Friday, December 05, 2011
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TECHNICALLY SPEAKING
The TxDOT highway letting is scheduled for December 1st & 2nd. The total tonnage of hot mix being let is 819,733.
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WHAT'S GOING ON
Don't miss out on these important dates...
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TXAPA is interested in photographs of member projects for marketing and promotional purposes for possible future literature, banner ups, advertizing, and so on. We have a fairly good collection of member work performed on State maintained roadways (interstate, state highways, farm to market, etc), but we do not have many pictures of work being performed by our members for cities, counties and private developers.
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It is that wonderful time of the year again: Membership Directory Update Time! I am in the process of updating the database for the upcoming 2012 TXAPA Membership Directory. In order to make sure that your firm is represented properly in our new directory, a Membership Directory Information Form that contains the information that was printed in the 2011 Directory, and/or the information I currently have in the database will be emailed and/or faxed early this week (Dec 5-7). Review the form carefully; if there are any corrections, please cross out the pre-printed information and write out to the right hand side the correct information. If the information listed is correct, check the "Correct as listed" box.
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For accuracy purposes, the entire article below comes from Mike Acott's notice, NAPA's President:


IARC Issues Health Classification
For Occupational Exposures
During Road Paving


Dear NAPA Members and Partners,

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), based in Lyon, France, issued a statement today assigning occupational exposures to straight-run asphalt cement and its emissions during road paving a Group 2B ("possibly carcinogenic to humans") classification. This Group 2B classification puts road paving in the same category as numerous exposures, including cell phones and coffee.

Dr. Jim Melius, PhD, MD, the top occupational physician at the Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA), commented, "People working in the asphalt paving industry should not be concerned about this new IARC classification. The two key animal studies on paving asphalt did not show any evidence of cancer risk, and the major IARC cancer study of people working in the paving industry in Europe did not show any increased risk for cancer."

Since questions about the health effects of asphalt fumes were raised in the early 1990s, NAPA has worked in partnership with government agencies, unions, and academic institutions to protect worker health and to answer the scientific questions.

In the process, our achievements have been notable. These include excellent relationships with NIOSH, OSHA, and labor unions. In addition, extensive steps have already been taken to reduce workers' exposure to asphalt fumes via engineering controls and warm mix.

NAPA has developed a PowerPoint presentation designed to answer your workers' questions about the IARC classification. To access the PowerPoint click here.

We believe it is unlikely that you will be contacted by the press; however, in case that does occur, we have developed a list of probable questions and answers for your reference. To access the Q&A click here.

IARC, which brings together international panels of scientists, is based in Lyon, France. Its assessments go to national health agencies for possible guidance. IARC has reviewed more than 900 chemicals and other agents since its founding in 1971. IARC categorizes chemicals, agents, mixtures and exposures into five groups:

Group 1: carcinogenic to humans (includes alcoholic beverages, solar radiation, and wood dust).
Group 2A: probably carcinogenic to humans (includes high-temperature frying, household wood fires, and hairdressing/barber occupational exposures).
Group 2B: possibly carcinogenic to humans (includes coffee and cell phones).
Group 3: not classifiable as to carcinogenicity in humans (includes tea).
Group 4: probably not carcinogenic to humans (only one substance, caprolactam, has been placed by IARC in Group 4).

Again, I am proud to say that the asphalt paving industry has played a proactive role in protecting the health and safety of its workers. These include exposure reductions, process advancements, and partnerships with government agencies and labor unions. And the asphalt paving industry has been recognized for its worker health initiatives.

I was in Lyon and participated in the IARC Monograph process as an official Observer, representing the road paving industry - both U.S. and European. If you have questions about the IARC classification and its possible effect on your business, please feel free to contact me at the NAPA office.

Best regards,

Mike Acott
NAPA President

 

Annoucement from GulfStar Group:

HOUSTON, November 2011 -  GulfStar Group is pleased to announce the acquisition of Ramming Paving Company Ltd., RTI Hot Mix, RTI Materials and affiliated companies (collectively "Ramming" or the "Company") by Summit Materials, LLC. GulfStar served as financial advisor to Ramming throughout the transaction, which closed on October 28, 2011. 

Ramming, founded in 1993 by John Ramming, is an integrated construction materials company and is one of the largest independent aggregate and asphalt producers serving the greater Austin and San Antonio, Texas markets. Ramming Paving offers a full range of services in all aspects of the asphalt industry including paving, patching, striping, seal coating and recycling. RTI Hot Mix provides hot and cold mix asphalt from its two asphalt plants located in Georgetown and Buda, Texas. RTI Materials operates an aggregate quarry in Georgetown, Texas, supplying crushed aggregates ranging from base to concrete and hot mix aggregates.

"GulfStar was instrumental in helping us achieve our objectives," said John Ramming. "They navigated us through the entire process and developed a plan that fit our strategic goals. We are very pleased with GulfStar's services and are excited about joining Summit Materials."

Summit Materials was formed in 2009 to develop a leading business in the aggregates and heavy-side building materials sector through strategic acquisitions. Summit Materials was founded by its CEO Tom Hill and a group of investors that include members of its management team, Blackstone Capital Partners V L.P. and Silverhawk Capital Partners. Tom Hill is the former CEO of Oldcastle Inc., the U.S. division of CRH, Plc.

The GulfStar Group transaction team included Managing Director Alan Blackburn, Vice President Justin Moers and Associate Jay Stone. "We were very pleased to work with John Ramming and his team on this transaction," said Alan Blackburn. "We believe the Company will significantly strengthen Summit Materials' market presence in central Texas."

About GulfStar Group  GulfStar Group is a leading middle market investment and merchant bank headquartered in Houston, Texas, with a strong market presence in Austin, Dallas, Louisiana and Oklahoma. GulfStar specializes in providing merger and acquisition advisory services, institutional private placements of equity and debt, restructuring and turnaround advisory services and general corporate finance advisory services to companies with revenues or enterprise values generally ranging from $25 million to $350 million. Since its formation in 1990, GulfStar has completed over 500 transactions in more than 30 states and six foreign countries across a variety of industries. Through its merchant banking affiliate, the firm also makes equity and subordinated debt co-investments.

Contact: Alan Blackburn, ablackburn@gulfstargroup.com, 713-300-2048

 
IN THE WORKS
In my continuing series of articles on the TXAPA Educational Toolkit inserts I discussed "America Rides on Us" last month. It is another in a long line of very good Asphalt Pavement Alliance (APA) inserts that TXAPA uses in our Educational Toolkit. This month I would like to introduce another helpful APA-produced insert which is actually an APA position paper entitled "Pavement Type Selection." This is also an insert I include in a TXAPA Alternate Pavement Toolkit that I use when I visit with public entities that wish to let alternate bid projects (flexible vs. rigid) or have an interest in switching from a flexible pavement history to letting a rigid pavement project.
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Please contact Stephanie Buckberry or David Kopp (sbuckberry@txhotmix.org or dkopp@txhotmix.org) if you would like additional copies of the TxAPA Educational Tool Kit for your use. If you have any questions about the tool kit or its contents, please give us a call at (512) 312-2099.

Thank you in advance for your help educating entities within Texas on the benefits our industry has to offer.

 
IN THE KNOW
On Tuesday, January 3, 2012, we will host our Annual Membership Meeting in Austin, Texas. We have scheduled meetings at 3:00 p.m. for the Associate and Major Associate Members to discuss the upcoming year’s activities. At 6:00 p.m. we will begin our reception and immediately following the reception we will hold our general session with our invited TxDOT partners to address the membership.
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The Texas Asphalt Pavement Association will be holding the 2012 Mid-Year Meeting at the Hyatt Regency in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. Our members had such a wonderful time in 2011 that we decided to go back and enjoy that nice cool weather in June.

YOU CAN MAKE YOUR HOTEL RESERVATIONS NOW BY CALLING (775) 832-1234
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And the winners are...
Please note the corrected HMA Producer for the Overlay Medium and Overlay Small categories below. The correct producer should have been listed as Colorado Materials instead of Hunter Industries.
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Please save the following dates for our upcoming Partners In Quality meetings. All meetings are scheduled from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.
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Mark these important special meeting dates on your calendar for 2012.
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CERTIFICATION NEWS FROM THE HMAC
The Texas Department of Transportation and the Hot Mix Asphalt Center present Quality Control/Quality Assurance Technicians an award for their efforts to achieve excellence in the performance of their assigned duties.
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The Hot Mix Asphalt Center can now accept credit cards. We are able to accept MasterCard, Visa, Discover and American Express.
 
We hope this new process will be an added resource for all of our customers!
 
Each one of us is aware that things seldom remain the same. The asphalt paving industry is certainly not immune from this and in the past few years many new tools, specifications, test procedures and a host of other changes have made their way into our industry.
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Beginning with the July 2010 Level 1A Training Course, candidates were required to pre-certify online at the Hot Mix Asphalt Center’s (HMAC) new website, www.txhmac.org. In order to pre-certify, candidates must go to the website and log in...
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2012 Hot Mix Asphalt Class Schedule is now available!

Check out the dates & Schedule with Karen before they fill up:  www.txhmac.org

 
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