Pavement Maintenance & Reconstruction January 2025
Agua Trucks began their business out of necessity, but grew with purpose. 20
Craig Shellman founded Portable Lighting Solutions to improve uptime on the jobsite. 24
The Pavement Hall of Fame recognizes those who’ve made significant industry contributions. 30 Supeior Striping
Rob Young had a vision for his corner of Alabama, now he’s the first ever winner of the Superior Striping Award!
Sealcoat Specialties continues to improve best practices of sealcoating and striping, fixing up a grocery store parking lot. 34
PLM Paving & Concrete are the winners of the 2025 Seal & Stripe: Large Job award! 38 Paving:
Central Paving accepted a job repaving a railway that runs 24/7 and could not be shut down.
42 Paving: Parking Lot
Royal Paving orchestrated the complete replacement of a 140,000-square-foot parking lot at a busy post office hub.
46 Best Video
Ruston Paving wanted a way to give potential customers an introduction to their business and their culture, and the 2025 Best Video of The Year Award is the result of what they created.
48 Good Neighbor
Family-owned Advanced Asphalt Paving works diligently throughout the year to support nonprofit and charitable organizations in the community.
WHAT’S ONLINE
Rose Paving and Atlantic Southern to Merge
The two companies, already large pavement networks in their own right, have merged together to become one of the largest and most formidable blacktop maintenance groups operating under a singular name.
Formoreinformationvisit
https://pavemg.com/dvd8nvsz
Heavy Equipment Industry’s Need to Update Pricing Strategies Amid Cooling Inflation
OEMs in the heavy equipment industry face significant challenges in setting pricing strategies due to factors like fluctuating input costs, supply chain issues, and evolving customer expectations amid cooling inflation.
Formoreinformationvisit
https://pavemg.com/vwxdwvlo
[VIDEO] Live From #TrimbleDimensions - The Autonomous Link-Belt Excavators 220 X4S
Hear from Link-Belt Excavators’ Adam Woods on how this emerging technology is important in today’s market.
Maul Paving/Concrete/Sealcoating, PLainfield, IL Chris Maul
Published and copyrighted 2025 by IRONMARKETS. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher.
Subscription policy: Individual subscriptions are available without charge in the U.S. only to pavement maintenance contractors, producers and government employees involved in paving or pavement maintenance; dealers, and distributors of pavement maintenance equipment or materials; and others with similar business activities. Complete the subscription form at www.forconstructionpros.com or use your company letterhead giving all the information requested. Publisher reserves the right to reject nonqualified subscribers. One year subscriptions for nonqualified individuals: $35.00 U.S.A., $60.00 Canada and Mexico, and $85.00 all other countries (payable in U.S. funds, drawn on U.S. bank). Single copies available (prepaid only) $10.00 each (U.S., Canada & Mexico), $15.00 each (International). Pavement Maintenance & Reconstruction (ISSN 1098-5875), is published eight times per year: January, February, March, April/May, June/July, August/September, October/ November, December by IRONMARKETS, 201 N. Main St. Ste 350, Fort Atkinson, WI 53538. Periodicals postage paid at Fort Atkinson, WI and additional entry offices.
POSTMASTER: Please send change of address to Pavement, 201 N. Main St. Ste. 350, Fort Atkinson, WI 53538. Printed in the USA.
PAVEMENT MAINTENANCE & RECONSTRUCTION is proudly supported by these associations:
Parking Lot Maintenance, Lake St. Louis, MO Todd Bruening
Petra Paving, Hampstead, NH Chris Tammany
Pioneer Paving, Albuquerque, NM Don Rooney
Roberts Traffic, Hollywood, FL Lisa Birchfield
Show Striping Inc. (SSI), Wisconsin Dells, WI Amber Showalter
T&N Asphalt Services, Salt Lake City, UT Nick Howell
Young Sealcoating Inc, Lynchburg, VA .............................................................Steve Young
The Paving Lady............................................................................................... Mauro Comuzzi
JMP Excelsior Services ............................................................................... Jim Panzenhagen
Sweeping Industry Veteran .................................................................................. Gabe Vitale
Flat Nickel Management .................................................................................. Michael Nawa
Wis-Coat Asphalt Maintenance Marvin Joles
Clear Choice Sealing
Warren Johnson
Jacketta Sweeping Services Debbie Jacketta
Royal Pavement Solutions Kenneth Roy III
ASSOCIATION REPRESENTATIVES:
Pavement Coatings Technology Council Brian Riggs, Executive Director
Vol. 38, No. 1, January 2025
PAVEMENT
Could New Policy Impact Pavement?
In 2024, the construction industry, as a whole, experienced a labor shortfall of about a half-million workers. The incoming administration has vowed to round up and deport undocumented immigrants
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ most recent census data, the construction workforce in the United States hovers around 7.8 million people. For everyone working in, or adjacent to, construction has seen the same hiring horror stories for quite a few years now. The labor shortage has been a key talking point, not just for politicians, but for economists and for people working in the asphalt industry.
The shortage in labor has been used to explain everything from higher prices, rising wages, inflation, shorter service hours for businesses, and longer wait times for projects. One thing making some experts nervous for 2025 is what the incoming president has promised to do as a top priority.
Noel, Editor bNoel@iron.markets 234-600-8983
In the days after his election win, President Donald Trump declared his intent to use all available powers to carry out the largest deportation in American history. This would have a profound impact on construction, and the asphalt industry by extension. The question is whether or not employers are ready, or able, to accept the collateral damages.
The silver lining here is that by removing those working without proper documentation, you reduce the likelihood of workers being the victims of labor exploitation. Undocumented immigrant workers cannot seek out the same protections that documented migrant workers and U.S. citizens can. They are almost always being underpaid, overworked, and left to fend for themselves if they are injured on the job. When they work on a crew, they do so at their own risk, with no leverage to protect themselves at all.
The negative side effect is that employers will almost certainly face an exacerbated labor shortage, worse than we’ve already experienced.
According to a 2022 survey conducted by the independent non-profit group American Immigration Council, 1.5 million members of the construction workforce are made up of undocumented laborers. If the new administration makes good on their plans, it could potentially push the labor shortfall for this sector to an excess of 2 million workers. Construction would be the hardest hit industry by the deportations, but it would hardly be the only effected U.S. industry.
For citizens and those with documented status, it could mean even better compensation, as the competition for skilled workers could potentially double or triple. It’s hard to really nail down exact impacts, because there are some documented immigrants who may inevitably, though mistakenly, be deported along with everyone else. Others might leave with deported family members.
It could also mean that the conditions for the legal U.S. workers could become strained if they face more understaffed jobsites. The completion times for projects may get longer as the number of available crews is reduced. Longer lead times combined with slower production could result in smaller profits for contractors.
Ultimately, it’s not a simple problem with an easy solution, but what we do know is that any possible decision doesn’t take place in a vacuum. Whatever happens will have ripple effects on every employer looking for workers in our industry.
Published and copyrighted 2025 by IRONMARKETS. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher. @PAVEMENTMAGAZINE
Brandon
NO TIME FOR DOWNTIME.
If you’re awarded infrastructure or large construction projects, profitability hangs on efficiency. These days, controlling dust, dirt and debris is a must, so your mechanical sweeper better not mess around.
When there’s no time for downtime, it’s time for Broom Bear ® or Broom Badger ® .
Elgin brings 100+ years of hustle and reliability to every job-site. Broom Bear® and Broom Badger® are built for you — fast and dependable, with the best customer service in the business.
Cemen Tech, West Side Tractor Partner to Expand Service Territory
Iowa-based Cemen Tech recently announced a new partnership with West Side Tractor Sales.
Key points:
• Cemen Tech, a volumetric concrete mixer manufacturer, is partnering with West Side Tractor Sales, a construction heavy equipment dealer, to serve the Northern Illinois and Indiana markets.
• West Side Tractor will offer Cemen Tech’s concrete production products throughout the region.
• In support of the new partnership, West Side Tractor has appointed Drew Aldrich as business development manager for Illinois and Nathan Darter as the primary sales contact for Indiana. Together, they will lead Cemen Tech sales and provide comprehensive service to customers throughout the territory.
• West Side Tractor will also offer field service, preventative maintenance, and emergency repair, ensuring dependable support with a robust team of service technicians and stocked inventory of parts and components.
“We’re proud to partner with West Side Tractor to expand access to volumetric concrete technology,” said Connor Deering, CEO and president of Cemen Tech. “West Side Tractor’s reputation for customer service and technical expertise aligns with our mission.”
“We’re pleased to bring Cemen Tech’s industry-leading solutions to our customers,” said Brian Benck, senior vp of West Side Tractor. “Adding Cemen Tech aligns with our commitment to equip customers with tools that enhance project efficiency and profitability.”
US DEPARTMENT OF LABOR EXTENDS PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD FOR PROPOSED HEAT INJURY, ILLNESS PREVENTION RULE UNTIL JAN. 14, 2025
The U.S. Department of Labor today announced that its Occupational Safety and Health Administration has extended the public comment period for its proposed rule to protect workers from extreme heat exposure in indoor and outdoor workplaces to remain open until Jan. 14, 2025.
As published in the Federal Register on Aug. 30, 2024, the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Heat Injury and Illness Prevention in Outdoor and Indoor Work Settings had an initial 120-day public comment period scheduled to end on Dec. 30, 2024. OSHA is extending the deadline for submitting comments to provide stakeholders more time to review the proposed rule and gather relevant information and data for their input.
OSHA also announced an informal public hearing on the proposed rule will begin on June 16, 2025.
“Reducing the dangers of workplace heat exposure and illness is critical to saving lives and preventing workers from suffering needless illnesses,” said Assistant Secretary for Occupational Safety and Health Douglas Parker. “This 15-day extension to the already lengthy comment period will take the deadline past the holiday season and help ensure that stakeholders can share valuable insights we need to craft a rule that protects workers from extreme heat indoors and outdoors effectively.”
Submit comments to Docket Number OSHA-2021-0009.
DOT ANNOUNCES $172 MILLION IN GRANTS FOR 250+ COMMUNITIES TO MAKE LOCAL ROADS SAFER
The U.S. Department of Transportation has announced $172 million in grants to 257 communities through the Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) program. This is the third and final round of 2024 awards that will be announced this year through the community-guided grant program, which is a key component of the National Roadway Safety Strategy.
The funding announced will go directly to 257 local, regional, and Tribal communities for planning and demonstration projects that will help prevent deaths and serious injuries on America’s rural and urban roads, including some of the most dangerous roads in the country— making communities more walkable and connected.
Since launching in 2022, SS4A has funded projects to plan and implement roadway improvements that are proven to dramatically reduce crashes. More than 1,600 communities, of which almost half are in rural areas, have applied for and been awarded SS4A grants. Across the nation, SS4A supports roadway safety for around 75% of the U.S. population.?
NEW LINELAZER ® V ES 2000
Only Graco offers a complete line of electric striping solutions that deliver quiet, fume-free performance to tackle any job at any time.
NEW LINEDRIVER ® ES
Finish Any Job Faster —Any Time
• Safe to use indoors
• High performance for outdoor jobs
• Up to 60 gallons of run time per charge
Why Walk When You Can Ride?
• Double your striping productivity
• Perfect Mil Thickness with ExactMilTM Speed Control
• Up to 12 hours run time per charge
1
John Deere 333 P-Tier Compact Track Loader
John Deere
The John Deere 333 P-Tier compact track loader is designed for lifting, transporting and material handling tasks on worksites. This machine is powered by a 105.8-hp Yanmar engine and delivers a bucket breakout force of 13,750 lbs. The 333 P-Tier can be equipped with SmartGrade Ready including 2D grade control or 3D SmartGrade with Topcon. The machine also includes a new hydraulic system. In addition, On Board Diagnostics enable an operator to navigate through a diagnostic and settings menu structure to look up detailed information on current machine settings and active codes.
3
EC260 and EC300 Excavators
Volvo CE
The new EC260 replaces the EC250 in Volvo’s lineup, and the new EC300 is an update of the previous series’ model. Like the other models in the new series, the EC260 and EC300 excavators feature up to 15% greater fuel efficiency, increased productivity, enhanced safety and a host of cab upgrades. The EC260 and EC300, along with other excavators in the series, feature an electro-hydraulic system, smart cooling system and engine speed regulation that contribute to up to 15% better fuel efficiency. Better machine control for smooth and precise movement of the boom, bucket and other hydraulic components. 10 work modes, including two specific to power and four specific to automatic ECO modes.
5
Equipment Trailers
Eager Beaver Trailers
These four new equipment trailers: 10SSA, 10SSE, 12SSA and 12SSE offer 10- to 12-ton capacity, models with electric or air brakes are available based on operating preferences. These trailers feature adjustable Hutch 9700 three-leaf suspension, as well as Sumitomo tires and hub piloted wheels for reliable transport. Stability is facilitated by double-acting springs and an accessible lightweight ramp for loading and unloading equipment. LED wiring harnesses are sealed for protection from rugged elements on the jobsite. The heavy-duty trailers have a 33-in. deck height, as well as a 19-ft. flat deck with a 6-in. beavertail.
2 4 6
XGT 40V max 9-in. Power Cutter
Makita USA, Inc.
This cutting solution delivers a max cutting depth of 3-1/2 in. with all the benefits of cordless with instant starts, no gas mixing, and no fumes so it’s ok for use indoors. The GEC03 features an integrated water delivery system with a water flow adjustment knob that continuously feeds water for OSHA Table 1 Compliance in concrete cutting applications. The 40V max XGT 9-in. Power Cutter with AFT and Electric Brake (GEC03) has the power to cut through various masonry and metal materials with all the benefits and convenience of cordless operation. This is a powerful cutting solution for a variety of applications with a max cutting depth of 3-1/2 in. It can deliver up to 45% more power and offers up to 55% less vibration for less user fatigue.
Siteworks Machine Guidance Module for CTLs
Trimble Construction | Trimble
Siteworks Machine Guidance extends the capabilities of Trimble Siteworks Software from surveying and layout to support on-machine guidance and operator assistance, now on compact track loader buckets. The addition of Siteworks Machine Guidance for compact track loaders makes this popular and flexible machine type even more versatile with an all-in-one solution for layout, grading and leveling. The solution gives users the ability to move the system among multiple machines and jobsites, and to utilize their existing technology on-machine quickly and easily.
580 Super N Backhoe Limited Signature Edition
CASE Construction Equipment -
CNH
The Super N Construction King backhoe loader commemorates CASE’s history of innovation. Available at select CASE dealers as of Dec. 2024, the J.I. CASE Signature Edition backhoe loader adds a new look to the 580 Super N model. Limited production to 50 machines, the 580 features a metallic silver and dark gray color scheme, the throwback CASE “tread” logo, an airsuspension seat with special upholstery and individually numbered badge plates that bear the signature of CASE founder Jerome Increase Case.
By Brandon Noel, Editor
Learning Everything The HARDEST WAY
When it came to running his company, David McGee believed the harder he worked, the luckier he got.
In 1991, when David McGee landed his first job in the asphalt industry, he had little construction experience. After collecting unemployment due to seasonal layoffs at UPS, he started with a paving company as a shovel man for $60 a day. David and his wife, Paige, were newlyweds just trying to make ends meet.
“I have a wife and daughter to support while making only $60 a day shoveling asphalt,” said McGee. “We weren’t even working every day at the time.”
The paving company he was working for did not have a large operation. They used a single-axle truck, and mostly did small repairs. He tried to absorb and apply every detail possible. The thought of branching out and working for himself became more appealing each day.
“I always had it in my mind to someday start my own business,” recalled McGee of that time. Then an unexpected opportunity presented itself.
During a visit with his wife’s grandparents, her grandfather asked him the question all good patriarchs do to those who marry into their family. Granddaddy wanted to know how young David was planning to provide for his granddaughter and great granddaughter.
“I told him what I was doing at the time, working with that crew, but I told him I was thinking of starting my own little paving business,” explained McGee.
The next following day, her grandfather unexpectedly hands him a check for $5,000 as a seed investment into David’s idea.
“It shocked the whole family, because he’d never done something like this ever,” said McGee. “I told him that I didn’t want his money, that it I didn’t tell him about my idea to get his money. It blew my mind. He wouldn’t take no for an answer.”
THE EARLY DAYS AND THE GOOD OLE DAYS
The first thing David did was take the investment from his wife’s grandfather and use $4,000 of it as a down payment on a single-axle dump truck of his own. The other $1,000 he used to buy shovels, lutes, a chain dog and a trailer to haul everything around.
“Then I went and rented a little roller, and just started knocking on doors with some business cards I had. That was 1991,” said McGee. “As doors would open, we just walked through them slowly but surely. That was 33 years ago.”
And thus, Piedmont Paving Inc. was born. However, that first year in business came with some serious challenges.
“I was so desperate one week, I didn’t have any money after I’d paid all the bills,” McGee remembered. “I went out knocking on doors, and one lady had a pothole in her driveway. She asked, ‘How much?’ and I told her $25. After paying for materials and my brother for some help, I kept $15 of it for myself. I
Piedmont Paving Inc.
thought I’d really done something that day. I was really proud of myself, and probably went and bought something for dinner that night.”
It was touch-and-go for the fledgling business, but when things would get really tight, another job would seemingly come along. The phone would ring, David would meet someone who needed work, or he’d network with people who could help him expand his reach.
In 1992, he connected with a local broker who helped him expand his pavement maintenance work including the addition of patching, sealcoating, and striping. These changes helped the business start to really grow. It took about two years to pay back that original $5,000 loan, and things continued to accelerate from there.
Piedmont Paving’s first paver was a LeeBoy drag-box.
“It would actually put down a really good mat,” McGee explained. “But I mean, you work your butt off with one of those. If you put down 30 ton with that, you shoveled 15 of it by hand.”
Eventually, he ran into a job the drag-box couldn’t easily manage, and from then on, they gradually upgraded their machines and their capabilities, one piece at a time.
STAYING ON THE RIGHT TRACK
In the mid-1990s, the greater Greensboro, N.C. area saw a construc tion boom, and with it, David McGee and his company grew, too.
doing,” He said. “But I sent over the price to him, and we ended up getting the job. Before you knew it, we were doing a lot of new construction from then on.”
Those were some of the company’s early signs that they were breaking through and making real headway in the industry. Throughout the mid-tolate 1990s, the company saw large gains working as a sub for various large GCs, doing bigger and bigger jobs.
“We just got better as we went,” said McGee. “But we had to learn everything the hard way. I didn’t have anyone to teach me. So sometimes I would go out and watch the big pavers in the area, pull over to the side of the road when they were working, and watch how they did things.”
As Piedmont turned the corner into the new century, it felt like they were starting to be recognized in their area, and their footprint was growing. In the midst of all this, David and his wife added three more children to the mix, and the pair worked together to continue forming the life they envisioned for themselves.
“I remember I walked into this general contractor’s office and asked if I could do some work for them,” McGee recalled. “The guy there handed me a set of plans with a scale. I didn’t know what I was looking at. I never looked at a set of plans before in my life.”
“So, I went and bought myself a scale, went home, sat down, and tried to do a take-off from that set of plans. I didn’t know what in the world I was
“I was actually on the paver every time it moved up until about eight years ago,” said McGee. “I look back on it all now, and I’m not sure how we did it all, to be honest. I believe around 1996, I hired Jay Brewer to start running the paver for me, but I still sat on the dummy side all day, and I’d be on the phone with clients, our project managers, or I’d be doing things like payroll, all from the paver.”
For years he continued to handle all the paperwork on his own, but still managed to find time to coach his kids’ after school sports activities, making whatever sacrifices he had to along the way.
“I’ve always been fortunate to have really good people,” McGee said, reflecting on how so much was able
to be accomplished over the years.
“Between Mark Rountree, Matt Weiss, Jay Brewer, William Dixon, Jose Beltran, Aaron Falstreau, and my kids, who all work for me now, I’ve been able to start stepping away a little bit.”
CURVEBALLS, CONCRETE, AND CRUSHING
Mark Rountree came on board in 2002 to take over estimating. With his extensive construction knowledge and a drive to expand into other areas of site work, the concrete division of Piedmont Paving was born in 2004. Aaron Falstreau was brought on as the concrete division’s project manager in 2007, and has been with the company ever since.
Near the end of the early 2000s, Piedmont faced the same challenges that plagued the rest of the country.
The economic downturn in 2008 was the most precarious time for David and the company since their first year in business. However, the adversity and challenges that they faced during this stressful period resulted in the development of one of their most unique assets.
“It was like someone walked into our offices one day, turned the lights out and said that’s it, you’re done,” said McGee. “It was bad. Eventually, I sat down with Mark and told him we needed to switch gears, because there wasn’t enough new construction to sustain things. We needed to get back into the maintenance side of things.”
Piedmont was previously subbing out a lot of their striping and sealcoating, so they went and purchased some new
Piedmont Paving Inc.
Piedmont Paving Inc.
equipment and brought all those services back in-house. At the same time, they became DOT certified in order to bid on government projects nearby. However, it was David’s foresight that helped them navigate these tough times best.
While he noticed other contractors making moves that indicated a shortterm recession and a quick bounce back to normalcy, he prepared for a longer drought. His instincts turned out to be much closer to reality, and it helped them emerge on the other side as a stronger, healthier, and more resilient company.
“We’d get calls all the time about asphalt millings. Anytime we had a milling job, I’d have people wanting
to pay to take them off our hands, right? Or we’d haul them to a plant, and we never get a dime for it,” said McGee. “We were milling up so much asphalt and digging up concrete, that I thought we ought to start crushing it up ourselves, and turn it around to sell it. We started looking for a piece of property, got ourselves a Kleeman crusher, and now we have about 30 customers in-and-out every day buying crushed asphalt and concrete. As fast as we can crush it, we sell it, and that is how Piedmont Recycling was born.”
THE NEXT GENERATION
From David’s perspective, he felt as though his kids always wanted to be a part of the business one day. They would take to it naturally over the years, working during school breaks and summertime jobs. With two sons, Matthew and Joshua, and two daughters, Ashley and Molly, everyone plays a role in the company’s day-to-day operations.
David’s daughters manage the office, his sons lead the operation crews, and his brother-in-law handles estimating and project management. His philosophy on working with family is simple: As long as everyone is working together without any drama, things will continue on just fine.
Piedmont is currently averaging 40 employees, and somewhere in the realm of fifty pieces of heavy equipment on their yard. True to their roots, they are still running LeeBoy pavers to this day.
With such humble beginnings, there’s a lot to be said about where hard work can take a company. What strategies can be ascribed to growing during difficult times, and surviving changes in the industry and the economy while others haven’t? When asked about his views and perspectives on business growth, McGee reflected honestly.
“I’m 60 years old, and I’m not done yet, by any means,” McGee said. “But I don’t think I’ve ever sat down and set up a specific plan about how to grow. I don’t remember ever brainstorming with my guys a growth program. We’ve been extremely fortunate.”
As the industry changes, McGee doesn’t see a future where the family isn’t still at the helm. Others in the area have taken outside investment, scooped up by outside equity, but as long as his kids want to do it — it will stay in their hands.
“Dad has worked hard for what he’s given us,” said Matt McGee. “I would say one of my biggest things is a desire to not let him down, you know? I want to take care of it, what he’s blessed us with. There is a little pressure to succeed in continuing a legacy, I would say.”
Matt’s brother, Josh, feels a similar compulsion, but, albeit, from a slightly different angle.
“I’m really competitive, and I get that from my dad,” said Joshua. “I like this work, because at the end of a job you are rewarded right away. You’re able to see how hard you worked. I pride myself on our work, what we do, and being the best. Even if I was to do anything besides this, I’d want that same feeling. Asphalt is kind of special.”
“I know this,” replied David. “My kids are better than me in every way. When I got started, I couldn’t do anything. They’ve learned how to do it all, and then some. There’s all this new technology and tools and stuff available now, but we never had any of that. Now there’s so much technology on these jobs that I couldn’t run it even if I tried!”
GRATITUDE AND HARD WORK
The thing about the Contractor of the Year is that it’s an award that takes several things into account, not just the size of your business, or the number next to a sales report. In this industry, reputation is something you build over time, and your character sticks with you.
While David didn’t start out with someone or somewhere to turn to educate himself on the tricks of the trade, having to learn the hardest way what he needed to know, Piedmont is a name you hear from other contractors in the industry when they talk about needing help and getting it.
In this way, the McGee clan exemplifies the best parts of the asphalt pavement maintenance industry. They serve their customers to the highest level of quality, and they serve the industry by sharing the knowledge they have with others. Their videos and their social media presence offer more than just marketing tools, they educate and they demystify the work for clients and those outside the industry itself.
“I want to make sure that people understand that I only think we were able to do all this because of the good people we had helping us,” David emphasized. “We aren’t perfect, and in 34 years we’ve made mistakes for sure, but I believe we have given our best on every single job we show up on. We leave every jobsite confident we’ve done our best.” ■
For more information visit https://pavemg.com/ piedmont
Piedmont Paving Inc.
By Jessica Lombardo, Contributing Editor
AGUA TRUCKS Leans on Procedures + Professionalism to Achieve Success
The 2025 Sweeper of the Year began their business out of necessity, but grew with purpose
Scott Duscher is someone who works with intention. The owner of Agua Trucks can be found walking around, sharing his knowledge, prominently wearing his cowboy hat and intentionally building his business and relationships with every interaction he has. And it’s always been that way.
In the early 2000s, Duscher was
working as vice president of operations for Santa Anna Homes where he oversaw many large scale construction projects and worked with several subcontractors to get everything done. On one project, Duscher couldn’t find the right partner for a water truck operation and thought to himself, ‘I can do better.’
“Sometimes when you can’t get the water to the neighborhood, you hire a water truck to fill up soils and get construction moving,” Duscher said. “We had hired one of my vendors to help, and I just didn’t like the way it was done. At the time, we were managing contractors and didn’t own any
equipment, and the owner didn’t want to deal with that. I asked him if I could buy it and he would rent it. He agreed and I went to my wife Louise and told her I got her a job.”
Thus began the official start of Agua Trucks in 2005.
RELATIONSHIPS + EDUCATION INSPIRE SUCCESS
Obviously, starting a new business comes with several challenges. Duscher knew how to be a general contractor for new construction projects, but operating sweepers while also growing a business came with its own set of challenges
All photos provided by Agua Trucks
- especially when the economic downturn hit in 2008.
“Being a builder, I really knew what the customer wanted, because I was the customer,” Duscher said. “What I didn’t know was how to work for commercial properties when there wasn’t a lot of work. So in 2009, we bought our first used sweeper.”
His first big project was sweeping a new construction build and Duscher said he made “about a million calls” to the previous owner of the sweeper to ensure he was going to get everything right. Turns out, he did.
“Once it was done, the customer taking over the project wanted to know if I wanted to maintain the lot sweeping it,” Duscher said. “We won the bid and realized we had to now go buy a parking lot sweeper.”
Duscher found a sweeper and went to Detroit from their location in Phoenix to pick it up from C&J Sweeping who set Agua Trucks on a fast trajectory to growth.
“The owner of the business, Ray Confer, spent a lot of time with me on how to build routes and let me know everything I should learn to operate,” Duscher said. “He then asked me if I was going to NPE, and I asked him what that was. He told me, and I looked around at how much equipment he had and the diamond ring on his finger, and
I just went back and signed up for it, not having any clue what I was going to get into.”
At the show, Ray introduced Duscher to a lot of different contractors that he was able to network with and learn from. Many of them he still interacts with. It was there that he also learned about the important industry associations like the North American Power Sweeping Association (NAPSA).
“Sweeping deals with a lot of environmental and regulatory issues and so that’s how we got our sweeping education which I couldn’t get from water trucks — because there was no education for that,” Duscher said. “The NAPSA best practices sessions at these shows are invaluable for people just starting
out. That’s how I got started with NAPSA and then I evolved into being on the board and served a term as President. I also made sure we qualified as a NAPSA Certified Sweeping Company because that’s what the industry leaders did. When some of these guys started 1-800-SWEEPER, I just had to join to be with them and I now serve on that board as well. I just want to be around these guys.”
“In small business, you’re answering the phone, you’re doing the scheduling, and Louise would be driving a water started with NAPSA and then I evolved into being on the board and served a term as Presi-
With what he learned, Duscher started applying his knowledge and growing, but it was a grind in the tough economic times.
truck during the day and a sweeper at night,” Duscher said. “So that’s how we grew, sticking with construction sweeping, water for dust control on those sites and some parking lot sweeping.”
STEADY GROWTH ALLOWS FOR CHANGE
As many business owners in the power sweeping industry know, parking lot sweeping is not easy work.
“It’s like buying a boat,” Duscher said. “The first day and the last day are the two best days in the parking lot sweeping business. These jobs required night work and people we might not have been able to depend on. At our peak, we were actually doing 18 Walmart lots and we bought two more parking lot sweepers. But the market started to rebound and we added three construction sweepers and a water truck on that side. As builders got busier, so did we and we were able to stop parking lot sweeping in 2018.”
Cutting this portion out of the business might seem like a huge leap of faith, but again, Duscher was intentional with his decision.
“We had separated the businesses — construction sweeping and parking lot sweeping - from the beginning, so each one had its own profit loss statement,” Duscher said. “The parking lot sweeping just couldn’t pull a profit of anything for the effort that went into it. And it wasn’t my forte, as I came from
a construction background, so dealing with property managers and so forth wasn’t my strong suit.”
His background in construction allowed Agua Trucks to pick up business elsewhere as well to supplement any work lost from removing parking lot sweeping. And he made sure they’d be busy before they officially pulled the plug.
“We really wanted to own all of the sweeping for one of my largest builders and he said we couldn’t compete because we didn’t do all the work they needed contracted,” Duscher said. “I asked him what it was, he told me it was concrete washout pits and silt fencing. I told him we’d learn how to do that and we did. It really all dovetails together.”
The company also expanded into renting water trailers, added dump trucks and a tractor to complete their work and continue to add on services that fit their equipment and expertise.
PEOPLE GIVE THE COMPETITIVE EDGE
And Duscher knows that being an expert in his field is what keeps him ahead of his competition. He stays one step ahead of other businesses by investing in the training and the technologies needed to win — and keep — the work.
“I know how expensive turnover is, so therefore I train better,” Duscher said. “That way, I not only have operators who are comfortable with what
they are doing, but I also have the most knowledgeable ones out there talking to the customers. For this reason, I was extremely involved in sweeper school, helping create that along with Mark Carter, another one of his mentors, and several others, and so being part of that gives me a great edge to teach my people stuff.”
Duscher also understands that his business needs to operate without him and has put a lot of time and resources into creating processes and procedures to ensure the success of his operations through his people.
“The processes and procedures are the things that really separates the guy that’s trying to hold on from the guy that grows,” Duscher said. “Those are what’s huge.”
And Duscher has invested in keeping them ready for anything.
“We are always looking forward,” Duscher said. “And to do that, you got to play like the big boys. That’s the reason that we embrace certain things. We learned early on about GPS technology and then onto things like the scheduling devices. With these systems, we could take the work out of our head and have a tool that is duplicatable and showed up to work more often than a person did. That may have saved needing an extra body by just being able to use that technology.”
Duscher plans to continue to build his business and help others do the same, speaking regularly for homebuilders associations, industry associations and at events like PAVE/X.
“I received a lot of help from others over the years and to now be the big guy in the room is truly humbling,” Duscher said. “People are now asking me questions and it blows me away sometimes. I’m honored to be able to answer the same questions I had when I first started out and hope I can help other companies succeed.” ■
For more information visit
ALAN CURTIS AWARD
By Bethany Chambers, Contributing Editor
Keeping Crews Safe at Night and Supporting American Ingenuity
Although Craig, 61, passed away
Portable Lighting Solutions to improve uptime on the
jobsite.
Now he’s our 2025 Alan Curtis Service Award Winner for 2025.
Our 2025 Alan Curtis Service Award Winner made the sun.
Or at least that’s what his 5-year-old granddaughter said. To crews out on construction jobsites at night, though, it’s not too far from the truth.
Craig Shellman invented the only balloon light on the market with a field-replaceable LED light bulb and a patented easy slide assembly, one with parts that can be replaced from any hardware store. Shellman’s company, Portable Lighting Solutions Inc. (PLS), is today a fast-growing partner of manufacturers like LeeBoy.
in early 2024, his daughter Christine Shellman is keeping his business – and his mission for safety and reliability –alive at PLS.
A MISSION THAT MATTERS
In 2018, Craig was running the asphalt and concrete divisions of a local construction company when his frustration with unreliable jobsite lighting boiled over. After 27 years, he’d had enough.
“Every single time they turned one on there was a breakdown of some sort, and then he would have to get woken up and have to come down to the jobsite, have to figure out something at 11, and as soon as it was figured out there’d be another issue,” Christine recalled.
The aggressive schedules for highway projects and limited labor made it even more infuriating to Craig, who “never wanted to see his guys sent home” due to faulty lighting. Christine said he wasn’t the kind of guy to be content
The lights provided by PLS atop pavers, MTVs and other road building equipment saves lives and helps workers get the job done.
“being delayed more days than not” or having to waste time with maintenance and constant trips to the rental company to cover the downtime.
HANDS-ON INVENTION
Craig rolled up his sleeves and got down to business himself.
“He wanted something durable and serviceable on the jobsite, something you can throw in the back of a truck and not have any problems with. He wanted to have all steel,” Christine said. “No plastic parts.”
He didn’t relinquish any part of the process, not even to his daughter. He created the drawings, machined the parts and built the prototype himself. And he worked fast, holed up in his
All Photos Provided by Christine Shellman
shop day and night for 18 months.
As Christine said, “This was all him.”
A NEED FOR SPEED
Building the portable light wasn’t Craig’s first foray into mechanics. His favorite hobby was drag racing. He had a 1998 Camaro Prostock car and was running low 8 seconds in the 1/4 mile track. He loved flying at 167 mph at Chicagoland speedways all summer.
“He was breaking down his own motor in the middle of the winter. He never wanted anybody to touch his motor,” Christine laughs, “so he already had those machines on hand. That was his passion.”
Emphasis on “was.” Then came PLS.
“It became his biggest obsession,” Christine said. “He just let the race car sit.”
MADE IN THE USA
The PLS light is manufactured in and around Chicago. The light bulb is made in California. Craig valued relationships above all else. He looked for partners committed to quality, even if the price was a little higher. That has paid off over the years.
When a month of bad weather delayed supply chain for one component
To night shift workers, Shellman’s creations are life savers. To Shellman’s family, they are the “sun” as one granddaughter described them.
Founder of PLS Craig Shellman never wanted a hard working road worker sent home or put in danger because of faulty equipment.
manufacturer, PLS was their first call and their first shipment, before others. “Those were his racing buddies,” Christine explained.
And when it came to his earliest customers? Well, those were relationships that went way back, too.
“I’ve actually known some of these guys since I was a little girl,” said Christine. “Especially after my dad’s death, a lot of them came forward. They remember him being on the job site, working with them. He built these relationships because he was so level-headed.”
A FATHER-DAUGHTER DUO
Christine got back into the family business in 2022 with her dad’s enthusiastic encouragement. After a decade as a kitchen and bath designer, it felt like a homecoming.
She used to tease her dad about including her in every meeting, even
on every email. He was so excited to have her back.
“This used to drive me nuts, but looking back I’m very fortunate because I know what he was talking about. It’s been a very easy transition,” Christine said, adding that she knew exactly which vendors and customers to call when her dad passed away unexpectedly following a routine medical procedure.
All seven of PLS’s employees stayed on following his death.
“These guys have been doing this for years, and I’m only 34 years old, so I’m also looking at their advice. Our foundation has been shaken but it has not crumbled,” said Christine, who is working on a Women’s Business Enterprise certification for PLS.
Craig spent the last year of his life looking at ways to grow PLS while staying focused on his mission to keep construction crews safe. Christine is trying to honor his plans. They’re growing manufacturer partnerships, moving into the utilities market, working more with rental companies and dealers—broadening horizons.
Provided by Christine Shellman
Provided by Christine Shellman
Provided by Christine Shellman
THE NEXT GENERATION
As a foreman, employer and father, Craig was always willing to put in the extra time to mentor the next generation, even when he was busy. One message he imparted, “There are bumps in the road, but we get through it.”
It’s a sentiment that has helped his family this year, especially his five grandchildren, whom he doted on.
Christine said they’re growing up in the industry, too.
“I really hope that at the end of the day, they pick up his work ethic, not
just in construction but in everything he did,” she said. “It takes hard work to get where you want to be.”
Thanks to Craig, there could be more Shellmans in the industry someday. His “little diva” granddaughter has taken a shine to Caterpillar equipment. And of course there’s the granddaughter who asked, “Why did Grandpa make the sun? We already got a sun!”
“My dad just started laughing,” Christine said, smiling. “But then she was like, ‘You know, Grandpa, that’s pretty cool!’” ■
For more information visit https://pavemg.com/ alancurtis
Provided by Christine Shellman
By Jessica Lombardo,
Painting Lines, CHANGING LIVES
Jim
Panzenhagen, newly inducted to
the
Pavement
Hall of Fame, has
relied on
education,
innovation
and maintaining high industry standards to make a successful career in the striping industry.
Many times in the pavement maintenance industry, contractors often diversify their services to serve their customers as a one-stop shop. Jim Panzenhagen, a 30+ year striping industry veteran, never wanted that. He knew very early on that he wanted to be a master in his craft and has become a well-known striping industry professional who is highly regarded for his expertise.
Like most starting out in the industry though, it wasn’t always that way. Panzenhagen was working as a property manager for a local real estate company
in the New York Tri State Area in 1993. He purchased a pressure pop striping machine for $500 and started making some money with it on the properties he managed.
“A management company owner asked me if I wanted to purchase one of his striping machines and he said he’d teach me everything he knew about the business,” Panzenhagen said. “I paid $2,000 for one of the original Graco 5000 machines in 1993 and I worked with him for several years and he showed me everything about the business, going back and forth. I then bought my second Titan 6000 and it was just my best friend from growing up and myself going out on the weekends in my van painting parking lots for this guy for a few years.”
Once Panzenhagen knew he wanted to make a career out of this work, he started to dive in head first and his company, JMP Excelsior Services, LLC, began.
“I did a lot of research back in the early 90s, it was just Google back then,” Panzenhagen said. “Then I came across
Robert Liles’ Parking Lot Planet, which was a wealth of information and where I learned most of what I needed to know. On this old forum, I talked with experts and contractors and I met the greatest bunch of guys from his forum that I still talk to to this day, almost 30 years later.”
EDUCATION FOR EXPERTISE
Beyond the forums, Panzenhagen knew that he needed to get more information if he wanted to succeed. He found industry trade shows invaluable to advancing his business.
“I started going to the seminars and I would take the same seminar year after year because the seminars change,” Panzenhagen said. “I was just looking for the newest, fastest, and I guess, the quickest but most efficient way of doing the work. I always thought that if I could cut an hour off of every job, it’s an hour more I have with my family. So that was my big push through learning the industry and how I could get the job done faster at the same quality and make more money doing it.”
While Panzenhagen was growing his business, he relied on his network to help him tackle the big jobs. Many of these people who helped him on those jobs, stayed with him and helped him grow his employee pool — a must for his rapid growth.
“I received an email out of the blue and it asked me if I would work for this guy I had never heard from,” Panzenhagen said. “I didn’t know who this guy was, so I responded to it and asked him what he had. It turns out that he had the Walmart contract for New Jersey and Delaware. That was a lucky email.”
At the time, JMP had two other chain driven lazy liners, but still considered their business new with only about 10 years under its belt.
“We weren’t high production in the least and now we’re doing almost 80 stores a year, re-striping with three to four people,” Panzenhagen said. “I went from using maybe 1,000 to 1,500 gallons a year to using almost 14,000 gallons of paint a year.”
While the business of course struggled with the 2008 recession, shrinking down to two full time employees, it allowed the company to find ways to become even more efficient with the work they still had.
A MASTER OF THE CRAFT
Most contractors in the industry are self-taught, but it’s important that we’re teaching each other how to do the work the right way. That has become Panzenhagen’s mission.
“A contractor will never show you what to do, but a craftsman will teach you everything he knows,” Panzenhagen
said. “I learned on the old forum page and with events and it’s always stuck in my mind that I want to help other people the way I was helped if I’m able. What we do is not a secret. There’s no proprietary stuff to do this. If I can help people increase their production and their quality and keep our prices up, I help all the time. If someone is doing poor work, sooner or later, that will reflect on me. If he does a lousy job, a customer is not going to have it done again, or they’re going to beat me up on my prices and no one wants that.”
Panzenhagen started teaching at industry tradeshows in 2017 and has continued to speak at events and make himself available for those who need him year round through Facebook groups and emails.
“People who want to be successful in this industry need to have determination,” Panzenhagen said. “You have to go in 100% into the business and it takes a while to get established. Your reputation is everything. I keep telling all the new guys that doing a job ‘good enough’ isn’t going to work. That first job is going to either launch you forward or it’s going to haunt you for 10 years so start right and do it right from day one. Invest in the equipment and the proper materials to do the work. You’ll pay back your
investment within a year or two by buying what’s right. You can’t go into this thinking you’re going to make $200,000 the first year if you’ve never touched a machine before,that’s very optimistic at best. The Facebook groups that I manage are a great way for me to make sure new guys have the right expectations, the right tools and the right contacts to do what’s needed to be successful.”
And at the end of the day, know your strengths and stick with them.
“I always knew I wanted to be a craftsman at my trade versus doing so many different things not as well as the one thing I knew I was really good at,” Panzenhagen said. “I wanted to concentrate on one thing and become the best I could in one industry. I would rather get more striping work and have more crews painting than I would trying to get into sealcoating or paving or patching or anything like that and not do it right. Paint is no big deal for me and it’s something I enjoy doing. I love going out painting and I still go out on every job we do. So I always wanted to just stick with becoming a craftsman in one industry rather than multiple.” ■
JMP Excelsior Services
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By Brandon Noel, Editor
Don’t Take NO For An Answer
Rob Young had a vision for his corner of Alabama. He bet on himself and his instinct paid off big, becoming the first ever winner of the Superior Striping Award!
Everyone in the pavement maintenance industry found their own way to it. Yes, some are born on the blacktop, but not everyone follows in the footsteps of those who came before. Who knew watching a morning talk show with your cup of coffee could change your life?
Such was the case for Rob Young who, after working 18 years as a machinist in a factory, decided to get into striping.
“I saw Jack Child on a Veteran’s Day episode of Fox And Friends,” recalled Young. Child is the founder of the G-FORCE Parking Lot Striping franchise, the first to award franchises exclusively to U.S. military veterans. “They were talking about veteranowned businesses, and something about it just stayed firmly in my mind.”
Young wasn’t really happy any longer at his machinist job and wanted to make a change in his life. Remembering Child’s TV appearance, he decided to look him up and give him a call. At first, things didn’t go as he’d originally hoped they would.
“I originally told him no,” Child explained, as he had gone through training in the military from the very same site Young worked at, Fort McClellan, and was aware of the rural nature of the area. “While many franchises are eager to sign anyone who comes through the door, I wanted to be sure Rob would succeed. I had serious doubts about the viability of a northeast Alabama location.”
Young remembered things unfolding a little differently.
“I don’t think he really turned me down,” said Young laughing at the memory. “He wasn’t sure about the market, and so Jack was a little stand-offish.”
However, Young wouldn’t take rejection and decided to pitch Child on why Alabama and he were worth betting on.
“I think I’m a pretty good salesman and I just had to sell him on me and on Alabama,” said Young. His branch became the fourth G-FORCE striping franchise. G-FORCE currently stands at 48 locations nationwide. “It’s turned out pretty well and we’ve been in the top tier for sales out of all franchises every year.”
After starting in 2019, while still working his job as a machinist full-time, he was able to do about $30,000 worth of work in less than six months. His local G-FORCE website started to drive online traffic and he was able to grow to $250,000 in his first full year, despite the pandemic.
The next year that doubled, and then doubled again. During the past two years they’ve managed more than $1 million in sales, boosted by adding sealcoating to the striping work.
Young recalled that at the time when he started he didn’t really know anything about parking lot striping, pavement maintenance, or the equipment
used to do the work.
“Having a mentor like Jack Child has been a huge help,” said Young. “I had just a little mechanical ability, some mathematical knowledge, and he showed me the basics. Then he sent me to train with Chad Jung of Superior Striping (G-FORCE initially outsourced training with Jung). I still call them both to this day if I run into a problem I can’t seem to fix.”
THE AWARD WINNING PROJECT
G-FORCE of Alabama took on their largest single project to date when they were hired by car maker Hyundai to re-stripe a massive parking lot for their nearby factory. It required G-FORCE to paint 600,000 linear feet of 4-inch striping, 204 oversized directional arrows, 6,509 letter and number stencils, 90 stop bars, and a large amount of various blackouts.
The G-FORCE team completed the project in under seven weeks’ time, with a relatively small but strong crew.
“This is their logistics location, where
Rob Young
they load the new vehicles onto trucks or stage them for trains,” explained Young. “The cars come over fresh from the plant, go through a few processes, and then they start parking them in these spaces. Each space has a block, each block has its own bay, the blocks are numbered and lettered, and the bays are numbered with a tic-mark. The ticmarks help the drivers park precisely for critical spacing needs”.
G-FORCE was first contacted by Hyundai to take over the job from their contractor who was retiring. Hyundai trusted him so much they hired him as a consultant to oversee the project.
“The gentleman came out to meet us and discovered we were using lasers with our Graco machines. He had never seen this done before. After the first day he realized we knew what we were
doing and he said ‘Good-bye, you got this’ and we only saw him a few times after that”.
The Hyundai property contains multiple massive parking lots, and for just this one section of the overall property they striped four thousand parking stalls. Once they complete all the parking zones there will be upwards of 17,000 parking stalls.
“It was overwhelming when I first saw the drawing,” recalled Young. “I was trying to figure out where to even start on something this scale.”
With the tic-marks and the changing numbers and letters for the parking stalls, they used the skip-line feature on their Graco auto layout machine to ensure the space between each painted detail was correctly placed. They often worked at night to avoid the Alabama heat as well
as to better see and use their lasers.
With this being the VERY FIRST Superior Striping award, it certainly sets a precedent for the immensity of scale and complexity of execution. For every year to come and every new Superior Striper from here on out, this is the project that started it all.
“My goal is just to improve each year,” said Young. “My biggest goal is just to put out high quality work. That’s the thing you can be the most proud of, that customers like this keep inviting me to come back.”
Oh, and Child happily admits he was wrong. “Rob is one of our greatest success stories at G-FORCE, and a story I love to retell.” ■
For more information visit https://pavemg.com/ superiorstriping
INNOVATION IN PRESERVATION
Next Gen R3™ Asphalt Crack Router
Belly-bar
Updated lightweight well balanced machine for
and
By Merina Shriver, Junior Editor
Sealcoat Specialties Improving Through Experience
Sealcoat Specialties continues to improve best practices of sealcoating and striping, fixing up a grocery store parking lot.
When sealcoating a parking lot, one of the biggest challenges can simply be other people. Businesses usually want to avoid hindering their customers. Users of the business can be difficult to work around. Navigating business hours while still accommodating your crew’s needs and weather variations is not an easy task. For a grocery store, the customer is of utmost importance, and having the parking lot resealed during peak hours is not wanted.
For Sealcoat Specialties Inc., sealcoating a busy grocery store parking lot was a task it had faced before, but this time it had a new game plan.
A JOB PASSED DOWN
Sealcoat Specialists was started in 1979. Now, with over 40 years of service, the company offers
sealcoating, crack filling, pothole repairs, and parking lot line striping. This was a company that Cody Helstern, president of Sealcoat Specialties, had been working at since 1999. Helstern has his grandfather to thank for pioneering the company.
Helstern started working for SSI when he was just 12 years old. He wanted to be included in the family business and Helstern said he would always ask if he could come to work, too.
“I still remember my first job that we worked on and everything,” Helstern said.
For 17 years, Helstern worked for his grandfather before proceeding to buy the company from him in 2017.
A CHANGE IN THE MARKET
When SSI first sealcoated and striped Schmitz’s Economart, the team had a difficult time working around peak hours. With Schmitz’s Economart being one of the largest grocery stores in Spooner, WI., the main concern was disturbing customers as little as possible. But this meant working long shifts and overnight hours.
Helstern recounted, “The first day was really long. It was 18 hours or so and then we took a [short] break. Then we got back into it again and that second time, we were there for 32 hours straight…, and that was miserable. Then we took a 14- or 15-hour break and went back again for 23 hours.”
On top of the long hours, the SSI crew struggled with troubleshooting new equipment. The equipment that was supposed to make the process easier and faster ended up making everything slower and more daunting.
When the opportunity came to do the parking lot again, Helsetern knew he had to make some changes this time around. There were a few things that were already different for Helsetern.
For one, he had taken a class by B&E Sealcoat Products about dialing in laser equipment to better understand the line striper he had. The other change he made was his approach to getting the work done. Helstern realized that working through the night and only working when customers were sparse was not the most efficient route. The last big difference was that Helstern now had a baby, waiting for him to come home.
INSPIRED BY NEW LIFE
Having a new child back at home was a strong motivator for Helstern to make a change to the schedule that he and his crew were working on.
“I got to go out, work, get everything done, and then come home and be with my little guy. Then get up early the next morning and go back after it and come back home again and be with my little guy,” said Helstern.
Sealcoat Specialties Inc.
Sealcoat Specialties Inc.
Helstern said the new way that things were running was fantastic. Helstern’s wife Alissa shared the sentiment and said it was nice having him back home before dark.
With a baby in his life, Helsters faced his previous challenges in a different light - looking to get home sooner and get his crew home, as well. Instead of doing work overnight and reopening the area to customers in the morning, the crew would close off an area, let it cure properly, and then reopen it and move to a new area. This allowed the fresh sealcoating and striping to dry in daylight and warmer temperatures and eliminated the issue of cool temperature and dew at night from their previous projects.
SMOOTH RIDING
Since the changes were made to the sealcoating process, SSI was able to complete the job quicker and open the parking lot back up to customers with fewer hiccups. This advancement was a welcome shift for, not only the grocery store owner, but also for the customers.
“There [were] so many customers that were stopping and telling us how good it looks and also telling the owner how good it looks too and they’re happy to see that a company is taking care of their property,” said Helstern.
Having a freshly done parking lot can elevate an establishment and it often pleases the customers. For the grocery store, the construction may have come as a relief for customers.
Alissa Helstern said, “[The customers] can push their carts nicely and it’s
easy for them to park. When you go to a grocery store and you can’t even push your cart through the parking lot it’s kind of a miserable experience.”
The changes and growth that Helstern and his team had in order to better the paving process showed an eagerness to improve. This advancement in addition to the nicely done job won Sealcoat Specialties the 2025 Seal & Stripe: Small Job Award. ■
For more information visit https://pavemg.com/ sealcoatspecialists
By Brandon Noel, Editor
by PLM
TRUE TEAM SPIRIT
PLM Paving & Concrete are the winners of the 2025 Seal & Stripe: Large Job Award!
After more than a decade and a half in the industry, you might think that you would be coasting on cruise-control. That is anything but the case with Tom Frederick and Ryan Laughlin, and what they’ve achieved with PLM Paving & Concrete.
“I’ve been here for 17 years now,” said Frederick. “We’ve done nothing but grow and exceed expectations. Every year we seem to get better and better. I
can’t say enough about our crews and their work. Teamwork is huge for us when it comes to our sealcoating crews.”
Laughlin believes it’s due to the investments that they’ve made over the years in their staff.
“We continually reinvest in our people,” said Laughlin. “[Sealcoating] is one of the dirtiest jobs we’ve got, and the schedule can be grueling. You get up when it’s dark, you get home when it’s dark. Somehow our team gets out there and does better each year.”
When asked how they felt about their teams being recognized by winning the award this year for Seal & Stripe: Large Job, Laughlin replied,
“Winning, for us, is our quality. Winning means our customers are satisfied. It means we are doing all the other little things correctly to get us here.”
THE WINNING PROJECT
Over the course of the past 10 years, Elmbrook Church has looked at PLM as the provider for their pavement maintenance needs. Every year they are working with the local faith community to provide construction services for their large, and heavily used property.
This year, PLM completed sealcoating for more than 50% of their facility’s blacktop which came a total of 592,000 square feet of asphalt pavement, while
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additionally installing more than 7,500 pounds of crack sealant.
“While we’ve done a lot of work with them in the past, there’s always people bidding against you, and there was definitely competition this year,” said Frederick
“I think a lot of our approach with this customer comes from the trust we have established with them over the years,” added Laughlin. “They know we are going to take care of them and be mindful of their needs, not inconveniencing them or their [congregation].”
The entire project took three days with a six person cleaning and cracksealing team, and a four person sealcoat application team.
As with any regularly used space, the timing for this project was a key factor in client satisfaction. While some local churches might be open one or two days a week for public services, potentially leaving several days a week for maintenance to occur without conflict, that isn’t the case with Elmbrook.
“They have a church function every day of the week,” explained Laughlin. “That’s why they have half a million square feet of pavement! But Tom and his team had an excellent plan and they executed that plan to perfection.”
“They are really busy, there is always something going on, and it’s a large complex with different activities happening at any given time,” said Frederick. “You can’t just wing it, you have to phase it out right. Working around
people’s schedules, sure, but there are things that come up on the customer side and you still have to be flexible.”
GETTING THE JOB DONE
While PLM has many machines and tools at their disposal, for this scale job, it took their biggest equipment.
“We had our heavy hitters out there,” said Frederick. “We primarily utilized our spray bar set up. You can get a lot of square footage per hour. We have huge kettles too, but it can’t be overlooked that our crews are very experienced. They come back year-after-year and they know what they’re doing. That right there saves you more than you’d think.”
While the larger crew cleaned, crackfilled, and prepped the surface, the smaller sealcoat team wasted no time following behind them. And when it came time, their in-house striping team took center stage.
“In some cases we use laser guided stripers, and they can do any kind of layout you can imagine,” said Frederick. “The striping team has been with PLM longer than I have! They really know what they’re doing, I can’t say enough about them.”
However, since this wasn’t a new pavement project, they were able to quickly layout and stripe the parking stalls based on the previous layout. This project had approximately 4,000 stalls that needed to be redone.
“One of the things that we’ve found is that lasers can sometimes deliver imperfect lines based on the grade or condition of the lot,” Laughlin followed up. “As a company philosophy, customer experience is the primary goal. Efficiency even comes after that, and in order to deliver the best customer experience and the highest quality result, we are more than happy to sacrifice some of the speed of productivity.”
WHERE THE ROAD FOR PLM GOES NEXT
Both Frederick and Laughlin mentioned several times that what really sets PLM apart from other competitors is their ability to retain their employees over
a long period of time. In today’s labor economy, that’s a huge achievement. Not everyone can say the same, and, when they talk about the future, it came back to this topic again.
“When talking about growth and the future, it helps tremendously knowing everybody’s is going to be back,” said Frederick. “Obviously, we have setbacks, too, at times, like anyone, but that’s rare for us.”
“It’s all interrelated,” explained Laughlin. “Our sales people aren’t more important that our operators, and our operators aren’t more important than our sales team. It takes both halves to win. We have people on both teams with 20-plus years of commitment. Having that established depth makes a big difference. If you give experienced, talented people the right tools, then they’re going to go out there and get more wins.” ■
Provided by PLM
Provided by PLM
By Merina Shriver, Junior Editor
The Fast Track to Greatness
Central Paving accepted a job repaving a railway that runs 24/7 and could not be shut down. Figuring out the best way to accommodate the railway while still being productive posed a huge challenge for the company.
When it comes to paving and asphalt, most companies can manage a smooth paving job, such as on a driveway or in a parking lot. Although each of those job types comes with its own obstacles, they are far more straightforward than the job that Central Paving, LLC decided to take on.
Central Paving accepted a job repaving a railway that runs 24/7 and could not be shut down. Figuring out the best way to accommodate the railway while still being productive posed a huge challenge for the company. Even with visible hurdles ahead, the crews did not shy away.
INSIDE JOB
Back in 2009, Central Paving was created by the Greear family. In the beginning, it was just two brothers and their father. The company started out as an asphalt maintenance company, just doing crack seal, seal coat, and restripe work. Eventually, the company started gaining momentum, so the Greears
jumped into paving and haven’t looked back since.
Billy Harrell, account manager at Central Paving, said that since the company began paving, it has grown astronomically.
After his family’s hay farm was sold, Harrell was looking for something else to do. That’s when Harrell took a closer look at the company his friends owned. Since he liked the construction industry in general, Central Paving seemed like a good company to be a part of.
Harrell recounted, “I didn’t really know anything about asphalt. They brought me in, and I didn’t know I was in an interview, but by the end of it, I had an offer. So, I started as an account manager, basically an estimator/project manager.”
Central Paving is now full scope and does all things from crack sealing and restriping to milling and overlaysalmost anything asphalt-related.
STAYING ON TRACK: A BALANCING ACT
Harrell shared that he often bids on very unorthodox things and then he and the crew have to figure out logistically how the project can be done. This time was no exception. Central Paving picked up its award-winning job with Packaging Corporation of America (PCA). PCA pitched the project as an unusual job that required an onsite visit. The job was in a pulp mill that had a railway inside, and they were tasked with repaving the area around the rail.
Harrell said, “It’s like mud but it’s paper pulp - rotten paper, so it just smelled horrible, and it’s probably like four-to-six inches deep. It’s an
intermodal portion of the mill where they pull in the container on a rail car, load up all this material …, pull it back out, and do it again.”
The PCA job was not going to be easy. There were a lot of factors working against the crew.
Harrell continued, “It’s a private rail, but it’s really interesting that it just goes in and comes back out. It’s like a tunnel with one side. So, automatically, logistically, the rail is a problem. The access is a problem. Basically, the fact that they need to continually run this mill is a problem.”
The site was less than ideal but Harrell and his team were up for the challenge.
“I think anyone in our industry would have looked at this and been like, ‘That looks tricky. Let’s see if we can do it. This one looks like fun,’” said Harrell.
To prepare, the crew had lots of meetings ahead of time to make a plan and break down the best ways of attacking the toilsome project at hand. Harrell said that at first, the crews were questioning his decision to bid on the job, but then their tune started to change as they worked through the challenges of the job, and the excitement continued to build in each of the meetings.
FACING THE CHALLENGE HEAD-ON
Although the job with PCA was not going to be an easy one, the Central Paving team was ready and excited to begin work. The challenges of the PCA project were immediate as the team quickly found how tedious and narrow their clearance was when paving around and between the rails.
Central Paving, LLC
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Harrell said, “We came in behind a rail crew that basically tore out the rail, replaced it … and then they brought in their ballast material. So we had to prep on top of that, which is interesting with the skiddy because they don’t have that much of clearance either.”
Soon, their original attack plans fell through and they had to fall back to backup plans. The plans kept hitting roadblocks and required them to think up a new way to approach the problems.
“Every time we got smacked with something, our crew came up with a better idea of how to approach it,” recalled Harrell.
Through teamwork, critical thinking, and perseverance, the Central Paving crew was able to conquer this bear of a project. Due to the team’s ability to power through with grace, they completed the job beautifully and
as a result, won them the 2025 Paving: Non-Parking Lot Award.
Harrell expressed his gratitude and appreciation for the company’s crew. He said that without their willingness to confront even the most difficult of jobs, the challenging bids he made would be meaningless.
“Our crew just is ready to [do] whatever it takes to make it work. They’re just awesome,” said Harrell. ■
For more information visit https://pavemg.com/ centralpaving
NEXT GENERATION OF BALLOON LIGHT SOLUTIONS
The rails before paving.
After
Central Paving, LLC
Central Paving, LLC
By Gigi Wood, Managing Editor
PLANNING BY THE MINUTE: Leading a Massive Parking Lot Project Through Twists and Turns
The 2025 Parking Lot Award goes to a project that was not for the faint of heart: a major paving and infrastructure project managed by Royal Pavement Solutions of Islip, N.Y.
Royal Pavement orchestrated the complete replacement of a 140,000-square-foot parking lot — including curbing, sidewalks, trenching, drainage upgrades, a loading dock rebuild and installation of electric vehicle (EV) chargers — at a busy post office hub, a project that took roughly a year to complete.
Royal began the planning and bidding in the fourth quarter of 2023 and started construction in 2024.
Royal Pavement orchestrated the complete replacement of a 140,000-squarefoot parking lot -- including curbing, sidewalks, trenching, drainage upgrades, a loading dock rebuild and installation of electric vehicle (EV) chargers -- at a busy post office hub.
“We were awarded this project in December of last year (2023), and this had been in the works for a couple months prior. We had a few revisions to the plans and specifications, and by the time that we were awarded the project at the end of December, we already had our first deadline to meet in January,” said Ethan Lodato, a Royal Pavement project manager.
Royal Pavement’s crew followed strict federal rules and stiff scheduling requirements. In January, for example, the Royal Pavement crew worked sideby-side with electricians to install charging stations for EVs that were being delivered at the end of the month. They worked through snow, sleet, ice and more, during those winter months.
“We don’t really like to do permanent asphalt work in January in the Northeast up here,” he said. “We had to kind of work around, from the jump -- what kind of what plants were open,
meeting that first deadline.”
The project was so complex, it took crews until October to complete.
“It was really ground up work, as in the parking lot itself, in almost all areas, we were replacing base, binder, top to depths of approximately 12 inches,” Lodato said. “Even further below that, we were working in conjunction with an electrician installing conduits.”
The project required extensive trenching to install the EV charging stations.
“We were responsible for thousands of feet of trenching, a lot of which had concrete encasements of these buried conduits, with the broader general goal of installing about 50 chargers with this electrician for electric vehicles in the parking lot,” Lodato said.
The parking lot itself was redesigned and engineered to rework the grading and prevent puddling. The project also involved the construction of retaining and recon block walls, as well as the installation of more than 100 bollards with custom metal sleeves. Throughout each phase, there were various weather and project surprises along the way. The most unexpected development was during the replacement of the loading dock. While demolishing the existing loading dock, they found another loading dock, which had been buried within the existing loading dock. The additional loading dock had thousands of yards of unsuitable base containing soil and clay that needed to be removed and replaced.
“The loading dock called for removal and replacement and a couple of dry
Royal Pavement
The project required extensive trenching to install EV charging stations.
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wells to be installed there,” Lodato said. “When we get the existing ripped out and start digging the dry wells, lo and behold, we hit some concrete underneath, anywhere from 1 to 3 feet deep, and you get the area exposed. The previous loading dock was buried underneath the one that we ripped out.”
Clearly, all the old loading dock infrastructure needed to be removed.
“There were some old retaining walls having to do with the loading dock, the existing concrete from the previous loading dock that they must have just buried and poured on top of. That definitely added a lot of time and effort, first figuring out what exactly we were up against in that area that had been previously buried,” Lodato said. “There were some great efforts in removal of that previously buried loading dock to allow for new drains, interconnecting that system and then
Royal Pavement
properly installing the new one on good, fresh base.”
Throughout the project, crews had kept an eye on the single entry/egress to the post office, which they couldn’t close off to traffic while the post office was in operation. As the project neared its end, Royal Pavement helped plan and coordinate work to be completed on Columbus Day in October. During that federal holiday, the post office was closed and was one of the few opportunities the contractors had to finish that entryway/egress. Royal Pavement created a plan to accomplish everything in a day, knowing that postal trucks would be up and running the following day. They devised a project timeline with pre-planned truck routes, material logistics, and redundant resources to avoid delays. They had extra equipment on site in case something broke down.
“We had redundancy,” said Kenny Roy, owner of Royal Pavement Solutions. “If something goes down, we have a backup, every kind of backup, so that no matter what happened, we felt really confident, short of a catastrophic event, that we should be okay.”
That confidence comes from preplanning, they said.
“Kenny and I had a meeting beforehand where we discussed everything
and had everything planned down to literally within five minutes of loads out, travel time to recycling facilities, travel time to the asphalt plant,” Lodato said. “We were recycling the base material at one facility, then picking up the RCA at another facility and then the asphalt from another facility.”
“Every single truck, we knew exactly where it was going to be at each point,” Roy said. Roy and Lodato credit a large part of the project’s success to Hector Polanco, operations manager, and Donna Falzolgher, office manager at the company.
“They were really instrumental in the project,” Lodato said. “I firmly believe it would not have gone as successfully without their support in their respective roles.”
In all, the project involved 10 highly planned phases to complete. Despite the challenges, the project was completed
on time. Royal Pavement continues to grow and find success with new projects. In 2024, Royal Pavement increased its workforce by 15% and added new equipment, including pavers, rollers, and asphalt tools, to handle the growing demands of new and existing projects.
Royal Pavement Solutions was started in 2019 by Roy, a thirdgeneration paver. The company is a continuation of the family business started by his grandfather in 1963. ■
For more information visit https://pavemg.com/ royalpavement
PAVING: PARKING LOT RUNNERS UP AAA Paving, LLC (Houston, TX) All County Paving (Delray, FL)
The project required 10 phases of planning and took nearly a year to complete.
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Royal Pavement
Marketing Yourself The Right Way
Ruston Paving wanted a way to give potential customers an introduction to their business and their culture, and the 2025 Best Video of The Year Award is the result of what they created.
When your business is growing, whether that be into new services or new markets, it can be a challenge to communicate a personal and genuine demeanor to new potential customers. It’s a classic conundrum. When you’re a smaller company, the personal touch your customers get is just the way it is. As you succeed and grow into a larger and larger business, showing people that they can still expect that from you can be harder. For Ruston Paving, they believe the key is to stick to what they do great, and let people see who they are.
“Roughly 70 percent of our work is with repeat customers,” said Don Clark, president of Ruston Paving. “Our company has been around for over 80 years, and we understand our markets.”
“One of the things I think we excel at is our communication,” added Lang
Butler, vice president at Ruston. “Even though we use technology for a lot of things, we’re old school when it still matters. For example, when you call our offices, an actual person will answer the phone.”
That down-to-earth, ground-level approach is something Ruston Paving takes pride in, and it was also an important factor as discussions about making a video for their business came into focus.
DECIDING TO INVEST IN VIDEO
“We had done videos before, just not necessarily for a commercial,” said Don Barry, director of business development for Ruston Paving. “They were kind of like still pictures, moving across the screen. It was a little animated.”
Once Barry and Butler acquired their drone pilot certifications and started taking high-quality aerial footage, they wanted to put something together that would reflect the high-quality work they do on the jobsite.
“We wanted to take it to the next level, and we worked with a production company called 325 Productions to make that happen,” explained Barry. “When you’re talking with a client, sometimes you can only explain so much. But once they can see the video, see how the milling process
works, and see our equipment, it can really showcase what’s going to get done.”
Ruston Paving didn’t just want to upgrade their visual quality for this new video, they also wanted to shape its content around the company’s core values.
“I think one of the main differences from our original video and what we captured here is that we wanted get our employees a lot more involved,” added Clark. “We wanted to create something more authentic to who we are, and I think we did that.”
“The truth is, and we tell our employees this all the time, we can market the company to a potential customer, and we can sell the job,” Butler elaborated. “But on the day the work gets done, it’s the crews that make the company who we are to them in the end. They’re the face of the company at that point, that’s who they’ll remember.”
With this in mind, they wanted the video to feature their excellent crew workers as much as possible.
EXECUTING THE VISION
To capture the jobsite footage, the video crew from 325 Productions spent time filming a handful of different projects all at the same time. They efficiently captured the work being done, as well as getting natural performances from the nonHollywood-trained construction workers.
Ruston Paving
Ruston Paving
“They helped out a lot with the interviews,” said Barry. “Sometimes people aren’t comfortable when they’re in front of a camera. They can freeze up, and it can feel awkward for anyone. But they were really good with coaching everyone, letting the camera just run, while they talked to them in a natural speaking way. It really comes through in the final video.”
Ruston Paving President Don Clark also felt that the image of the company came through in other ways, that were just as intentional.
“We are a professional company, you know, and the money our customers spend with us can be a large investment,” said Clark. “All our crews look sharp [in the video] and that’s just how they are when they’re working on our projects. Everyone in hi-vis gear and all our equipment is custom painted to be instantly recognizable. You know that’s us.”
“We wanted to begin, even when a client is still in the vetting phase, to portray exactly what they’re going to get,” said Butler. “But it also can help with recruitment. We believe potential new hires might see it too, and it will show something about what it’s like working here.”
It all comes down to their way of doing things, which to them means staying away from what they consider gimmicky decisions.
“A lot of companies are using CRMs now, and that’s fine, but we rely on our project managers for a more organic approach,” said Barry. “Just be real, you know? Call people up when you think of them, as opposed to sending
them a canned message. I think that’s important, and that shows through in the video because of the authenticity of our guys.” ■
To watch the winning video! https://pavemg.com/ruston
BEST VIDEO RUNNERS UP KNL Industries Inc. (Canby, OR)
Alpha Paving Industries (Round Rock, TX)
Ruston Paving
By Gigi Wood, Managing Editor
Ohio Paving Business a Good Neighbor to the COMMUNITY
Family-owned Advanced Asphalt Paving, out of Twinsburg, Ohio, works diligently throughout the year to support nonprofit and charitable organizations in the community.
It’s a sentiment carried throughout the company: to give back. Many of the employees of Advanced Asphalt Paving volunteer for a variety of organizations, whether it’s coaching sports teams, donating time and money to community nonprofits, collecting toys for children at the holidays or teaching neighborhood kids about the construction industry and heavy equipment. This breadth of community support, the dedication throughout the company and endless efforts the company puts in to make a difference are why Advanced Asphalt Paving has earned the Pavement Maintenance Good Neighbor Award for 2024.
Jeff Martin started Advanced Asphalt Paving in 1992 in Cleveland, Ohio. His son, Dave Martin, bought the company in 2017, taking over the family business. The company’s 31 employees are valued team members and when the company does well, everyone benefits.
“We do have a very close-knit group of guys, so everyone’s passionate about it,” Dave Martin said. “A lot of my guys have kids, so everyone kind of buys into the same mentality. We understand we’re better off than a lot of people out there. So if we can buy a toy or two, or
Partnering with Believe in Dreams, Advanced Asphalt Paving has hosted young adults from the community at the business, introducing them to the construction industry and showing them the equipment used in paving.
Advanced Asphalt Paving
donate some food, or volunteer or something, everyone kind of buys into that goal. It’s not just one person going out and buying 100 toys and saying, ‘We did it as a company.’ Everyone really does buy into it.”
Advanced Asphalt Paving offers fullservice, commercial concrete and asphalt paving services, including commercial asphalt paving, concrete paving, parking lot paving, asphalt repair and more.
Martin said the company is known for its high quality and professionalism on the job, due to its longtime employees.
“About 80% of our work is repeat customer work. We don’t really try and get one job, make the most money, and then move on and never talk to a customer again,” Martin said. “Our best customers are the ones that want to be educated about what their project is and make sure we’re recommending the
best scope and they’re getting the best value for that project, whether that’s they only have $100 to spend this year, what’s the best way of spending that money, or they want to do it right once and never touch it again.”
Those customers are looking for more from a paving company, including service, quality and a polished presence.
“We always say, ‘99 times out of 100, we’re not going to be the cheapest,’ and our customers are okay with that,” he said. “Most of our customers are okay with that because they want quality. They want the right decision making. They want nice equipment when we show up, and professional employees and a great finished product. They’re not just looking to save a dollar and spray paint a parking lot black. Those are the customers that we try to look for, and I think that’s kind of the proof of why so much of our business is repeat business, because we’ve established those relationships, and we charge fairly for a product. I’m not trying to get rich off of one job. It’s doing what’s right for the customer, and that way, they’re our customer for as long as they have parking lots.”
Advanced Asphalt Paving engages in charitable activities, including sponsoring local sports teams, supporting organizations like Breakthrough T1D, Believe in Dreams, and Beat the Streets, and participating in holiday toy drives. Their low employee turnover is attributed to a family-like work environment and genuine care for their employees, which extends to community involvement.
“We don’t really have turnover, and when the company does well, I want everyone to do well, my employees included, and that translates into things outside of the company,” Martin said. “When we’re doing well, if we can help the community, whether it’s sponsoring kids sports teams, or having a couple kids come out and play on construction equipment for a fundraiser, or donating to charitable causes — whether it’s something that we’re passionate about or our customers are passionate about — it just all fits in line with our company’s philosophy. We are a family business. We try to take care of our own, and by extension, whether it’s the community, a customer, a cause that we’re passionate about, we like to take care of our own.”
Breakthrough T1D (formerly JDRF) is a Type 1 diabetes research and advocacy organization, which Advanced Asphalt Paving became involved with when building a relationship with a customer who is involved with the group because their child has T1D. Believe in Dreams is an Ohio-based nonprofit that grants dreams for children who have faced traumatic, non-medical events such as domestic violence and provides access to enriching opportunities, much in the same way Make-A-Wish grants requests. Beat the Streets encourages youth development in underserved communities by through the instruction of quality wrestling programs.
Partnering with Believe in Dreams, Advanced Asphalt Paving has hosted young adults from the community at the business, introducing them to the construction industry and showing them the equipment used in paving.
“A couple of those kids came by to play on equipment, and we were actually doing a project right across the street from our office,” Martin said. “So we came by, gave them a tour of the facility, gave them some uniforms and shirts, backpacks, and a certificate.”
One of the participants was named a crew member for the day and was able to sit on the equipment.
“I kind of partnered him up with each one of my guys, whether it was a roller guy, paver operator, a guy on the backhoe, trackhoe, or milling machines, and really just being safe about it, but giving them a chance to get up on some equipment,” Martin said. “Basically, in my opinion, that’s every little kid’s dream, to play on real construction equipment.” ■
For more information visit https://pavemg.com/synergy
GOOD NEIGHBOR RUNNER UP G-Force Parking Lot Striping | (Amherst, NH)
