Anticipation

(from the February 2009 Editor's Note of AsphaltPro Magazine)

We’ll have in-depth coverage of the recent National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA) 54th annual meeting in our March issue, when there’s time to compile all the information for you properly, but I have to say that I came away from the conference sensing an air of anticipation in the asphalt industry. We’re waiting to see what happens with oil prices. We’re waiting to see what happens with transportation funding. We’re waiting to see which equipment manufacturers cut how many jobs. We’re waiting to see if the competitor down the street brings back all his crews or if he works short-handed this paving season.

This waiting around can be stressful if you’re a Type A personality like me.

What do all of the Type As and other interested business persons do while we wait? There’s an excellent opportunity to influence our destiny with legislation. By the time this issue hits the streets, the economic stimulus package should have passed, promising just about $30 billion for roads and bridges. I’ll provide you a breakdown of how that money gets divided among the states once it’s a sure thing—no point in counting the chickens before they’ve hatched.

We also have the 2009 Transportation Appropriations Bill to inject some funds into our coffers and the reauthorization act to get Congress to approve. It’s the reauthorization act that professionals all over the industry are focused on. This is the one we should be talking to our legislators about.

From the very nature of the word “reauthorization” you can guess that, as an industry, we’re asking Congress to give us what we’ve had in the past. But we need, and are asking for, additional funding. That’s going to take effort because no one really relishes the idea of raising the gas tax. Call it a user fee if you like; we’re still asking a legislative body to make people pay more at the pump. Of course, we’re asking for this money to protect those people—to give them safer roadways and economic growth. And that’s a message we need to send to our legislators. By investing in the highway industry, a Congressman invests in his or her constituents’ livelihoods. It’s not a stretch to figure out, but it will take a concerted effort to convince folks when part of the convincing involves money.

Luckily, raising money isn’t unprecedented right now. Look at the example Tulsa has set for us on page 9.

Former Speaker of the House Trent Lott spoke to the attendees at the NAPA meeting last month and told us that the public should participate in transportation funding because it’s in the public’s interest to have safe roads. That sounds like another excellent point to put before our legislators.

But who’s bringing these talking points to the representatives that cast the votes for reauthorization? Are you relying on the staff at NAPA to do all the work? Trust me, Jay Hansen is working hard, but he’s just one person. As Lott told the packed room in San Diego, “This is the time to step up.” Every member of the industry needs to be in communication with the members of Congress to let them know that we’re ready and able to help the economy recover. Funnel the money into the roads and bridges of this nation and we’ll do the rest. We’ll employ workers who buy goods. We’ll fix roads that keep motorists safe. We’ll build corridors that move products from point A to point B. We’ll bring industry to regions that were formerly without economic growth.

I encourage you to get on the phone and tell your legislators that the asphalt industry is, as Lott said, “an important part of our recovery.” If you don’t know how to reach your specific representatives, visit http://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/congdir.tt for a listing.

It’s going to take all of us to help the nation recover once funding funnels to project level. But first it’s going to take all of us to get that funding in place. I encourage you to do your part in controlling your destiny.

Stay Safe,
Sandy Lender, Editor (sandy at theasphaltpro dot com)

Tags: AsphaltPro Magazine, Asphalt Pro Magazine, Federal Highway Funding, economic growth, economic recovery

AsphaltPro's Focus is Asphalt

(from the February Editor's Note of AsphaltPro magazine)

I'm going to come right out and say it. AsphaltPro magazine's owner has no interest in the concrete industry. Therefore, when I hit the roof and started ranting about the American Concrete Pavement Association's (ACPA) manipulation of data to make asphalt pavements appear more expensive to produce than concrete pavements, Chris (the publisher) knew what was coming next. I complained (loudly) about what I considered unfair tactics while I pilfered the Internet and better primary sources to get the scoop, and then I prepared a scathing editorial for you readers. We're not offending any family members' advertisers by telling asphalt contractors the truth.

In a nutshell, ACPA developed a software program called StreetPave to assist contractors in determining lifecycle costs for both asphalt and concrete pavements based on what the software determines to be "equivalent" pavement parameters. The software, according to Asphalt Institute's Dwight Walker, uses AI's SW-1 software paradigm, but makes a modification to the data in the asphalt equation. "They made some sort of modification without explaining to the user what it was," Walker said.

My attempts to clarify that with other engineers went unanswered, but it looks like the StreetPave software literally reduces the subgrade strength of the asphalt design when the user punches in a number. This forces the program to add inches of asphalt subgrade to the asphalt pavement in the comparison. This means more material and more materials cost in the asphalt equation.

According to AI's Nov. 28, 2007, post on its Web site, "StreetPave takes the single subgrade strength value input by the user (only one value is allowed) and inappropriately reduces it prior to running the asphalt thickness design calculation." Because the concrete pavement design doesn't receive a similar reduction, the two pavements cannot be considered equivalent after all, and the asphalt pavement ends up being extraordinarily thick. In other words, the asphalt pavement turns out more expensive to build, in the StreetPave model, than it actually needs to be.

Now, how many people purchasing the ACPA product are making a roadbuilding decision between HMA and PCC? One would assume concrete producers purchase software to maximize their concrete-production efficiency from concrete industry members, just as asphalt producers purchase software to maximize their asphalt-production efficiency from asphalt industry members, so perhaps it doesn't matter that ACPA has something that appears blatantly underhanded in its marketing arsenal. Or perhaps it does.

Consider how precious the few projects being let in your county are. Do you want the local concrete producer to walk into the DOT office with a copy of StreetPave to show the materials engineer how much more expensive it makes the next pavement look over its lifetime if he elects to use HMA instead of PCC? You would be well served to let the engineer know that the subgrade number for the asphalt pavement becomes less than reliable in the StreetPave program.

It's a manipulation of data that needs to be fixed before the comparisons in the program can truly be considered "equivalent". After reading up on the product on the AI Web site, I wondered if anyone from AI had contacted ACPA to alert them to the problem (in case it was an honest error) and what the response had been. I didn't get answers to those questions, but they're good ones for asphalt industry members to follow up on. At the ACPA Web site, owners of the software can download a StreetPave v1.2 patch that mentions nothing about fixing a data-manipulation error. So it sounds to me as if the concrete industry still has a mistake to fix.

Stay Safe,
Sandy Lender

(Postscript: Since the publication of the February issue of AsphaltPro, I've learned that Asphalt Institute engineers have not received word from ACPA concerning their mistakes in software engineering, thus the apparent StreetPave error remains in place.)

Tags: AsphaltPro, Asphalt Pro, StreetPave