,” he said. He noticed that the parking lot in front of him needed striping, so he went home, looked up property tax records and mailed the property owner a letter. Soon, he got the job. “I had effectively eliminated the middle man and there was no need for anyone to feel like they had to be ‘responsible’ for me.” Although Keathley’s brother briefly striped parking lots many years ago, Keathley is a self-taught striper. But, as he learned, he noticed a lack of training resources. “There isn’t much offered on how to learn to become a pavement markings specialist,” Keathley said. So, he began creating his own library of training videos that are useful to both deaf and hearing people. “The inability to hear is not the disability. It is the lack of access to language and information that is the real disability.” The videos also improved his own performance. “I used to race motorcycles at the track and watching videos of our body position was critical to learning how to ride faster,” he said. “I applied that same logic to line striping.” He would tape cameras to his striper and watch the videos over and over, improving each time. “Before I knew it, the videos started being shared and now people often turn to me for advice on how to line stripe.” Mr. Fix-It In the summer of 2020, Keathley received a call from a paving company KLS often works with, who asked Keathley to correct a striping project at a 5A high school in Texas that had been performed by another striping company. When Keathley showed up on the job, the prior subcontractor had done such a poor job that the paving company had to sealcoat the lot so KLS could start from square one. The school had been facing a unique problem. It had a rich football tradition, as well as a competitive marching band. The football team 38 MAY 2021

“The inability to hear is not the disability. It is the lack of access to language and information that is the real disability.”—Mike Keathley held practice after school on the football field, but the band also needed the field to practice their formations. The football field was right next to a large parking lot, onto which KLS striped a football field layout. “By day, it was a parking lot for students,” Keathley said. “By night, it was a practice field for the marching band.” It was a job that was easily fumbled by crews lacking KLS’s attention to detail. The job required a lot of thought and planning among Keathley, the school’s grounds keeper and its athletic director. “The biggest obstacle was making sure the lot was up to code after merging the football field grid onto the parking stalls,” Keathley said. To do so, the crew used yellow paint for the parking stalls and white for the football grid. The fact that the parking lot is used by the same students day after day, who are familiar with the lines, also helps. They also had to take care to ensure that the fire lanes were clear. In total, the job required 120 gallons of paint. Furthermore, all of this had to be done within a week, before the start of the school year. After pulling through for the school under tight deadlines, KLS maintains an active working relationship with that school district to this day. “The customer was very happy with our work, and it has led to many other opportunities within that school district,” Keathley said. Although people facing disabilities should not have to prove themselves any more so than others, Keathley has made the most of this circumstance and built a company known and respected for its performance and precision. “We are professionals in every sense of the word,” Keathley said. “We know what we’re doing. All we ask is that people let us do our jobs.”

San Antonio Takes Pothole Patching to the Next Level By Mary Foster

Founded as a Spanish mission and colonial outpost more than 300 years ago, San Antonio, Texas, today is home to 2.3 million residents within its metro area. In fact, it is the seventh most populous city in the United States— and just 10 years ago it completed a streak where it was named the fastest growing of the top-10 largest cities in the country. The city endures long, humid, sweltering summers that are bookended by spring and fall rains. With cool winters, the remnants of an occasional hurricane, and also stretches of hot, dry periods, the city truly experiences all manner of climate extremes throughout the year—all of which can cause havoc with the city’s 4,167 centerline miles of streets and roads. “The extremely hot weather in our region, along with bouts of rain, create expansion and contraction of asphalt pavement, allowing water to seep into the asphalt and create potholes,” said Frank Orta, operations manager, Street Operations-West, for the City of San Antonio. “Our challenges also include high-plasticity soils with a lot of sand and clay, which hinder our pavement preservation program. With the combination of climate and soils, pothole repair is a year-round effort for us,” he added. But San Antonio has stepped up its pothole repair game in the past several years, with the addition of four new spray injection pothole patching trucks to its fleet. The SP5 spray injection patchers, manufactured by Bergkamp Inc., are each capable of patching 100 potholes a day, where the city’s conventional trucks typically repair just 30 a day each. They have allowed the city to increase repairs from 35,000 potholes annually in 2016 to more than triple that output in fiscal 2019—while increasing safety for operators and the motoring public.

Safety First In 2016, the San Antonio City Council, after listening to community concerns and requests, chose to invest in revamping the city’s street maintenance program—including improvements in the methods 40 MAY 2021

In 2017, the City of San Antonio, Texas, swapped its aging fleet of pothole repair trucks for all-new equipment—purchasing 12 new conventional patchers and four new SP5 spray injection patchers by Bergkamp Inc. One of the city’s spray patchers is pictured here.

used to repair potholes. Pothole patching is a hazardous undertaking for any city, much less a city the size of San Antonio. With a large number of 5-lane arterial and collector roads, the city wanted to find a solution that could not only improve and increase the patching efforts, but also keep crewmembers safer. “Even with total lane closures, there is still a safety concern for our crews when they are out working on repairs,” Orta said. “And when you close a full lane, it is also expensive—costing more to close the lane than it does to repair the pothole.” The city ultimately swapped its aging fleet of pothole repair trucks for all-new equipment in 2017, purchasing 16 new trucks—12 conventional patchers and four Bergkamp SP5 spray injection patchers. While Orta said safety is first and foremost for the city, the fact that the spray injection patchers are capable of repairing 100 potholes a day also factored into the decision to purchase the units.

Ready to Repair Spray injection is a less invasive patching technique than traditional patching methods, allowing the damaged pavement to be air-blown and repaired in minutes. On the SP5, a front-mounted boom provides a working radius of up to 13 feet in front of the truck. Fully operable from inside the cab for increased safety, the unit requires only one crewmember to operate. The SP5 features three injectors in a rotating nozzle, which provides the emulsion and aggregate coverage. In a four-step process, the operator blasts compressed air through the unit’s hose to clean out and dry the hole. The damaged area is then sprayed with asphalt emulsion. The operator selects the proper gradation of aggregate from one of two chambers in the hopper to best match the characteristics of the road, and sprays that over the emulsion. Finally, application of a protective layer of clean stone protects passing vehicles from coming into contact with the asphalt emulsion.

Frank Orta is the operations manager, Street Operations-West, for the City of San Antonio.

Orta stated that the department liked the fact that “the units are always ready,” in that the operator mixes the emulsion and aggregate onsite as the pothole is repaired. “There is no prior mixing at the shop or material that can go bad,” Orta said. He shared that they had to experiment some to find the right material and right aggregate for their roads. “For instance, we’ve learned that a Grade 4 washed rock works best for us. Also, we were using a rapid-set oil, but because of our climate, we were constantly having to clean and remove it from the nozzle, so then we went to a CSS1H slow-setting asphalt emulsion, and later to a PHPMS0.” The spray injection patchers were fully integrated into San Antonio’s fleet by mid-2017. Orta said there was a bit of a learning curve involved in learning how the patchers best operated with San Antonio’s climate. “It’s definitely a skillset. The longer an operator is there in the position, the better the performance you will get from the repair.” Bergkamp partnered with department members to help overcome the learning curve. The SP5 units the city purchased were among the first-generation units from the company. So, for the 2016 demos, Bergkamp sent engineers, in addition to sales team members, to both demonstrate the unit and answer questions. Then, after San Antonio purchased the four SP5 units, Bergkamp team members came back in 2017 and worked on the learning curve together with the city. Orta said the city has also cross-trained employees so that more crewmembers are familiar with the spray injection patchers.

Engaging and Empowering the Public Around the same time that San Antonio revamped its pothole patching program, it also provided a big push to empower citizens to call in potholes via the city’s 311 system. With spring being the peak pothole season, the city has created an April awareness campaign for potholes that ties in with the annual Fiesta. “We have a phone bank, hand out literature, conduct interviews with the media and engage the public as much as we can,” Orta said. The city also has incorporated a full-time pothole investigator into its team, joining four other street maintenance investigators who travel the city’s streets in 10 council districts and proactively call in potholes. For identification purposes, San Antonio defines a pothole as being 3-foot x 3-foot or smaller. “We now have a two-business-day guarantee, where from the moment the pothole is identified or reported to our completing the repair, we promise to fix it. So, from Monday through Friday, that’s typically within 48 hours,” Orta said. “It took us about six months to get the program running the way we want it to run. Our goal is to have the machine, the operator and the materials reach perfection,” he added. As a result of these efforts, Orta said the culture has changed, explaining that eight out of 10 calls in 2015 involved complaints from citizens. Today, only one in 10 calls may involve a complaint, and often that turns out to be a misunderstanding.

Spray injection patching with the SP5 takes place without the operator ever leaving the cab. First, the operator blasts compressed air through the unit’s hose to clean out and dry the hole. Then, the damaged area is sprayed with asphalt emulsion. After that, the operator selects the proper gradation of aggregate to best match the characteristics of the road, and sprays that over the emulsion. Finally, the machine applies a protective layer of clean stone to protect passing vehicles from coming into contact with the asphalt emulsion.

“Since we’ve revamped our program, getting the public engaged and proactively searching out potholes, we hear consistently that we are doing a great job. The citizens know we have their backs. When they call in, they trust that we will get out there and repair the potholes quickly. They are seeing the power of a community that invests in its streets,” Orta said. WWW.THEASPHALTPRO.COM 41

Checklists Make Preservation Perfect By Sarah Redohl

In the mid-2000s, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) published a set of checklist pocket guides to help state and local highway preservation, maintenance and inspection staff. The FHWA said the goal of the checklists was to help these professionals use “innovative pavement preservation techniques.” However, anyone in our industry knows that what was innovative in the mid-2000s is likely standard practice today. That’s why the FHWA has revised its old checklists and created new checklists for additional strategies. In keeping with the FHWA’s e-construction initiative, the Administration has launched a free mobile app to make these checklists easier to access and assist agencies and contractors with the transition to a paperless construction environment. The app, called Checklist, allows users to create a file for each project and choose appropriate checklists for that project. Users can also use the project file to collect notes and add pictures to the checklists. It’s also possible to export project file checklists from the app, as well as accompanying notes and photos as a PDF to share or save. Checklist houses a wide variety of checklists outlining key activities to perform before, during, and after pavement and maintenance construction activities.

In keeping with the FHWA’s e-construction initiative, the Administration has launched a free mobile app to make these checklists easier to access and assist agencies and contractors with the transition to a paperless construction environment.

42 MAY 2021

Busby Construction Co. Inc., Atkinson, New Hampshire, utilizes its Roadtec SX-8e for fulldepth reclamation work. Photo courtesy of Roadtec Inc., Chattanooga

For example, the app’s microsurfacing checklist outlines documents to review before the project begins, including project plans, specifications and special provisions; the traffic control plan; safety data sheets; and a handful of other important documents. It also guides the user through a review of the project to ensure it is a good candidate for microsurfacing and specific types of distress to watch for. There is also a checklist related to materials (aggregate moisture content, asphalt emulsion temperature, etc.), steps to prepare the surface (patching has been completed, thermoplastics removed, etc.), equipment inspection checklists (sweeper, microsurfacing paver and spreader box, etc.), weather requirements (temperature, humidity and wind recommendations), and application rates and calibration tasks. The checklist then guides the user through best application practices for every step of the process, including

opening the road to traffic and troubleshooting common issues. The latest series of pavement preservation checklists on the app includes resources on crack treatment, chip seal, thin hotmix overlays, fog seals, slurry and scrub seals, microsurfacing, cold in-place recycling, patching, full-depth reclamation, and ultrathin bonded wearing courses, among other topics. The app is available for both iOS and Android devices. On Android devices, search the app store for “pavement preservation checklist,” and on Apple devices, the app can be found by searching for “Iowa State University pavement preservation.” The checklists are also available as PDFs from the FHWA website at fhwa.dot.gov/pavement/preservation/ppcl00.cfm The checklists are part of the FHWA’s Every Day Counts (EDC) program, which promotes strategies for the improvement of the United States’ transportation systems.

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Vermont’s Most Populous City Executes, Monitors Sustainable Fog Seal By Paul Fournier

The City of Burlington recently applied an advanced penetrating asphalt rejuvenator fog seal to residential streets—the first time Vermont’s most populous municipality has used the sustainable preservation treatment. Previously, the city of approximately 43,000 residents has used crack sealing as its primary pavement preservation technique. A regional college town, Burlington is home to the University of Vermont and Champlain College, functions as the seat of Chittenden County, and serves as a major historic and cultural center for the Green Mountain State. As the most populous city on Lake Champlain, Burlington is also the repose for 295 streets that are maintained by the city’s Department of Public Works, headed by Chapin Spencer. DPW’s Maintenance Division is responsible for performing some of the more obvious tasks of the Department such as installing and maintaining nearly 130 miles of sidewalks, and maintaining the 95 centerline miles of streets. The latter includes crucial services such as street sweeping, pothole patching, painting road lines and crosswalks, and most importantly, protecting and preserving the pavements of those streets. The travelled miles of Burlington roads are categorized into four classes for state aid apportionment: They are approximately 7 miles of Class 1, 20 miles of Class 2, and 65 miles of Class 3. Class 4 town highways are all those that are not Class 1, 2, or 3 town highways or unidentified corridors, and currently amount to less than three miles. VTrans and the state share the responsibility and cost of maintenance, repair and replacement of Class 1 and 4 roads, but the lion’s share of responsibility and related costs for Class 2 and 3, which together amount to 90 percent of all travelled miles, are borne primarily by the City. Class 2 town highways are the most important highways in Burlington. As far as practicable these secure trunk lines of im-

44 MAY 2021

A full-lane-width application of Delta Mist is performed on one of several streets fog sealed by the contractor indus. The crew used a Ford 750 Super Duty truck mounted with a 2,000-gallon Etnyre tanker to spray the product at ambient temperatures.

proved highways from town to town and to places that have more than normal amount of traffic. Class 3 town highways have simple, clear-cut minimum standards: They have to be “negotiable under normal conditions all seasons of the year by a standard manufactured pleasure car. This would include but not be limited to sufficient surface and base, adequate drainage, and sufficient width capable to provide winter maintenance…” Until recent years, Burlington has relied heavily on an annual Street Reconstruction Program to keep its Class 3 streets up to standards. Work under the program typically occurs between April and November. Mailings are sent out to property owners to inform them where paving will take place. For example, the 2020 program called for milling and filling five streets. This involves removing the top course of pavement and applying a new top course to the road. In addition, three streets were slated to undergo pavement patching whereby work crews fill and repair localized voids and address other pavement distress in the roadway with hot mix asphalt. Furthermore, four streets were marked for winter patching—this calls for repairs on roads suffering from winter deterioration. The penetrating asphalt rejuvenator fog seal was applied by indus of Braintree, Massachusetts. Formerly known as Sealcoating Inc., the company has been applying various types of pavement seals and other pavement preservation treatments for about 60 years. Typically, fog seals have involved applying a light application of slow-setting asphalt emulsion diluted with water and without the addition of any aggregate. If applied in time, fog seals have been shown to renew aged asphalt surfaces by sealing small cracks and surface voids, coating surface aggregate particles, and even adjusting the quality of binder in newly applied chip seal. By doing so they can preserve the functional integrity of the pavement and delay a more costly rehabilitation treatment in the near future. More advanced fog seals contain asphalt rejuvenators to boost the penetration of the treatment into the asphalt pavement. The rejuvenators may be petroleum or biobased products. The treatment applied by indus to three selected Burlington streets was a fog seal using Delta Mist, a penetrating asphalt re-

Cleaning crew prepares a Burlington, Vermont residential street for Delta Mist fog seal application.

A worker unrolls a black fabric to mark the end of the application of penetrating asphalt rejuvenator seal.

juvenator. The topically applied treatment was created with organic plant-based Delta S rejuvenator technology developed by Dr. John Warner and a staff of research scientists at the Warner Babcock Institute for Green Chemistry (WBI). Delta Mist is manufactured, marketed and sold by Collaborative Aggregates LLC of Lowell, Mas-

sachusetts, as an emulsified version of Delta S that is spray-applied at ambient temperatures. Formulated with “green” or sustainable technology, the product is designed to protect the environment while increasing pavement life by restoring oxidized asphalt and reducing loss of fines and aggregates. It also WWW.THEASPHALTPRO.COM 45

Initially following Delta Mist application, Crescent Road displays a white surface that in less than two hours returns to normal asphalt pavement color as seal becomes transparent.

Pavement markings in front of hydrant reappear as fog seal dries. Notice curb is not stained black by Delta Mist application.

improves cohesion while retarding crack propagation of the pavement surface. According to the manufacturer, with proper pavement surface preparation and application rate, Delta Mist slows the asphalt oxidation process for up to three years or more with each application. Burlington has invested many millions of dollars in its road system—100 percent of its 95 miles of travelled roads have asphalt pavement. There are no gravel or dirt roads. This compares favorably with Vermont overall. According to VTrans, about 45 percent of the state’s 15,800 miles of roads are paved, while 38 percent are gravel, and 46 MAY 2021

the remaining 17 percent consist of graded earth, unimproved or primitive, and untraveled roads. The City is interested in protecting its sizeable investment in roads—one of the reasons it is testing the effectiveness of rejuvenating fog seal, according to Art Baker, regional manager for indus. “They were concerned about raveling of some asphalt pavements soon after they were installed,” Baker said. “There was very little or no asphalt coating of the fine aggregate taking place. They were also interested in pavement preservation treatments that could extend the life of pavements with the

added benefits of cost savings while utilizing sustainable technology.” Baker has been working with City personnel to investigate possible preservation treatments for their pavement management program. A strong proponent of pavement preservation, he has a 25-year background in municipal infrastructure installation, maintenance and repair. With a Bachelor’s degree in civil engineering, he started out in the private sector, then switched to the public sector and served as Public Works Director in Connecticut and Massachusetts and later returned to private industry when he joined indus. As regional manager for the company, he has been counseling DPW pavement managers in cities and towns in western Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont and southwest New Hampshire. Baker oversaw the recent application of Delta Mist on several residential streets in Burlington: Birch Court and Cayuga Court in northern Burlington, and Crescent Road in the southeast corner of the city. “The pavements on those streets were three to six years old,” he said. “We were interested in the depth of penetration of the rejuvenator into the pavement. According to tests at NCAT [National Center for Asphalt Technology], the optimum depth of penetration for a rejuvenator would be about 3/8th of an inch. And we also wanted to see if the treatment would reverse the problem they were having with raveling.” The indus crew used a Ford 750 Super Duty truck mounted with a 2,000-gallon Etnyre tanker to spray Delta Mist at ambient temperatures on the roads. They applied between 0.08 and 0.1 gallons per square yard of the penetrating rejuvenator over the streets— the application rate was varied to address the mixed existing pavement conditions in some areas. Overall, approximately 14,500 square yards of pavement received the treatment. The treated streets each opened to traffic within about one hour of application. Baker said the streets receiving the Delta Mist treatment would be checked periodically to see the long term results of the applications. But one benefit was obvious almost immediately. “We didn’t have to cover manholes or drain inlets before the applications. When we first sprayed the seal, it was a milky white color. When it dried it turned transparent. So at any traffic markings like crosswalks, the pavement and markings returned to their natural color, and no curbs had to be cleaned,” Baker said.

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new tech

Boh Bros. Construction Adds Tracking A

After being in business for over a century, Boh Bros. Construction Co., New Orleans, has seen its fair share of change in the heavy construction industry. The company’s commitment to never being satisfied and continuously innovating isn’t just marketing speak, but the reason this family owned business has made it 112 years to the third generation of family leadership. Back in 2019, Boh Bros. made a significant optimization when they installed FleetWatcher’s Materials Management Solution (MMS) across their asphalt paving fleet. Every second and every mile in trucking operations add up to impact a business’s bottom line. That combined with the hyper competitive asphalt contracting landscape in the Southeastern United States means James Breland, Boh Bros. asphalt operations manager, is always searching for ways to optimize his team’s operations. After experimenting with two different telematics systems, Breland hadn’t found the right solution for his team’s asphalt paving fleet, consisting of 7 company owned trucks and 38 third-party haulers. After watching a FleetWatcher presentation he decided to give that technology a shot. Implementing a telematics system isn’t always an easy proposition. At least that’s what Breland thought going into the process. “Like any new software, implementation and training takes time,” Breland said. “Although there was a learning curve, with the organization and the customer service reps at FleetWatcher, it was a lot smoother than we anticipated. We were thinking it’d be a three- to six-month learning curve, and really, after a month, we were masters of the program.” Within the first six months Breland noticed at least a 10 to 15 percent savings on his team’s trucking costs. Breland and his team were able to use their new MMS system to better understand their 45-unit asphalt trucking operations and make adjustments in how they employed them. The first lesson they learned is sometimes less is more.

48 // May 2021

It took three telematic systems until Boh Bros. Construction Co. found their perfect match. By relying on real-time data to make decisions in the moment and using trends to make every project more efficient than the last, FleetWatcher MMS has helped the 112-year-old Boh Bros. continue to stay competitive in the industry. “We were over-trucked because we never wanted to have our paving equipment stopped. If it’s stopped, it’s not productive. What we found was, sometimes being over-trucked actually hurts you. You’re staging too many trucks. You’re having to move them forward. You’re obviously paying for more trucks.” FleetWatcher gave Breland a direct line of sight into his field operations to diagnose and correct their over-trucking issues in real time. The counterintuitive notion of producing better results with fewer trucks was just the tip of the iceberg for Boh Bros.

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The Boh Bros. dispatcher could constantly see where their trucks were at all times and direct traffic using real-time data.

Earthwave Technologies manufactures construction-specific wireless telematic products which provide complete visibility to all components used within the process. Their FleetWatcher Materials Management Solution (MMS) is being used by asphalt paving contractors across the United States. They also offer modules for e-ticketing, off-road construction, and more. their operations and achieve a 10 percent savings on trucking costs. Key performance indicators (KPIs) are only as valuable to a business as they are visible, measurable and actionable. For Boh Bros. asphalt operations, the metrics in question were tons per hour, load ups per

50 // May 2021

hour, cycle time and tons paved per hour. With FleetWatcher MMS, Breland was able to track these KPIs and be alerted when something (or someone) was headed in the wrong direction. “It’s really easy to see. There’s four or five KPIs that we focus on. If yours is in green,

you’re doing good, and if it’s in red, you’re not. It’s so easy for me in a corporate office to look at and see how our guys in the field are actually doing.” For Breland, the in-the-moment analytics were just the start of the analytic revolution. With KPIs and a direct line of sight into their trucking operations, Boh Bros. could see in real-time where opportunities existed to save time and money. By taking a step back from the day-to-day action, Breland could see how the data was starting to tell a more fluent narrative of their business operations. “The KPIs give you all of the day-to-day information, but then you’re also able to go back and look at all the data for similar projects to spot trends and insights. That’s where we find a lot of the real value.” By transitioning from fixing over-trucking to rarely over-trucking to begin with, the asphalt paving operations team transformed from problem solving to proactively setting their team up for success. This shift is not lost on Breland: “As we go on, you don’t recognize a savings as much. Once it helps us become more efficient, our goals get harder to beat.” – BY JIM WAHL

For more information, contact Evan Triggs at (317) 257-8740 or info@earthwavetech.com.

off the mat

Mitigate Subcontractor Risk As the calendar turns to spring, paving season is right around the corner. Backlog is feverishly growing as contractors set goals and expectations for the 2021 construction season. Most paving companies hire subcontractors throughout the season. Risk mitigation is a daily responsibility for all contractors and subcontractor prequalification is a key step to risk mitigation and ensuring projects are completed on time, on budget and safely. For this article, we will focus on certain factors that as a prime contractor, it is critical to get right when evaluating subcontractors: • Subcontractor Risk Factors • Scope Capabilities • Geographic Reach • Current Backlog/Schedule • Business Continuity Plan/Longevity of Existence • Mitigation Strategies • Credit References • Financial Benchmarking • Joint Checks or Direct Supplier Relationships • Bonding

SCOPE CAPABILITIES

As a prime contractor sending out a request for proposal (RFP) from subcontractors, you must ensure you are soliciting contractors who are qualified to perform the work required. As companies grow, their skill sets change. They might have started out as a driveway paving company then evolved into paving small parking lots and eventually getting into large new construction projects. Somewhere in the growth cycle, a prime contractor or customer took a chance to help that subcontractor perform a project that might have been outside its historical comfort zone. As you evaluate the skill set of the subcontractor, learn the history of what types of projects they have performed as well as if there has been any turnover in key operational positions. For instance, if it is a paving company with one crew and the crew foreperson retired last year and there is a new foreperson on the crew, would that impact you selecting them to work on a project?

52 // May 2021

GEOGRAPHIC REACH

For prime contractors who travel, a key decision to make is whether to take with you a subcontractor that you are familiar with or to enter into a new relationship with a subcontractor you have never worked with before. Depending on the location, the local labor market is likely different than the home base labor market and factoring those rates into the bid are important to consider. Further, understanding the dynamics of union and nonunion labor in the local market is critical; depending on the market, union or nonunion labor may be customary and one type of labor may not be successful in that market. Added costs to the job such as out-of-pocket travel can increase costs of taking a subcontractor with you. If you have confidence in the quality of the subcontractor’s skill set, does the travel cost potentially save money down the road by not having to worry about subcontractor failure?

CURRENT BACKLOG/SCHEDULE

Contractor failure to perform/complete work occurs more frequently during an economic uptick than a downturn. The reason being, it is easier to scale back and reduce costs than it is to find a new crew to come work. Company culture is important and not about just finding anyone to work. For companies that do not regularly project their committed crew hours/ days, winning work can create a scheduling problem where there are more jobs that need to be performed than the crews have time to do. For instance, if a company has 1,000 crew labor hours available given its current work force, the company needs to make sure its jobs are staggered in the schedule so bottlenecks don’t occur where crews need to be at the same place at the same time. It is nearly impossible for most companies to forecast by project when the project will start and finish, so using averages is best when evaluating whether or not a company has labor capacity to take on new projects depending on when the project needs to be completed. For evaluating subcontractors, knowing what capacity and flexibility they have in the schedule allows the prime contractor additional insight to whether the subcontractor can meet the schedule or not.

BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLAN/ LONGEVITY OF EXISTENCE

How often is the phrase, “we’ve used that sub forever” said around the office? It is common to get comfortable with certain subcontractors, knowing their capabilities and how they work with your company. Although a long history is a positive factor in prequalifying a subcontractor, it is not the only factor to be used and long-term relationships should be under review routinely. Companies that have been in business for several years can get to a point where ownership is not as involved as it used to be. This can be challenging to identify as an outsider/prime contractor but understanding the tone at the top can inform outsiders a great deal about what is occurring within the organization. For companies that have not been in business for a long time, prime contractors should do an elevated level of diligence to ensure the contractor understands the three other risk factors previously discussed. Often, new companies are started by key employees transitioning from a larger company to start their own operation. People who are great at operations do not always make the strongest business owners, and startup businesses usually do not have the financial resources for other key management team members to oversee the business side of the company. It is possible for profitable companies to go out of business due to financial mismanagement and not understanding the working capital needed to run a paving company or being an asphalt supplier.

MITIGATION STRATEGIES

Understanding subcontractor risk factors and going through a detailed prequalification process may seem like a lot of work on the front end but may save you significantly on the back end by choosing the correct subcontractor who is capable of performing the work. Obtaining information as close to “real time” as possible will allow prime contractors to make the most meaningful evaluation of the subcontractor’s ability to complete the project on time and on budget.

Credit references are often done at the start of a new relationship and then never again. While it should be an important part of the prequalification process, prime contractors should continue to evaluate the credit worthiness of their subcontractors to ensure they are paying their suppliers. Financial benchmarking is a best practice recommendation. Many companies are hesitant to share financial information. If contractors require outside CPA financial statements as part of their prequalification, be advised that those statements are at a point in time and can very quickly become stale information regarding the financial position of the company. Some key financial ratios to consider are working capital, debt to equity, line of credit availability, net profit and backlog sales. Joint checks are written from the prime contractor payable to the subcontractor and its supplier. The purpose of the joint check is to ensure the supplier is being paid timely and in full. Joint checks help mitigate the risk of a lien or bond claim being filed on the project ensuring all project stakeholders are paid. Surety bonds are frequently correlated to public works as they are a requirement on most public work projects. Prime contractors, as a safeguard to the project, have the option of bonding subcontractors via payment and performance bonds. Surety bonds vary depending on the locality so if you do not currently have a relationship with a surety bond agent, it would be recommended to develop a working association. In the current environment we operate in, a solid subcontractor can be what helps set a contractor apart from the competition en route to a successful contract. – BY SEAN RIZER

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off the mat

Go Local for Workforce Development B

Britt Hedlund knows progress can be a slow process, especially when it comes to attracting and developing the skilled workforce of tomorrow in small, rural communities such as Harper County, Kansas. However, through her work as coordinator of the Harper County Transition to Career Program and its partnership with local AEM member company Harper Industries, Hedlund recognizes it takes the right combination of engaged stakeholders, hard work and good fortune to build a strong workforce pipeline capable of sustaining itself over time. “We started with—quite literally— nothing,” Hedlund said. To understand just how impactful the Harper County Transition to Career Program is—and has the potential to be—one must consider just how challenging it’s been for local businesses in and around Harper County to find, train and retain workers in the skilled trades. Located in south central Kansas and just a few miles north of the Oklahoma border, Harper County boasts a population of fewer than 6,000 people, while the Town of Harper itself is comprised of just 1,500 citizens. “And unfortunately, we’ve found ourselves in a scenario where the workforce available is quite limited, and finding skilled workers has been a challenge for us for a long time,” said Luke Thornton, vice president of operations at Harper Industries, a manufacturer of bale beds, hydraulics, and turf and landscape equipment based in Harper. “In the past, we’ve tried partnering with our local schools in an effort to start creating a workforce pipeline, but the trouble was, every time we started making some progress and establishing some relationships, an instructor would end up leaving the community, and we’d have to start all over again,” Thornton added. Now, however, there’s reason for hope and optimism—and it’s largely due to the efforts of the Harper County Transition to Career

54 // May 2021

A student learns welding tips and techniques thanks to the Harper County Transition to Career Program work. Photo courtesy of AEM Program and its successful ability to expose young people to careers in the skilled trades, develop their skills and provide access to meaningful work experiences. “Ultimately, we’re trying to individualize their education, help them establish goals and set them up for post-secondary success,” Hedlund said.

“We’ve tried partnering with our local schools to start creating a workforce pipeline,”— Luke Thornton

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off the mat BUILD A POSITIVE PERCEPTION OF THE SKILLED TRADES

Spreading awareness of good-paying employment opportunities available locally is crucial to the health of any community, but it’s a task often easier said than done. Such has been the case for businesses and area organizations in Harper County. Working together, Hedlund, Thornton and other stakeholders within the community have been able to offer job-shadowing opportunities, internships, education, training and more to local students in two area school districts. Thanks in large part to a budding partnership with Harper Industries—one which led to the successful development of a welding program for students in Harper County—efforts to engage young people in Harper County regarding the value of building a career in the skilled trades have never been more successful. “We’re very lucky to have some fantastic local instructors who are plugged into our community,” Thornton explained. “Many are from the area originally, and a lot had different careers before moving into education because of their passion for education.” As she worked to get the Harper County Transition to Career Program off the ground, Hedlund knew it needed support from the community and the manufacturing industry it sought to serve. So, when she came across AEM’s Next-Gen grant program two years ago, which planned to award five non-profit organizations $10,000 each to assist in the efforts to support the future of the manufacturing and trades workforces, Hedlund jumped at the opportunity to try and secure some much-needed funding for the welding program being developed in collaboration with Harper Industries. “If there’s one thing that’s needed in our area and across our state, it’s welders,” Hedlund said. “Our schools just don’t have the money right now to invest in a welding program that would allow young people to gain certification through the American Welding Society. So, when I saw the grant, I applied for it and received it, and it allowed us to get started on buying the necessary equipment.”

56 // May 2021

Hedlund also pointed the workforce development efforts of AEM member company Vermeer Corporation, which she learned of by attending a conference a few years ago, as a blueprint of sorts for her in developing the Harper County Transition to Career Program. After contacting company officials in the weeks following the conference, Hedlund was able to travel to Vermeer’s headquarters in Pella, Iowa, and learn more about how Vermeer is tackling the skills gap and providing opportunities for professional development in its own community. “I was then able to take what I learned, bring it back to Harper County, and scale it down for Harper Industries,” she added. Hedlund also went to work trying to find students for the program, which eventually led to a collaborative partnership between three school districts in Harper County and community college WSU Tech, based in Wichita. Now, Harper County boasts a welding program with a morning class for 10 students, and plans are in place for it to grow into a two-year program with morning and afternoon class sessions later this year. In addition, efforts are under way to ensure an intern can start at Harper Industries to provide additional work-based learning opportunities. In addition to offering chances to gain real-world experience and obtain certifications necessary for securing full-time employment, the welding program offers students the chance to secure 10 hours of college credit for their first year, and as many as 10 for their second year. “That’s a really good start for a college degree, if that’s the path they want to take,” Hedlund continued. “And without AEM, we could never have gotten started on this program.” According to Thornton, the successful launch of the welding program is largely due to a few key factors: the right timing, a little bit of luck and a whole lot of hard work and collaboration. “We wouldn't have had ability to do something like this on our own,” he said. “The right people driving this makes all the difference,” said Thornton, who noted the students from several districts now have access to college-level courses because the welding program instruc-

tor has the proper certifications. “If we didn’t have the instructors we have now— along with the work being done by (Britt Hedlund), I’d be sitting here today still wondering how we could go about making something like this happen. So, having these talented, driven people—and having them work together—has been key.” The proof, however, is in the results. According to Thornton, a Harper Industries intern is poised to graduate from the program in May and seek full-time employment at the company shortly thereafter.

A BRIGHT FUTURE AHEAD

“And that’s just the beginning of it,” Hedlund explained. “Moving forward, we can expect a greater number of students who are ready to get to work when they get out of high school and, more importantly, have the skills they need to enter the workforce. And to know our students can be part of the work that Harper Industries is doing, and be a part of our community, is just so amazing.” Manufacturing will continue to evolve with time, and the needs of the companies in the industry will change with it. As a result, it is critical for organizations to be able to connect with the workforce of tomorrow, inspire them to strongly consider a career as a skilled worker and develop them into qualified employees. It’s a tall task, and it’s one that requires people to come together to develop practical solutions for tackling the skills gap at the community level. “The goal, overall, is to try to create a manufacturing pathway for students,” Thornton said. “The partnerships are so important for a smaller community, and we’re trying to work together to develop our workforce and help the students in the process. “Pulling together multiple manufacturers and multiple schools, trying to work together for the good of the community and the good of the students, I think that’s been the key,” he continued. “We had been failing, over and over again, because we didn’t have the right people. Now that we have the right people in the right roles, we’re really starting to make a difference.” –FROM AEM

For more information, visit www.aem.org/ workforce.

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4 The roller wheels distribute weight evenly across a large ground area.

5 The open wheel design helps shed unwanted material.

ASV’s Posi-Track Technology The Posi-Track® compact track loader undercarriage technology from ASV Holdings Inc., a Yanmar Compact Equipment company, Grand Rapids, Minnesota, is designed to enable operators to do more in more places by allowing productivity in challenging conditions. The unique rubber-on-rubber wheel-to-track contact points and fully suspended frame, with a specialized platform, make this possible. Here’s how it works: The Posi-Track undercarriages, which are mounted to torsion axles, suspend the machine’s weight and allow controlled movement up and down as the tracks flex over obstacles. Because ASV

58 // May 2021

builds its compact track loader tracks without a steel core, the patented tracks feature rubber construction with embedded high-tensile poly-cords that run the length of the track to prevent it from stretching and derailing. As the loader operator drives forward, an internal positive drive transfers tractive effort from the power train to the rubber tracks. Independent drive motors turn sprockets. The sprockets engage the drive lugs on the inside of the rubber tracks. The low-friction design maximizes power transfer, conserving engine power for other machine functions. The ASV roller wheels distribute weight even-

ly across a large ground area, minimizing ground pressure and increasing traction. Finally, a single-rail, open wheel design helps shed material, making cleaning easier and improving wheel and seal life. For more information, visit www.asvi.com.

SHOW US HOW IT WORKS If you’re an original equipment manufacturer with a complex product, let us help you explain its inner workings to asphalt professionals. There’s no charge for this news department, but our editorial staff reserves the right to decide what equipment fits the parameters of a HHIW feature. Contact our editor at sandy@ theasphaltpro.com.

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here’s how it works

Step 2

Step 1 The screed operator controls the TH E screed from the Dynapac screed remote.

Material encounters the tamper, which features a maximum 1,500 rpms.

Step 3 Material encounters the bottom plate, which has a maximum pressure of 70 bar. Step 4 Material encounters the HCU, which features vibration up to 3,000 rpms.

Step 5 The paver operates in the range of 104 dB.

Pre-compaction occurs with the static pressure and vibration of the HCU.

Dynapac’s TH E Screed System When contractors look to speed up the paving train, densities can suffer. To get more compaction directly behind the paver, the team at Dynapac North America LLC, Fort Mill, South Carolina, offers the TH E screed with Dynapac’s high compaction unit design (HCU-design). The V5100TH E and V6000TH E screeds have minimum widths of 8.37 and 9.85 feet and maximum working widths of 26.57 and 29.52 feet, respectively. Both electric screeds feature spring and damping systems in combination with coatings that enable the design to combine three compaction systems in one machine. Here’s how it works: The screed operator controls each stage of pre-compaction that the asphalt pavement material will encounter at the Dynapac screed remote. He can adjust the Dy-

60 // May 2021

napac TH E screed precisely to the jobsite requirements, setting the frequency of the high compaction bar independently from the hydraulic pressure and so on. As the paver operator begins paving, hydraulic cylinders automatically lower the high compaction bar of the HCU. The head of material is fed to the pre-strikeoff and initial, smooth screed plate before it encounters the Dynapac tamper system. The tamper bar delivers up to 1,500 rpms to the material as it passes to the second phase of the TH E screed—the Dynapac bottom plate of static weight and vibrations. The bottom plate converts the screed’s static weight into pure compaction with up to 70 bar maximum pressure. The final stage of the system is the fully redesigned HCU. Static hydraulic pressure and high vibratory frequencies of up to

3,000 rpms (50 hertz) here offer pre-compaction of the mat. When the paver operator stops the paver, the hydraulic cylinders automatically raise the high compaction bar of the HCU, preventing dips in the mat. For more information, contact Vijay Palanisamy at (210) 818-9602 or visit www.dynapac.us.

Turn your surplus asphalt plant equipment into much needed plant upgrades.

GTB-5334L Bituma® 200 Ton Stationary Silo System

GTB-5034H RECON Gencor® 2.8 M.B.T.U. Hot Oil Heater

1-800-826-0223 stansteelused.com GTB-5455A Astec® (7) Bin Cold Feed System

GTB-5462L Bituma®/Astec® 400 Ton Stationary Silo System

GTB-5405J2 30000 Gal Stationary Split Liquid Asphalt Storage Tank

GTB-5334 GenTec® 32,500 ACFM Stationary Pulsejet Baghouse

For more information on the items above and more, call or visit our website. Availability, price and condition subject to change by Stansteel®. Specifications are accurate to our knowledge, however; they are not guaranteed. All prices are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted. Equipment is sold on the basis of as is, where is, therefore, Stansteel® recommends inspection by buyer of any used equipment to determine suitability to their requirements. Gencor® is a trademark of Gencor® Industries, Inc. and Stansteel® is not related to or licensed by Gencor® Industries, Inc.

Online update

AsphaltPro, Online

Join the conversation with AsphaltPro online, on our social channels, our website and our blog. We Asked, You Answered! What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever found under an old asphalt mat? • Phone (multiple reports of this one!) • Padlock • Arrow heads • Old beer can (Budweiser) with a pull tab • Dentures

Photo courtesy of Mike Robinson LLC

• A wooden baseball bat (Louisville Slugger) • A shoe sole • Blockbuster card • Human teeth • A glass insulator for a telegraph • A bird skull

Headlines from the AsphaltPro blog: theasphaltpro.com/asphalt-blog

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration announces more than $10.5 million for mine safety grants. Application deadline is May 27, 2021! Doosan Infracore has introduced a ‘transparent bucket’ function on a wheel loader that uses cameras and monitors so drivers can see blind spots in front of the bucket.

TOP POSTS On International Women’s Day, AsphaltPro is particularly proud that we spotlight amazing Women of Asphalt in every issue 🏽 🏽Read our Women of Asphalt archive online at theasphaltpro. com/departments/women-of-asphalt/

👩🙌

There’s a pot of black gold at the end of that rainbow! Happy St. Patty’s day!

🍀

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62 // May 2021

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Valid through June 30th, 2021, on approved credit.

Oscillation is good. Dynapac made it best. Hardox Tough Drum + 2-Hour replacement belt installation = Highest Productivity in the Industry Easy access to change timing belt Dynapac backed 7 year warranty on Hardox oscillatory drums

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Ahern Industries . . . . . . . . . . 64

KM International . . . . . . . . . 39

Almix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

KPI-JCI-AM . . . Inside Back Cover

Asphalt Drum Mixers . . . . . . . 34

Meeker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Astec, Inc . . . . Inside Front Cover, 11, 15, 19, 24

NCCP Group . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

B & S Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 Blaw Knox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Bomag America. . . . . . . . . . . ,13 Brock Industries . . . . . . . . . . 66 CWMF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21, 55 Dynapac . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

QuikPave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Reliable Asphalt Products . . . . . . . . . Back Cover Roadtec . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Sripath Technology . . . . . . . . 49 Stansteel . . . . . . . . . . . . 17, 61

E.D. Etnyre . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Systems Equipment . . . . . . . 53

Fast-Measure . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Tarmac International, Inc . . . . 33

Gencor Industries . . . . . . . . . . 4

Top Quality Paving . . . . . . . . 65

Green Patch . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Willow Designs . . . . . . . . . . 65

HaulHub . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Wirtgen America . . . . . . . . . 59

AsphaltPro’s advertiser index is designed for you to have quick access to the manufacturers that can get you the information you need to run your business efficiently. Please support the advertisers that support this magazine and tell them you saw them in AsphaltPro magazine.

www.THeAsphaltpro.com // 65

We’re on it.

BROCK is proudly manufacturing equipment and supplying parts for hot mix asphalt plants. www.brock.industries | 2011 West Polymer Drive, Chattanooga, TN 37421 | 1.800.441.9528 | 1.423.476.9900

ProSizer Series

ProSizer® 3600 Impactor Plant The ProSizer® 3600 impactor plant is a single-load crushing plant for processing virgin aggregate and recycled materials. Its robust 36” x 46” horizontal shaft impactor can be paired with a 5’ x 20’ conventional screen or a 6’ x 18’ high frequency screen to meet your application needs. This crushing plant can be powered by diesel, electric or hybrid power. Contact us to learn more at kpijci.com

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an Astec Industries Company

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TWO GREAT PRODUCTS

FROM ONE GREAT COMPANY Our MINDS Control Systems are cutting-edge technology with options and operational ability not seen on competitive systems. We can supply controls for both drum and batch plants with interface ability for any manufacturer type plant. All MINDS Control Systems are specifically designed for years of accurate and dependable performance in the harshest environments. Reliable also provides electrical control services and 24/7 troubleshooting.

Our Vulcan burners are multiple fuel burners that are designed to provide flame stability over a wide operating range. Each Vulcan burner can be adjusted to meet the customer’s requirements based on aggregate dryer or drum mixer size and material type. The Vulcan burner is manufactured for the highest operating efficiency to reduce fuel costs and provide the customer with the lowest possible per ton production cost.

Great Value with Expert Customer Service! New, Used and Refurbished Asphalt Plant Equipment 521 Old 7 Mile Pike • Shelbyville, KY 40065

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Asphalt Pro - May 2021

Articles inside

Dynapac’s TH E Screed System

More Money, More Tons, More

Boh Bros. Construction Adds Tracking

Mitigate Subcontractor Risk

A Woman of Asphalt

ASV’s Posi-Track Technology

Atlantic Southern Paving Heads West

Train Proper Straight

Hearing Protection is Always a Priority