(This Letter to the Editor appeared in the April/May 2010 issue of AsphaltPro Magazine. If you have an opinion to share, send your correspondence to Editor, Sandy Lender. AsphaltPro staff reserves the right to edit information for clarity, length and accuracy.)
When we use words like preserve, protect or sustain, we inevitably think of something that is endangered. In business, those words can mean something entirely different. Generally speaking, to preserve or sustain a certain level of sales or market share we find ourselves setting the bogey higher than the lowest level we are willing to accept so we can make sure we don’t fall below that projection. Another way of looking at this is that if you’re not busy growing, you’re probably busy dying.
As Congress takes up the debate of the next transportation legislation, I believe we need to look at America’s transportation future with these two perspectives in mind. Next, commit ourselves to learn and understand the words contained in the Oberstar Transportation Bill. Finally, line this up with some good American history so we can influence our representatives as they take up the debate.
While I read the transportation bill, I posted my thoughts in the margins of the large three-ring binder I store it in. I wrote things like, “Washington power grab, anti-road, anti-state, Livability? (get definition), Comprehensive street design policy – what is this?, MPO—Metropolitan planning organization/supplants DOT? – What about DOT’s role?, Suburban – bad; Urban – good, Center for Disease Control?” And, finally, “U.S. Bicycle Route System.”
The 775 page, ~135,000 word transportation bill, like others we have seen “pass” in Congress, reads something like an allegory. The “road” as we know it plays the role of antagonist. The protagonist is big government and The Office of Livability.
But, it’s a transportation bill. Drafted by transportation folk, right? I don’t think so. One day, I thought I came across a cliff notes version of our latest transportation bill when I found a 100-page “Blueprint” for America. It was drafted by a group called Transportation For America.
Transportation For America’s co-chair is Geoff Anderson, who is President and CEO of Smart Growth America. From my understanding, Transportation For America is the main umbrella organization of the Sierra Club. While it’s hard to understand who controls what, you will be able to find out what these organizations stand for by spending a few minutes on their Web sites. After all, their language is the language of the transportation bill.
A quick tour of their Web sites reveals the various elements of their policy. One element is Social Equity, which they define with images of abandoned urban sprawl, and which you’ll find on page 201, line 116 of the Oberstar transportation bill.
Just last week [March 23], Missouri’s leading Senator Kit Bond asked Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood for a definition of Livability. It’s a word used 35 separate times in the transportation bill. LaHood offered the following definition: “Communities where people have access to many different forms of transportation and affordable housing and the ability to really have access to all of the things that are important to them, whether it’s a grocery store, drug store access.”
The Senator responded, “I’ve got a lot of constituents for whom livability means having a decent highway. They’ve got to drive between one town and another town.”
History offers the road to answers. The 1950s and the early 1960s provided great debate about America’s roads, on both sides of the aisle. Invariably, representatives all pointed to the benefits of America’s interstate highway system. Surely if these guys were alive today, they wouldn’t be advocating a transportation bill full of federal bike trails.
On Feb. 28, 1961, President Kennedy, in a special message to Congress regarding the Federal Highway Program, said, “it is a key to the development of more modern and efficient industrial complexes—turning marginal land into attractive sites for commercial or industrial development—and to lower motor transportation costs generally.”
A year later, Kennedy commented on the role of Federal Government and transportation. His emphasis on a balance of use of transportation modes didn’t call for Washington controlling every street and sidewalk in individual states. The authors of the current transportation bill beg to differ.
On the issue of financing, President Eisenhower was in favor of a gas tax increase, but his Congress voted it down. Kennedy faced similar challenges. But both couldn’t be more square on one thing: we should only pay for what we can afford to build.
Proposals run large today for a vast new multi-modal transportation network. Few, if any, contain details as to the funding of such. At least Kennedy and Eisenhower talked about the elephant in the room. But we’re locked and loaded to throw out a $1.75 trillion baby with the bathwater in exchange for a panacea in transportation. Sure, the advocates of this bill will say they are for roads. You’ll have to make them prove it.
Practically speaking, roads drive economics. Bikes don’t.
This past weekend, I had lunch with a friend in the beer business. I asked him how roads affect him. Surprisingly, he sprang to with a story.
Federal law mandates that all beer be “dry docked” at a wholesaler’s location prior to being distributed to the customer. Once the beer hits the dock, it’s the property of the wholesaler. One such wholesaler had cited a specific example of the high percentage of broken bottles (shrink) that they have to bear the cost of because a particular road outside their warehouse is in bad shape. They’re considering re-paving the road themselves. That wholesaler is one of a dozen plus that helps to get product to some 16,000 customers throughout the state of Michigan by truck. That beer has been, is and will continue to be delivered to customers by truck. Not a train. Not a bike.
Yet a few days earlier, The Secretary of Transportation gave a press conference at the National Bike Summit thanking its attendees for being such great advocates of livable communities. He later blogged, “Today, I want to announce a sea change. People across America who value bicycling should have a voice when it comes to transportation planning. This is the end of favoring motorized transportation at the expense of non-motorized.”
Does the Secretary mean it? Don’t take my word for it. Oberstar’s bill, page 214, lines 1-6, states “The purpose of the U.S. bicycle route system program shall be to provide for the establishment and support of an interconnected, intercity network of bicycle facilities...to improve and enhance economic development.”
FHWA now becomes FHW&BRA (Federal Highway and Bike Route Administration). As an aside, they actually do deliver beer by bike in China.
The purple frog is an endangered species. I had no idea. I gather few people do.
Sadly, a similar percentage value our roads—until their usefulness is depleted. Nothing against the purple frog, but when the sun starts setting on America’s roads, we’ll feel the pain. Only those of us in the transportation industry know that then it will be too late. Today, we can do our part to keep our legacy busy growing and not dying.
Grab a copy of your transportation bill. Read it. Highlight it. Ask questions.
Educate yourself. Talk to a supplier about it.
Latch onto some of the many industry efforts to be part of this process. Call your senators. It is ultimately they who will help shape the transportation bill. And yes, while we don’t have all the answers for the questions, neither did Eisenhower or Kennedy. For practical and robust legislation to prevail, you must get involved in a serious way. Otherwise, get ready to call in the sign company to the FHWA.
Dag Seagren
Tags: purple frog, U.S. Bicycle Route System, funding, transportation bill
Friday, May 7, 2010
Fund This
(from the March 2010 Editor's Note in AsphaltPro Magazine)
The Colorado Department of Transportation announced bid deferrals two weeks in a row (as we went to press). The Missouri DOT announced “indefinite” bid delays Feb. 26. An uncertain senator from Kentucky, whom we won’t name or lambaste here, held up flawed but necessary funding extensions Feb. 28. Liquid asphalt prices in most states, as reported on page 48, drifted a little higher…again.
I could list more gloom and doom, but why? We’re all living it. The tireless Jay Hansen, vice president of government affairs for the National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA), Lanham, Md., provided a quick review of the “condition” of the Highway Trust Fund balance on page 30. It’s not pretty, but do you understand why? Hansen’s no-nonsense style spells it out plainly.
“Before a state transportation department commits to fund a highway project it must be able to assign equal amounts of ‘contract authority’ from an authorization bill and ‘obligation authority’ from an appropriations bill. SAFETEA-LU (or an extension) is an authorization bill that provides states with a budget that can be committed for projects. The actual financing or cash for the projects is determined by Congress through the annual appropriations process. Finally, the Highway Trust Fund Highway Account is the source of funds provided in the appropriations bill.”
The next bill to hold industry’s attention is H.R. 2847. A 10-month band-aid doesn’t let states perform long-term planning, but at least clears the stage for immediate, 2010 construction season projects. As of a late press time, the House had just passed the bill and sent it back to the Senate. What industry members need to do is get on the phone to their representatives to encourage them to get H.R. 2847 in place. These cute little 30-day extensions might keep current work current, but they don’t let states make the necessary plans for real business, for a safe summer or autumn 2010.
A monthly publication like AsphaltPro is great for the how-to information and project stories we provide, but the lead time for monthly deadlines doesn’t let us bring up-to-the-minute updates on legislative action to you. For that, we developed this blog. I encourage you to check out the post titled “Funding Wars” for updates and links to funding information. Don’t forget your opportunity to influence legislation.
The Colorado Department of Transportation announced bid deferrals two weeks in a row (as we went to press). The Missouri DOT announced “indefinite” bid delays Feb. 26. An uncertain senator from Kentucky, whom we won’t name or lambaste here, held up flawed but necessary funding extensions Feb. 28. Liquid asphalt prices in most states, as reported on page 48, drifted a little higher…again.
He explained in a side note—which didn’t fit on the page—that state agencies are impotent to move forward with projects that could put contractors to work thanks to funding instability. States have got to have an appropriations bill as well as an authorization bill enacted before they can build or repair federally funded highways. Here’s how it works.
“Before a state transportation department commits to fund a highway project it must be able to assign equal amounts of ‘contract authority’ from an authorization bill and ‘obligation authority’ from an appropriations bill. SAFETEA-LU (or an extension) is an authorization bill that provides states with a budget that can be committed for projects. The actual financing or cash for the projects is determined by Congress through the annual appropriations process. Finally, the Highway Trust Fund Highway Account is the source of funds provided in the appropriations bill.”
The next bill to hold industry’s attention is H.R. 2847. A 10-month band-aid doesn’t let states perform long-term planning, but at least clears the stage for immediate, 2010 construction season projects. As of a late press time, the House had just passed the bill and sent it back to the Senate. What industry members need to do is get on the phone to their representatives to encourage them to get H.R. 2847 in place. These cute little 30-day extensions might keep current work current, but they don’t let states make the necessary plans for real business, for a safe summer or autumn 2010.
A monthly publication like AsphaltPro is great for the how-to information and project stories we provide, but the lead time for monthly deadlines doesn’t let us bring up-to-the-minute updates on legislative action to you. For that, we developed this blog. I encourage you to check out the post titled “Funding Wars” for updates and links to funding information. Don’t forget your opportunity to influence legislation.Stay Safe,
Sandy Lender, Editor
Thursday, March 4, 2010
HR 2847 Progress
Today H.R. 2847 passed 217-207 in the House.
It's now been kicked back to the Senate.
Get a nice summary of the bill (again) and an update on its status as of late in the day March 4 at this AASHTO link.
The "Hire Bill" extends funding for 9 months March 17. Story at AASHTO link.
Tags: Federal Highway Funding, HR 2847, hire bill
It's now been kicked back to the Senate.
Get a nice summary of the bill (again) and an update on its status as of late in the day March 4 at this AASHTO link.
The "Hire Bill" extends funding for 9 months March 17. Story at AASHTO link.
Tags: Federal Highway Funding, HR 2847, hire bill
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
The Next Step in Funding
As reported last night in the post titled "Funding Wars" below, H.R. 4691 passed in the Senate, allowing current road projects to resume (among other important issues for Americans). For the transportation construction industry, this gives a mere one-month window of opportunity to work on safeguarding the nation's roadways and economy. It's not enough for planning or future safeguarding. Luckily, representatives will debate something to keep the industry (and motorists) alive through the summer. As reported at AASHTO:
"The House is expected to debate HR 2847, a jobs bill amended last week by the Senate to include a 10-month Highway Trust Fund authorization extension, $19.5 billion in additional General Fund revenue to keep the Highway Trust Fund solvent into next year, restoration of highway funding this year to $42 billion from a reduced level of $30 billion, and additional federal support for states and municipalities who want to issue Build America Bonds to finance infrastructure construction."
This is still a short-term fix for a long-term industry and economic question, but it offers at least a stop-gap measure while legislators look for real answers to pay for America's infrastructure requirements.
Tags: Highway Trust Fund, General Fund, HR 2847, infrastructure
"The House is expected to debate HR 2847, a jobs bill amended last week by the Senate to include a 10-month Highway Trust Fund authorization extension, $19.5 billion in additional General Fund revenue to keep the Highway Trust Fund solvent into next year, restoration of highway funding this year to $42 billion from a reduced level of $30 billion, and additional federal support for states and municipalities who want to issue Build America Bonds to finance infrastructure construction."
This is still a short-term fix for a long-term industry and economic question, but it offers at least a stop-gap measure while legislators look for real answers to pay for America's infrastructure requirements.
Tags: Highway Trust Fund, General Fund, HR 2847, infrastructure
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Funding Wars
As the fight for Federal Highway Funding rages on, AsphaltPro brings you some links worth reviewing. Most of our readers are well-informed on the issue already, so here are the latest updates on what's happening. Follow editor Sandy Lender on Twitter as well. More links will be added as they deserve attention.
First, I'll announce that HR 4691, Temporary Extension Act of 2010, just passed (9:16 p.m. ET) 78 for, 19 against. It looks like inspectors can return to work, thus road projects can resume. Other updates to be posted as the usual pundits post them tomorrow and beyond.
To follow: older posted items that give play-by-play
CQ Politics, A White House play for attention/relevance
AASHTO, More of the same rhetoric with extra gloom-n-doom thrown in
Federal News Radio, Explains the stalemate and furloughs succinctly
AASHTO followup to HR 4691 passage, good introduction of HR 2847
AASHTO's summary of HR 2847's status as of March 4
AASHTO's report of the HIRE Bill's passage March 17
Tags: AsphaltPro Magazine, Asphalt Pro Magazine, Federal Highway Funding, stalemate, furloughs, Sandy Lender
First, I'll announce that HR 4691, Temporary Extension Act of 2010, just passed (9:16 p.m. ET) 78 for, 19 against. It looks like inspectors can return to work, thus road projects can resume. Other updates to be posted as the usual pundits post them tomorrow and beyond.
To follow: older posted items that give play-by-play
CQ Politics, A White House play for attention/relevance
AASHTO, More of the same rhetoric with extra gloom-n-doom thrown in
Federal News Radio, Explains the stalemate and furloughs succinctly
AASHTO followup to HR 4691 passage, good introduction of HR 2847
AASHTO's summary of HR 2847's status as of March 4
AASHTO's report of the HIRE Bill's passage March 17
Tags: AsphaltPro Magazine, Asphalt Pro Magazine, Federal Highway Funding, stalemate, furloughs, Sandy Lender
Monday, March 1, 2010
How to Incorporate Shingle Recycling
This article was originally published in the February 2010 issue of AsphaltPro magazine. To view sidebars, additional information, and other how-to articles from that issue, contact the circulation department to request a free subscription and copy of February at:
AsphaltPro
2001 Corporate Place
Columbia, MO 65202
(573) 499-1830
By Sandy Lender
Not all European roofs use asphalt shingles, but our colleagues in the Eurobitume association could benefit greatly if they did. Asphalt shingles in Europe contain roughly 40 to 60 percent asphalt content. In the United States, newer shingles contain about 19 to 22 percent asphalt. How can an asphalt professional mine this black gold and use it to his or her benefit? Kent Hansen, the director of engineering for the National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA), spoke at length about the topic at the 55th annual meeting in Maui, Hawaii. Here are some good ideas he brought up to augment information you’ve found in the pages of AsphaltPro before. Also, please note that NAPA has a new publication titled Guidelines for the Use of Reclaimed Asphalt Shingles in Asphalt Pavements available.
First, bringing state departments of transportation (DOTs) and other agencies up to speed on the benefits of recycled asphalt shingle (RAS) use in asphalt mix design is a battle researchers have already begun. The Energy & Recycling Task Force reported during its Jan. 18 meeting that the NAPA strategic plan’s goal for increased recycled asphalt pavement (RAP) use in 2010 looks much the same as the plan for 2009 but now incorporates the use of RAS. Industry members in Iowa are taking part in a pooled fund study to test the benefits and use of RAS. Other states, mostly in the East, according to Hansen, bring their findings to the table as well. Hansen stated that it takes conversations and cooperation among regulators, DOT officials and contractors to bring good specifications for RAS use into agency documents.
Next, look at the way RAS can enhance your bottom line. As experts have pointed out, there’s a significant amount of asphalt in an asphalt shingle (see sidebar above). While not every state has manufacturers of asphalt shingles, those that do contribute to the approximately 1 million tons of manufacturers’ waste produced annually, according to Hansen. The other source of asphalt shingle material is in tear offs, which producers can find everywhere. That amounts to 10 million tons per year.
When roofing contractors and shingle manufacturers take waste to a landfill, they must pay a tipping fee to leave the waste there. If you can offer them a lower tipping fee, they should be interested in bringing that product to you. But Hansen suggested a variety of factors to consider before going into business collecting trash—even if it’s valuable trash.
Permits and licenses for accepting shingle material vary by state and county. You’ll be required to test for contaminants such as asbestos. While asbestos has been banned from shingle manufacturing since the early 1980s, there are old roofs out there with product that could find its way into your stockpile. There are some mastics and caulking that have trace amounts of asbestos, and you don’t want to accept those into your facility. You need to decide if you’ll accept tear offs with that looming—albeit miniscule—threat. If you choose only to accept manufacturers’ waste, you limit your sources and product availability, but also limit some of the processing worries that we’ll discuss next.
Accepting tear offs opens up your sources and product availability, but also opens up testing and processing challenges. You’ll need to make decisions regarding the condition tear offs must be in when you accept them, and make those conditions clear to suppliers. Will you accept material with flashing and wood attached? Or will you require roofers to remove this excess waste before delivering tear offs? You’ll never get shingles devoid of nails, so be prepared for that element of cleanup in your own facility.
Decide if you’ll restrict supply to only tear offs from private residential homes. This is another way to ensure the shingles you receive are of post-1980s manufacture. You can work with roofers to ensure you get clean material for your operation.
Tear offs must be certified free of hazardous substances and suppliers will arrive with some notice of certification from their testing. This won’t clear you of responsibility. In some states or counties, you’ll need to test the product when it arrives and again at various stages of your operation. For instance, the state of Maryland is reported to have three layers of testing for asbestos once shingles are at the asphalt facility.
It’s wise to pave the area where tear offs will be received and processed on your property, not just for aesthetic reasons, but also to make your job of clean-up easier if a hazardous substance is ever detected. For processing, the first thing to do with shingles is send them through a picking conveyor to remove obvious missed waste. Next is grinding, and the article in the August/September 2009 issue of AsphaltPro refers to a variety of grinding machines available at this time. After grinding, the material goes to a screen or may go back through for grinding again. Next it goes to a mix or a stockpile.
Asphalt shingle surface granules and fill are hard and abrasive on equipment; they wear grinding chamber equipment and create heat. Hansen reminded audience members to balance the amount of water used in cooling equipment. Also be sure you perform grinding in optimal conditions. When ambient conditions are too hot, you risk melting and chunking of material in the equipment.
This leads to thoughts on the stockpiles. As with RAP piles, you want to keep the RAS pile out of direct sunlight if possible to prevent re-agglomeration. An 80/20 blend of sand or RAP in the pile can also help keep re-agglomeration down. Cover the pile to protect it from the weather. When it’s time to make mix, pass the RAS material through a lump breaker or grind it again before feeding it into the plant. The goal is not to grind it further or resize it, but merely to break up any chunks and keep it at its proper size for mixing.
From the testing Hansen reported in January, getting density has proved easier with a RAS mix than expected while providing “a significantly stiffer binder.” Field emission testing has shown SO2 and Formaldehyde “to be non-issues,” although workers reported some odor. There are more tests to do and more to report on, but getting started is the first step. For contractors and producers ready to add RAS to their cost-savings arsenal, the news is good. With the decline in tear offs that contain asbestos, the industry sees another recycled product that can enhance the HMA or WMA mix while keeping waste out of landfills and materials costs under control.
Tags: AsphaltPro Magazine, Asphalt Pro Magazine, RAS, shingles, recycle
AsphaltPro
2001 Corporate Place
Columbia, MO 65202
(573) 499-1830
By Sandy Lender
Not all European roofs use asphalt shingles, but our colleagues in the Eurobitume association could benefit greatly if they did. Asphalt shingles in Europe contain roughly 40 to 60 percent asphalt content. In the United States, newer shingles contain about 19 to 22 percent asphalt. How can an asphalt professional mine this black gold and use it to his or her benefit? Kent Hansen, the director of engineering for the National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA), spoke at length about the topic at the 55th annual meeting in Maui, Hawaii. Here are some good ideas he brought up to augment information you’ve found in the pages of AsphaltPro before. Also, please note that NAPA has a new publication titled Guidelines for the Use of Reclaimed Asphalt Shingles in Asphalt Pavements available.
First, bringing state departments of transportation (DOTs) and other agencies up to speed on the benefits of recycled asphalt shingle (RAS) use in asphalt mix design is a battle researchers have already begun. The Energy & Recycling Task Force reported during its Jan. 18 meeting that the NAPA strategic plan’s goal for increased recycled asphalt pavement (RAP) use in 2010 looks much the same as the plan for 2009 but now incorporates the use of RAS. Industry members in Iowa are taking part in a pooled fund study to test the benefits and use of RAS. Other states, mostly in the East, according to Hansen, bring their findings to the table as well. Hansen stated that it takes conversations and cooperation among regulators, DOT officials and contractors to bring good specifications for RAS use into agency documents.
Next, look at the way RAS can enhance your bottom line. As experts have pointed out, there’s a significant amount of asphalt in an asphalt shingle (see sidebar above). While not every state has manufacturers of asphalt shingles, those that do contribute to the approximately 1 million tons of manufacturers’ waste produced annually, according to Hansen. The other source of asphalt shingle material is in tear offs, which producers can find everywhere. That amounts to 10 million tons per year.
When roofing contractors and shingle manufacturers take waste to a landfill, they must pay a tipping fee to leave the waste there. If you can offer them a lower tipping fee, they should be interested in bringing that product to you. But Hansen suggested a variety of factors to consider before going into business collecting trash—even if it’s valuable trash.
Permits and licenses for accepting shingle material vary by state and county. You’ll be required to test for contaminants such as asbestos. While asbestos has been banned from shingle manufacturing since the early 1980s, there are old roofs out there with product that could find its way into your stockpile. There are some mastics and caulking that have trace amounts of asbestos, and you don’t want to accept those into your facility. You need to decide if you’ll accept tear offs with that looming—albeit miniscule—threat. If you choose only to accept manufacturers’ waste, you limit your sources and product availability, but also limit some of the processing worries that we’ll discuss next.
Accepting tear offs opens up your sources and product availability, but also opens up testing and processing challenges. You’ll need to make decisions regarding the condition tear offs must be in when you accept them, and make those conditions clear to suppliers. Will you accept material with flashing and wood attached? Or will you require roofers to remove this excess waste before delivering tear offs? You’ll never get shingles devoid of nails, so be prepared for that element of cleanup in your own facility.
Decide if you’ll restrict supply to only tear offs from private residential homes. This is another way to ensure the shingles you receive are of post-1980s manufacture. You can work with roofers to ensure you get clean material for your operation.
Tear offs must be certified free of hazardous substances and suppliers will arrive with some notice of certification from their testing. This won’t clear you of responsibility. In some states or counties, you’ll need to test the product when it arrives and again at various stages of your operation. For instance, the state of Maryland is reported to have three layers of testing for asbestos once shingles are at the asphalt facility.
It’s wise to pave the area where tear offs will be received and processed on your property, not just for aesthetic reasons, but also to make your job of clean-up easier if a hazardous substance is ever detected. For processing, the first thing to do with shingles is send them through a picking conveyor to remove obvious missed waste. Next is grinding, and the article in the August/September 2009 issue of AsphaltPro refers to a variety of grinding machines available at this time. After grinding, the material goes to a screen or may go back through for grinding again. Next it goes to a mix or a stockpile.
Asphalt shingle surface granules and fill are hard and abrasive on equipment; they wear grinding chamber equipment and create heat. Hansen reminded audience members to balance the amount of water used in cooling equipment. Also be sure you perform grinding in optimal conditions. When ambient conditions are too hot, you risk melting and chunking of material in the equipment.
This leads to thoughts on the stockpiles. As with RAP piles, you want to keep the RAS pile out of direct sunlight if possible to prevent re-agglomeration. An 80/20 blend of sand or RAP in the pile can also help keep re-agglomeration down. Cover the pile to protect it from the weather. When it’s time to make mix, pass the RAS material through a lump breaker or grind it again before feeding it into the plant. The goal is not to grind it further or resize it, but merely to break up any chunks and keep it at its proper size for mixing.
From the testing Hansen reported in January, getting density has proved easier with a RAS mix than expected while providing “a significantly stiffer binder.” Field emission testing has shown SO2 and Formaldehyde “to be non-issues,” although workers reported some odor. There are more tests to do and more to report on, but getting started is the first step. For contractors and producers ready to add RAS to their cost-savings arsenal, the news is good. With the decline in tear offs that contain asbestos, the industry sees another recycled product that can enhance the HMA or WMA mix while keeping waste out of landfills and materials costs under control.
Tags: AsphaltPro Magazine, Asphalt Pro Magazine, RAS, shingles, recycle
Save the Dragonflies
(from the February 2010 Editor's Note of AsphaltPro Magazine)
We could talk about funding all day long and keep telling each other the same thing. We need alternative funding methods and we need to keep that message in front of Congress. Jay Hansen will iterate that more eloquently for you in the March issue. Right now, I want to touch on something environmental that sparked my interest recently.
Dragonflies.
Now, I’ve made it clear to everyone that I’m an environmentalist and a conservationist, as all members of the asphalt industry are. At the recent National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA) 55th annual meeting, talk of our environmental excellence brought our good message to light time and time again. We’ll be covering those good messages in the pages of AsphaltPro, as you’ve become accustomed to, throughout 2010. But right now, I want to talk specifically about dragonflies in Illinois.
The folks at the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) sent out a note about the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority (ISTHA) discovering a problem with a rare insect—the endangered Hine’s emerald dragonfly. It sounds gorgeous. And expensive.
It cost ISTHA $6 million to build man-made ponds and “rivulets” and little insect condos along a highway in the dragonfly’s habitat. They also made sure a $355-million bridge going up across the Will County’s Keepataw Preserve and Black Partridge Woods in Cook County went up “higher” than usual so cars would be above splatter range, if you catch my drift. This means fewer dragonflies find themselves in conflict with windshields.
Personally, I think $6 million is a hefty price to pay to save an insect species. But I won’t begrudge these bugs their place in our world. If the sea turtles needed $6 million, I’d be the first in line to help raise the funds. So I’ll raise my glass to the folks in the ISTHA who came up with the plan to build little homes for the dragonflies and ponds for their better breeding practices. How else do you save a species but by encouraging good breeding, right?
I’m one of those crazy people who frets over the animals when the weather does something unexpected. I let a lizard come live in my house when the weather dipped into the 30s and 40s here in Florida in early January. (I might have fed him a non-endangered species of fly if one had been available.) So, yes, I feel sympathy for dragonflies that teeter on the edge of extinction, and applaud the agency workers who came up with a solution that protected the dragonflies while keeping commerce, economy and American motorists moving.
It’s something asphalt contractors and department of transportation engineers have to throw in the design plans once in a while—making special accommodations for animals in the area or for habitats “downstream.” It’s environmentally responsible. It’s the right thing to do. Sometimes it’s expensive. However it’s worked out, there are members of the industry like me who applaud you for protecting the parts and pieces of our world on one level while protecting the motoring public on another.
Stay Safe,
Sandy Lender, Editor
Tags: AsphaltPro Magazine, Asphalt Pro Magazine, environmental, dragonflies
We could talk about funding all day long and keep telling each other the same thing. We need alternative funding methods and we need to keep that message in front of Congress. Jay Hansen will iterate that more eloquently for you in the March issue. Right now, I want to touch on something environmental that sparked my interest recently.
Dragonflies.
Now, I’ve made it clear to everyone that I’m an environmentalist and a conservationist, as all members of the asphalt industry are. At the recent National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA) 55th annual meeting, talk of our environmental excellence brought our good message to light time and time again. We’ll be covering those good messages in the pages of AsphaltPro, as you’ve become accustomed to, throughout 2010. But right now, I want to talk specifically about dragonflies in Illinois.
The folks at the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) sent out a note about the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority (ISTHA) discovering a problem with a rare insect—the endangered Hine’s emerald dragonfly. It sounds gorgeous. And expensive.
It cost ISTHA $6 million to build man-made ponds and “rivulets” and little insect condos along a highway in the dragonfly’s habitat. They also made sure a $355-million bridge going up across the Will County’s Keepataw Preserve and Black Partridge Woods in Cook County went up “higher” than usual so cars would be above splatter range, if you catch my drift. This means fewer dragonflies find themselves in conflict with windshields.
Personally, I think $6 million is a hefty price to pay to save an insect species. But I won’t begrudge these bugs their place in our world. If the sea turtles needed $6 million, I’d be the first in line to help raise the funds. So I’ll raise my glass to the folks in the ISTHA who came up with the plan to build little homes for the dragonflies and ponds for their better breeding practices. How else do you save a species but by encouraging good breeding, right?
I’m one of those crazy people who frets over the animals when the weather does something unexpected. I let a lizard come live in my house when the weather dipped into the 30s and 40s here in Florida in early January. (I might have fed him a non-endangered species of fly if one had been available.) So, yes, I feel sympathy for dragonflies that teeter on the edge of extinction, and applaud the agency workers who came up with a solution that protected the dragonflies while keeping commerce, economy and American motorists moving.
It’s something asphalt contractors and department of transportation engineers have to throw in the design plans once in a while—making special accommodations for animals in the area or for habitats “downstream.” It’s environmentally responsible. It’s the right thing to do. Sometimes it’s expensive. However it’s worked out, there are members of the industry like me who applaud you for protecting the parts and pieces of our world on one level while protecting the motoring public on another.
Stay Safe,
Sandy Lender, Editor
Tags: AsphaltPro Magazine, Asphalt Pro Magazine, environmental, dragonflies
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