Asphalt Paving and Sealcoat  Blog

Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) Life-Cycle Costs Benefits

• Reduces costs for initial construction.
• Requires less maintenance over the life of the pavement.
• Repaired and maintained cost-effectively with HMA overlays instead of complete removal and reconstruction with concrete.
• When maintenance is needed, HMA offers the widest variety of alternatives geared to solve the precise problems on the surface.
• Can be overlaid to add structural capacity to account for increased traffic loading. 
• Eliminates the need for costly reinforcing materials, which are subject to corrosion, which lead to more frequent and more costly repairs. 
• Properly designed and constructed HMA pavements will last 50 years or more with occasional resurfacing, relieving road agencies of the need for costly, time-consuming and disruptive reconstruction. 
• HMA can be recycled (milled and replaced along with fresh materials), saving dollars and preserving nonrenewable natural resources.

Stimulus Funds will be Awarded to All States

Every state has committed at least half its highway stimulus funds so none will lose any of its allocation, the Obama administration said Thursday.

States had until June 29 to obligate the funds or risk losing half the leftover money. Only a month ago, some 14 states had yet to satisfy that goal. Hawaii was the last to meet the mark, hitting it on June 19.

Maine has secured 100% of its funds and 15 states have more than 80% of their money committed.

 read more 

Porous Asphalt - part 1

Porous asphalt pavements are of great interest to site planners and public-works departments. With the proper design
and installation, porous asphalt can provide cost-effective, attractive pavements with a life span of more than twenty
years, and at the same time provide storm-water management systems that promote infiltration, improve water quality,
and many times eliminate the need for a detention basin. The performance of porous asphalt pavements is similar to that
of other asphalt pavements. And, like other asphalt pavements, they can be designed for many situations.

How does it work?

The technology is really quite simple. The secret to success is to provide the water with a place to go, usually in the form
of an underlying, open-graded stone bed. As the water drains through the porous asphalt and into the stone bed, it slowly
infiltrates into the soil. The stone bed size and depth must be designed so that the water level never rises into the
asphalt. This stone bed, often 18 to 36 inches in depth, provides a tremendous subbase for the asphalt paving.

What does it cost?

Special features such as the underlying stone bed are more expensive than conventional construction, but these costs
are more than offset by the elimination of many elements of standard storm-water management systems. On those jobs
where unit costs have been compared, a porous asphalt pavement is generally the less-expensive option. The cost
advantage is even more dramatic when the value of land that might have been used for a detention basin or other stormwater
management features is considered.

Asphalt

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Architect finds beauty in the asphalt jungle

By Karen Campbell, Globe Correspondent

Most of us walk, drive, and park on it every day, but we rarely give asphalt a second thought - until we trip on a crack or hit a pothole or notice with dismay yet another instance where someone "paved paradise and put up a parking lot," as the Joni Mitchell song "Big Yellow Taxi" recounts.

But if landscape architect Paula Meijerink has anything to say about it, the way we vilify this most common of industrial materials is about to change. An assistant professor of landscape architecture at Harvard's Graduate School of Design, Meijerink has been addressing innovative ideas in asphalt design with her students and is cultivating a variety of grass-roots projects that bring new attention to what she calls "the asphalt universe." Meijerink wants people to rethink how we use the material in terms of both creativity and function.

Passersby in the South End may have been drawn into the "Steamroller Printing" event Meijerink and her crew held in the GTI Properties parking lot on Harrison Avenue last month. Using two steamrollers from sponsor Aggregate Industries, the group created more than 200 one-of-a-kind posters by pressing magnesium plates on tar paper. Featuring a planetary-themed design by Rik Olson and sporting the tag "Rethink the Asphalt Universe," the posters will be folded and included in a book called "Asphalt" that Meijerink is putting together and distributing through the design school in the next three months.

Meijerink, who is a partner in a local design collective called Wanted, also initiated a website, www.onasphalt.com, that is starting to bring designers, students, and industry professionals together with the goal of rethinking the material, and serving as a conduit for greater knowledge and creativity in asphalt design.

"It's one of the most liberating materials of the 20th century, increasing our mobility, allowing us to travel," Meijerink maintains, citing its cheapness, sustainability, and malleability. "It's the real public landscape, at the crux of what we're thinking about in terms of designing our open space, and we have to rethink the role asphalt plays in our lives."

Margaret Cervarich, vice president for marketing and public affairs for the National Asphalt Pavement Association, agrees. "Asphalt is an indispensable part of the modern structure of life. In the US, we do 550 million tons of asphalt hot mix paving a year. One of the important things Paula and her group are doing is just saying 'Let's take another look.' Seldom is something this common looked at with a different perspective. Paula's group is saying 'Here we have this extraordinary material that we take for granted - how can we use it in a new, relevant way so that we're being sensitive to the environment, to the needs of human beings, and still providing adequate structures?' 

  Click here to read the full article THE BOSTON GLOBE NEWS

HOT MIX ASPHALT, THE VERSATILE PAVEMENT

Pavements constructed of Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) are so versatile that they can be used in practically every
situation. Consider these examples of the versatility of HMA pavements:
• In parking lots, HMA pavements are durable and economical.
• On interstate highways, HMA pavements stand up to high speeds and heavy trucks.
• In ports and log yards, new types of heavy-duty HMA pavements stand up to static loads.
• On city streets, HMA pavements are cost-effective, durable, safe, and quiet.
• When building a new neighborhood or shopping center, staged construction can be used to provide a durable
pavement during construction, and then topped with a pristine layer of asphalt for a beautiful street that will last
for many years.

The driving surface of an HMA pavement can be customized to
• minimize rutting,
• increase skid resistance,
• lower the risk of hydroplaning,
• decrease splash and spray, or
• absorb noise.

Environmental benefits
Asphalt pavement is America's most recycled product. And asphalt pavements have many environmental uses,
including:
• liners for reservoirs and fish hatcheries,
• caps for landfills, and
• biking/hiking trails that enhance our access to the outdoors while reducing damage to fragile ecosystems.
New technology
HMA offers state-of-the-art technology. New, specially designed pavement types include Superpave, SMA
(Stone Matrix Asphalt), OGFC (Open Graded Friction Course), high-modulus HMA, dense-graded HMA, HMA
with modified binders, and thin-friction lifts.
Easy maintenance
HMA pavements are easy to preserve and maintain because the top layer can be milled off for recycling, then
replaced with a new, durable pavement. On commuter routes, all the work can be done overnight, so that most
motorists are not inconvenienced by construction delays.

Recycled Baserock - REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE

WHAT IS RECYCLED BASEROCK?

Recycled Baserock is made from used concrete and asphalt rubble, ground and stockpiled to specifications. Reusing and recycling construction materials diverts significant amounts of material from landfills and closes the loop on materials resuse. 

Our supplier Graniterock has a recycled baserock that can be used as a construction aggregate. This baserock is re-crushed locally at various locations in the Monterey Bay and San Francisco Bay Areas. This baserock comes in class 2 and class 4 grades. It also comes in 1/2" and 1 1/2" inch sizes. This recycled rock is considered to be "green" and can qualify for LEED credits.

Just thought you might enjoy a little song about using recycled products. It's by Jack Johnson, called THE 3 R'S.

Three it's a magic number
Yes it is, it's a magic number
Because two times three is six
And three times six is eighteen
And the eighteenth letter in the alphabet is R
We've got three R's we're going to talk about today
We've got to learn to
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Well, if you're going to the market to buy some juice
You've got to bring your own bags and you learn to reduce your waste
And if your brother or your sister's got some cool clothes
You could try them on before you buy some more of those
Reuse, we've got to learn to reuse
And if the first two R's don't work out
And if you've got to make some trash
Don't throw it out
Recycle, we've got to learn to recycle,
We've got to learn to
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Because three it's a magic number
Yes it is, it's a magic number
3, 3, 3
3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27, 30, 33, 36
33, 30, 27, 24, 21, 18, 15, 12, 9, 6, and
3, it's a magic number 

 

Graniterock Paving & Concrete Contractors Expo

On Friday Jan. 16th, one our estimators, Mike McHugh and I went to the Graniterock Contractor Expo in Seaside, Ca.We learned a great deal about serving our customers with more quality products. The main reason I went, was to learn about all the green products coming out and the ones that many people are starting to use. I will be highlighting some of the GREEN PRODUCTS over the next few blog posts. In 2009 there are so many companies using green products, sustainable products, recycled, and environmentally acceptable products, and we want to offer those to our customers. Some of these are Pervious Concrete, High-Fly Ash Concrete, Interlocking Pavers, Recycled Baserock, Rock, Sand, and Gravel, Concrete and Asphalt Products, Parking Bumpers, Turfstone, ECO-Block, and Erosion Control Products. Many of these products are manufactured locally with recycled materials. Many of these products qualifyfor LEED credits. We are also in the process of becoming LEED Accredited and Certified Green Building. Stay tuned for more next about Pervious Concrete along with its advantages.

A brief history of asphalt

Asphalt history goes all the way back to ancient Mesopotamians who used asphalt to waterproof temple baths and water tanks.

Today, 96% of all paved roads and streets in the U.S. - almost two million miles - are surfaced with asphalt. Almost all paving asphalt used today is obtained by processing crude oils. After everything of value is removed, the leftovers are made into asphalt cement for pavement. Man-made asphalt consists of compounds of hydrogen and carbon with minor proportions of nitrogen, sulfur and oxygen. Natural forming asphalt, or brea, also contains mineral deposits. 

 

 

The first indications of constructed roads date from about 4000 BC and consist of stone paved streets at Ur in modern-day Iraq and timber roads preserved in a swamp in Glastonbury, England. 

 

 

Similarly, ancient Phoenicians, Egyptians, and Romans used the binding and insulating effects of natural asphalt (found naturally in both asphalt lakes and in rock asphalt).

The word "asphalt" comes from ancient Greeks, from the Greek word ""asphaltos," meaning "secure".

While the most ancient uses of asphalt were to waterproof and bind material with asphalt, the first uses for road-building occurred in Babylon, 625 B.C.

Asphalt History - 1800s

The use of asphalt as a road-building material increased exponentially during the 1800s.

One of the builders, Thomas Telford, built more than 900 miles of roads in Scotland, perfecting the method of building roads with broken stones.

Similarly, John Loudon McAdam, used broken stone joined to form a hard surface to build a Scottish turnpike.

The construction method was later improved, to reduce dust and maintenance, as builders used hot tar to bond the broken stones together, producing "tarmacadam" pavements.

In 1870, a Belgian chemist named Edmund J. DeSmedt made the first true asphalt pavement in the U.S. in Newark, N.J.

The first asphalt plant was opened by The Cummer Company in the 1800s, while the first modern asphalt production facility was opened by the Warren Brothers in East Cambridge, MA, in 1901.

The first asphalt production patent, meanwhile, was filed by Nathan B. Abbott of Brooklyn, N.Y. in 1871.

Asphalt History - 1900s to 2000s

In the year 1900 Frederick J. Warren filed a patent for "Bitulithic" pavement, a mixture of bitumen and aggregate.

As advances in the use of asphalt increased, the production of refined petroleum asphalt outstripped the use of natural asphalt by early 1900s.

This innovation boom was fueled by the fact that as cars grew in popularity, the demand for more and better roads led to innovations in both producing and laying asphalt.

During World War II, asphalt technology improved vastly, primarily due to the fact that military uses needed surfaces that could withstand heavy loads.

Standards development within the asphalt industry took a leap 1955, as The National Bituminous Concrete Association(now known as the National Asphalt Pavement Association or NAPA) was founded.

As car ownership since World War II skyrocketed, innovations for heavy equipment to facilitate more road-building included electronic leveling controls, extra-wide finishers for paving two lanes at once and vibratory steel-wheel rollers.

The energy crisis of the 1970s spurred the need for recycled asphalt.

As a result, asphalt is the most recycled material in the U.S. today, with more than 70 million metric tons of asphalt paving material being recycled each year.

In fact, the major innovations in the industry today have to do with improvements in recyclable asphalt methods and equipment.

Also, the industry has developed advanced pavement materials including Open Graded Friction Course (OGFC), Superpave, and Stone Matrix Asphalt (SMA), also called gap-graded Superpave.

The major development efforts of today include asphalt development for less noise, greater durability, enhanced skid resistance, reduced splash and spray in rainy weather, and a smoother ride for today's demanding drivers.

To Learn More go to Asphalt History FAQs

Asphalt Pavement - America's most recycled product.

Did you know that more asphalt pavement is recycled than any other product? Hot Mix Asphalt can be engineered to accept recycled products from other industries, helping to reduce our reliance on landfills.

How much asphalt pavement is recycled each year?

• Volume:80.3 million tons (73 million metric tons)
• Rate: 80% of the asphalt pavement removed during resurfacing projects. 

-Federal Highway Administration

• Only 28% of post-consumer goods in the municipal solid waste stream

Let's look at the numbers; the volume of recycled asphalt pavement is...

• 13 TIMES greater than recycling of newsprint/paper
• 27 TIMES greater than recycling of glass bottles
• 89 TIMES greater than recycling of aluminum cans
• 267 TIMES greater than recycling of plastic containers

What is recycled or relcaimed asphalt used for?

• New Roads
• Roadbeds
• Shoulders
• Embankments

Other recycled products are used in making asphalt pavement:

• Old tires
• Slag aggregate
• Roofing shingles
• Foundry sand

SLAG AGGREGATE:

A by-product of steel production, works especially well for high-volume and/or skid-resistance applications such as:

• Indianapolis Motor Speedway
• Automobile manufacturer's test tracks

ROOFING SHINGLES:

Factory rejects are recycled into high-quality pavements.  It also works well for industrial and commercial parking lots.

FOUNDRY SAND:

Already screened, blended and ready to use in Hot Mix Asphalt. It reduces cost of sand by about 40% and 100,000 tons were used in Hot Mix Asphalt in 2000 alone.

Recycling of asphalt pavement benefits everyone. It maintains high quality, reduceds taxpayer cost, and rewards good environmental stewardship. Also, it helps qualify for LEED projects.

If you're going green this year or anytime soon, go green with paving as well...the most recycled product in the U.S.