Jayson Jordan and Cliff Selkinghaus of SCAPA attended a workshop last month on EPDs put on by NAPA at their headquarters for SAPAs. The workshop was well attended by other state pavement associations as there is a growing push towards asphalt plants establishing their own EPDs. The focus of the workshop was to cover the need for the EPDs nationally to benchmark how our industry is going to respond to demands from the federal government to capture environmental impacts of our industry here in the U.S. and in Canada. We are very aware that this appears for the time being to be pushed from the western portion of the U.S.; however, many northern states are beginning to see this becoming a reality.

Dr. Richard Willis and Joseph Shacat of NAPA presented information regarding the importance of collecting this data nationwide for their efforts to respond to Feds on our industry's effort to become even more sustainable. Data collection was discussed in detail: the biggest hurdle for contractors seems to be collecting this information as accurately as possible over a span of 12 months to determine important inputs for gas/fuel consumption, electricity, and raw materials for making asphalt mix. NAPA is leading the charge in this program for EPDs for the industry and has developed a user-friendly program to help companies gather the information and input it into their NAPA Eco Label EPD tool. This service does not come free, but considering these EPDs will be good for approximately 5 years, the cost should be minimal in members' cost per ton overall.

If you have any questions regarding EPDs or what it takes to get one started for your plant, please contact SCAPA Technical Director Cliff Selkinghaus or go to NAPA's web link below for more information.

Summer Conference Attendees:  We're incredibly excited to see you all next week in Amelia Island, Florida!  Be on the lookout in the coming days for a know before you go email from SCAPA!

Don’t miss this opportunity to present at the South Carolina Asphalt Pavement Association’s 2024 Winter Conference & Trade Show. Are you involved in a new or novel project, approach or system you think your contemporaries would find interesting and worthwhile? Offer to make a presentation at the conference. Topics to be considered include but are not limited to:

Emerging and Innovative Technologies, Materials, Equipment, etc., Sustainability / Environmental Health & Safety, Cold Recycling Best Practices - QCQA, Troubleshooting – Plant & Roadway Issues, Construction Management, Interesting Asphalt Construction Case Studies, Pavement Management - Decision Trees - Distresses, Workforce Development -Recruitment, Construction Inspection, Leadership - Professional Development, Improving Communications, Asphalt Industry Supply Chain Outlook, Pavement Design,Pavement Maintenance-Preservation, Best Practices: Production, Milling, Tacking, Transport, Paving -Placement, Compaction, QC.

See the PDF below for more information.

Just a quick note to remind everyone that all SCDOT contracts let after January 2022 require the HMA Contractor to provide asphalt load tickets using conventional paper tickets and through e-ticketing software. A suggestion would be to add e-ticketing to your list of topics to discuss at your pre-construction meetings. Ask the RCE to provide a list of certified roadway inspectors that are designated (or possibly could fill in) to work on those contracts. This is simply just getting those inspectors' names and email addresses so they can be granted permission to view the e-tickets. SCDOT has asked for updates on how these systems are working, and we should be able to provide info on its accuracy to develop strategies to transition to paperless ticketing. The systems appear to still have several issues, but we need to ensure these systems are operational to be able to report the overall status.

The 2023 SCAPA Membership Directory & Resource Guide is available! Copies were shipped out in March. 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.

SCAPA congratulates contractor member Palmetto Corporation, which was recently featured in an article by AsphaltPro magazine.

Headquartered in Conway, SC, Palmetto Corporation has garnered attention for its steady growth and industry success over the years. The company is currently celebrating a new plant installation in Greer, SC, brought to life in part through a key partnership with Gencor Industries in Orlando, FL. According to AsphaltPro, the project was led by Palmetto Corporation owner and CEO Shawn Godwin, who had a clear vision for the location of the plant - and for the company’s future role and capabilities in the industry.

Speaking to AsphaltPro for the feature, Palmetto Corporation plants manager Ray Mothershead remarked, “Shawn said this is the market we want to go to. He lays out the vision and we follow it. We have relationships with customers and the DOT around the area and he saw that in the market.”

Click the link below to read the full article, and to learn more about Palmetto Corporation’s other successful building projects.

Westwood High School student Ebony Lewis participated in High School to Hired on May 5 and is the first student to successfully "cross the stage to earn a wage."  Ebony has accepted a position with C.R. Jackson, Inc. where she will work in their asphalt lab and begin training for her CDL. MEBA was thrilled to be in attendance for Ebony's signing day with C.R. Jackson and celebrate her successes.
(Source: MEBA)

I met Jean Paul Fort several years ago while working with the SCDOT. He previously worked within the COLAS group and was working with one of members (Sloan - now Reeves) on an issue we were having on an interstate project here in SC. He was always pleasant to work with and we found ourselves talking from time to time over the years at other networking and technical asphalt paving conferences. Recently, he took a position over at NAPA on their Engineering, Research, & Technology team, and Jayson and I caught up with him last month on a joint NAPA -SAPA workshop on EPDs. He is a great guy, and always has a good story to tell and will continue to be a good asset to our industry with his background in research through the years at COLAS. See the article in the link below to know more about Jean-Paul.

Check out last week's article from our friends at SC Fix Our Roads discussing the past few weeks on the SC State Budget, and recent compromise made. CTC's will see $20 million in funding next year (dropped from $250 million last year), and Earmarked Local Projects will see roughly $77.7 million.

On May 1, 2023 NAPA submitted its letter to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in response to its Request for Information (RFI) on low carbon construction material programs in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Over two months, NAPA staff worked with members to develop a consistent and practical message on how to implement portions of the IRA which could impact the asphalt industry.

See the link below to be directed to this letter.

FROM EDUCATION SESSIONS on Gen Z to new electric equipment offerings, one underlying theme at CONEXPO 2023 in Las Vegas was sustainability. Within the asphalt plant world, those discussions ultimately lead to environmental product declarations (EPDs). "The most common analogy is that it’s like a nutritional label, but we don’t show nutrition; we show the environmental impacts associated with manufacturing a product through the life cycle," NAPA Director of Sustainable Pavements Joseph Shacat said. Shacat led a session titled "Everything You Wanted to Know About Environmental Product Declarations" at CONEXPO, and explained how the use of EPDs in asphalt mixes could indirectly be traced back to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certifications in buildings, which began asking for EPDs about a decade ago. Shacat said his research has led him to learn about how EPDs are used in other industries, from private planes to pasta noodles. See the article link below for more information.

AsphaltPro
No matter how many hours of safety training the asphalt tank farm manager, sealcoat laborer, or other paving professional undergoes, accidents can happen in an industry where materials are stored and applied at high temperatures. Rick Stone, the business development manager for Maxwell Products Inc., has been in the pavement maintenance market for over four decades and has found evidence that most asphalt burns happen to workers who have less than a year of experience or more than 10 years of experience. The first category of worker is new to the job and prone to mistakes. The second category of worker grows complacent in the day-to-day routine. While the industry can learn from these statistics and beef up safety training for all, we can also look at what to do when someone is burned by hot material. See the link below for the article by AsphaltPro magazine.

NAPA
Train Workers: Save Lives  - CrewSafety is for employees inside the work zone and engaged in some of the most dangerous activities. Last year, more than 25,000 people were injured in active road construction work zones and more than 700 people were killed. Many of those were road construction workers. Ensuring workers are safe and go home at the end of their shift can start with training. NAPA's CrewSafety Work Zone Training helps employees recognize unsafe work zone situations and understand how they can proactively ensure their safety.

The heat illness prevention plan template was prepared by members of the National Asphalt Paving Association (NAPA) and the American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA). It is intended to be used as a template to build company- or organization-specific programs. Organizations should consider state and local agency policies to ensure their version aligns with these recommendations. This written HIPP for the Roadway Construction Industry provides guidance to protect employees who work in hot outdoor environments. The information provided in this guidance plan can be used to enhance outdoor road construction worker protection from heat illness. This information is intended to be adapted and incorporated into individual company or agency programs. This document may be copied, adapted, and amended to meet organizational needs, but proper credit should be given, as follows:
While NAPA and ARTBA believe the information to be correct and accurate, it is the employer's responsibility to comply with regulations set forth in federal, state, and local workplace safety standards, including the Occupational Safety and Health Act. In providing this advisory document, NAPA, ARTBA and their staff and officers do not assume the employer's duty to provide its workers with a safe and healthful workplace and are not responsible for the actions or employer-related compliance with this or any other standard. The document is intended for general informational purposes only, and not as a substitute for advice from a qualified professional.
See the link below for more information.

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. 

AsphaltPro
It can be a great move to bring a novice worker into your company to work alongside and learn from your more veteran crew members. But you wouldn't hire that inexperienced inidividual to be your crew's foreman. It almost goes without saying that the foreman should be chosen from one of the experienced crewmembers already on your team.

Many companies are hesitant to move an exceptional crew member, such as a skilled breakdown roller or paver, from their current post into the foreman role. In the long run, having a highly qualified foreman will pay off for your company - but taking that step, especially when it leaves a key position open to fill - can be daunting. 

AsphaltPro offers some insights and industry examples to help you think through the process. Click the link below to read the full feature.

 

Asphalt paving mix was called “tarmcadam,” then “macadam.” The word “Tarmac,” now used only for airport runway pavement, was derived from this name. Although the word “Tarmac” is only used in the aviation industry in relation to runways, it is no different than any other paved road.