Join us Wednesday, November 1 for the Women of Asphalt South Carolina Branch Kickoff Event! WofA SC Branch will host a reception from 5-6 pm at the Hilton Columbia Center in conjunction with SCAPA's Fall Member Dinner. The reception is open to anyone interested. 

For those only attending the kickoff event: select the Fall Member Dinner Registration, click the checkbox "I will attend the Women of Asphalt SC Branch Reception (5-6 pm)" and be sure enter the promo code "women" when registering as an attendee at the link below.

Questions: Contact Katherine Hilton or WofA Steering Committee Chair Noelle Arena.

Join us in the heart of the Palmetto State for an evening of connection and camaraderie at the upcoming SCAPA Fall Member Dinner, featuring a special kickoff for Women of Asphalt's SC Branch. This event, hosted at the Hilton Columbia Center, promises to be the premier gathering for professionals in South Carolina's asphalt pavement industry.

It's time to submit and showcase your finest work for the 2023 SCAPA Quality Pavement Awards. We are looking for the best of the best work that your organization is most proud of this year. The submittals can be completed by the paving contractor or the owner; both will be recognized at our 2024 SCAPA Winter Conference on Feb. 21, 2024!  2023 QPA forms have been revised for this year's submittals and we have made it easier this year to submit your entries.

Submission Deadline: Nov. 3, 2023.

This month, SCAPA's Executive Director Jayson Jordan spoke to groups of youngsters in Columbia about the asphalt industry and jobs in construction during Career Week at a local school. Jordan read "Goodnight Construction Site" and discussed common pieces of construction equipment on road building jobsites. The children were able to use toy dump trucks and steel wheel rollers, along with black kinetic sand to simulate an asphalt paving operation. At the end of the program, the children received Asphalt Lane coloring books and Rice Krispy Treats (which they learned were a lot like asphalt, but tasted much better). The event was a big hit! 

If you're looking to do asphalt outreach for your company, you can order copies of Asphalt Lane using the link below.

If you have not been in the SCAPA Member Portal lately, you may not have seen the new look! The Member Portal is a resource for you, and we want to add more members-only content. You can get to the Member Portal from the new website at www.scasphalt.org and click "Member Login" from the menu. Click below to learn more about why you need to be on the Member Portal.

Hard copies of the 2023 SCAPA Membership Directory & Resource Guide are still available! Copies were shipped out in March. To access the digital version, please click the "Learn More" button below.

Please let SCAPA Staff know if you have not received a copy or would like a complimentary one mailed or delivered to you.

"What asphalt pavement questions can I answer for you?" Hey NAPA wants to help!

Using Artificial Intelligence (AI), this software can be used to provide answers to your questions with the assistance of hundreds of NAPA publications that have a broad general knowledge of asphalt pavement topics. Ask Hey NAPA anything that you'd like and this program will do its best to provide a concise answer and point you to additional resources. See the link below to ask your question.

For a successful asphalt paving project, both execution and long-term pavement performance are crucial. Ensure smoothness and durability by following five key guidelines during planning and construction. See the link below for more information. 

The construction industry requires an additional 546,000 workers in 2023 to meet labor demand. While 72% of contractors raised base pay in 2022, competing solely on salary may lead to higher staff turnover as workers seek the top wage. Alternative strategies are essential for retaining talent. See the link below for more information.

The Biden-Harris Administration opened applications September 13, 2023 for the Electric Vehicle Charger Reliability and Accessibility Accelerator which will provide up to $100 million in Federal funding to repair and replace existing but non-operational, electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure. These targeted investments will complement hundreds of billions in private sector investment, support good paying jobs across the country installing, maintaining, and repairing EV infrastructure, and make our current charging network more reliable. Reliability is a critical component to the Biden-Harris Administration’s comprehensive approach to build a convenient, affordable, reliable, equitable, and Made-in-America national EV charging network. 

The National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program, a $5 billion program created by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and administered by the Federal Highway Administration to help states build out EV charging sites, stipulates a 10% set-aside for grants to States and localities that require additional assistance to strategically deploy electric vehicle charging infrastructure. The first round of funding will focus on improving the reliability of the current network by repairing or replacing existing EV charging infrastructure at the same time the Biden-Harris Administration is making larger-scale investments to deploy new charging stations. 

Based on initial estimates of non-operational chargers, FHWA anticipates that the available $100 million in funding will likely cover the repair or replacement costs of all eligible projects, which will be awarded through a streamlined application process. This includes both publicly and privately owned chargers – so long as they are available to the public without restriction.

Please access the full media release at the link below. 

Asphalt pavements connect people, commerce, and communities across the country. Click the link below to watch the video and learn something new about America’s favorite pavement!

All of the details about developing EPDs for portable plants will be explained in the training webinar, and here are the key points to be aware of:

When creating a new plant, users will have to select whether that plant is portable or stationary. For portable plants, you will be able to enter multiple locations and develop EPDs for each location.

Users will not be able to directly convert an existing stationary plant to portable – this has to be done on the back end. Please let us know if you have an existing plant in the Emerald Eco-Label software that you need to convert to portable by sending an email to epd@asphaltpavement.org. 

If you are planning to develop EPDs for a portable plant that you haven’t developed EPDs for yet, please hold off on doing so until the portable plant function launches on November 6 (this will help us minimize the number of plants we need to convert on the back end of the system). The portable plants function has been externally verified to ensure that it complies with the PCR for Asphalt Mixtures.

If you work around asphalt plants, terminals, and testing labs long enough... you likely know of someone who has been scarred pernamantly by a burn. An asphalt burn can be one of the worst and most painful expereinces for you or a fellow employee. Take 2-3 minutes and watch this video in the link below. It's also good information to pass on to your staff.

In 2019, 135 construction workers died in work zones. Unlike the public outcry following a single tragic event, these dispersed deaths don't garner the same widespread attention. While work zone mortality might not dominate headlines, the pain felt by families and coworkers is profound. In the industry, our duty is to amplify these voices, advocating for stronger safety measures and ensuring better protections for all. See the link below for more information.

The 2024 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. 

As of the first week of October, 2023 the current US Utilization of Refinery Capacity is at 91.90%, compared to 93.70% last week and 91.50% last year. This is higher than the long term average of 89.65%. The refining industry has been running at above 90% of capacity for more than a year on strong gasoline and diesel demand - and high profit margins.