We're looking forward to the Spring Member Dinner and Legislative Day next week! The Spring Member Dinner will begin Tuesday, April 25th at 6 p.m. at the Hilton Columbia Center. The following day, we'll have our SCAPA Legislative Day attendees meet at the Blatt Building at approximately 9:30 a.m.
Member Dinner Attendees: there will be a major concert in town that evening, and parking will be tougher to find than usual. We advise you to get to the Hilton Columbia Center a bit early to ensure you have parking for that evening.
Registration is open for the 2023 SCAPA Summer Conference! This year's event will be held at the Omni Amelia Island Resort in Fernandina Beach, FL the weekend of June 23-25. Click 'Learn More' to access conference registration information for sponsors and attendees! SCAPA is securing an overflow block for attendees: that information will be sent out later this week.
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| April 11-12, 2023 |
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SCAPA's Executive Director Jayson Jordan and Technical Director Cliff Selkinghaus attended the 2023 SC Engineers Conference, held at the Columbia Convention Center on April 11-12, 2023. SCAPA was a sponsor of the conference and had a booth in the exhibit hall for the two-day event. The event saw over 1,000 attendees from across the state including SCDOT, local and county government officials, and consultants. One break-out session topic that was well attended was dealing with the current CMRB issue. Several alternative solutions (FDP, Single Treatments, SAMI, CIP, FDR) were discussed in lieu full-depth repairs - although there are very few options when a road is too far gone and placed in a poor condition category, other than full-depth asphalt. It was discussed that a thorough investigation with coring and boots on the ground is still the best way to properly analyze a pavement's true in-service condition and determine the best and most practical method of repair.
 
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The 2023 SCAPA Membership Directory & Resource Guide is available! Copies were shipped out last month. To access the digital version, please click the 'Learn More' button below. Please let Jayson or Cliff know if you have not received a copy or would like a complimentary one mailed or delivered to you.
If you have not been in the SCAPA Member Portal lately, you may not have seen the new look! We would like for the Member Portal to be a resource for you and hope to add more members-only content to it. You can get to the Member Portal from the new website at www.scasphalt.org and click Member Login from the menu. Click to learn more about why you need to be on the Member Portal.
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The $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) included the Build America, Buy America Act (BABAA), which substantially expanded "Buy America" requirements. BABAA was a subject of discussion during FP2’s visits to Capitol Hill during TRB week. For the first time, BABAA expands the domestic content procurement preferences to construction materials. While the purpose of this expansion was to support U.S. domestic production capacity, Congress was careful in its drafting to limit the expansion, and to avoid hampering the ability of agencies to implement the historic investment in infrastructure authorized under the IIJA. In particular, the expansion of the domestic content procurement preference for construction materials does not extend to "cement and cementitious materials, aggregates such as stone, sand, or gravel, or aggregate binding agents or additives." Similarly, the act prohibits the same enumerated construction materials from being included as "inputs" in "all manufacturing processes" that produce "construction materials."
Get the latest legislative update for April 2023, provided by Sunnie Harmon and John DeWorken of LobbySC.
GOING ABOVE AND BEYOND for the environment? That’s what NAPA’s Environmental Leadership Award celebrates, recognizing the best among NAPA members who have notched a new or full renewal Diamond Achievement Sustainable Commendation in the past three years. Judges evaluate entries based on environmental responsibility, site appearance, and social responsibility. Gallagher Asphalt Corp.’s Thornton, Illinois facility won the designation for 2022.The plant averages 470,000 tons of asphalt produced annually and has reduced its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by improving natural gas efficiency. Converting baghouse fans from gas to electric, paving under aggregate stockpiles, and upgrading burner servo controls are some of the ways Gallagher reduced its carbon footprint. Implementing logistics software from XBE has allowed Gallagher to streamline the scheduling for plants, trucking, and construction, which can all be managed through one application.
Construction and Extraction leads the nation in successful deaths by suicide at a rate of 49.4 per 100,000 civilians, noninstitutionalized, working population, but sometime upper management requires more exact data before allocating company resources to a new tier of the safety and health program. In order, those included mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction; construction; other services such as automotive repair; agriculture, forestry, and hunting; and transportation and warehousing. Persons experiencing a crisis are encouraged to call or test the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988. See the link below for more information.
When all crewmembers arrive at the jobsite and have the morning toolbox talk, the foreman receives a text message from dispatch saying three of the six truck have cancelled. We all know you can't start the paver waiting on trucks throughout the day without risk of dips and bumps in the mat. We also know there are variables such as catch basins, utility covers, flares, stubs, intersections and so on to have as time-eaters in the back of your mind, so what's the savvy foreman to do? A handful of industry consultants weigh in to share ideas for handling this mini crisis without compromising quality.
The 2023 SCDOT certification course schedule has been released. Online registration is available on TCTC's website at www.tctc.edu/scdot. Note that the site will have only one of each course type available for registration at a time, so not all of the sections will show as available.
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There are approximately 2.6 million miles of paved roads in the United States, and 94% are surfaced with asphalt. That means that in the United States alone, there’s enough asphalt to circle the entire world almost a hundred times.
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SCAPA News and Events
SCAPA Spring Member Dinner
