The following test procedures, attached for your review, have been recommended for state-wide use by the Texas Department of Transportation and await industry comments. Please email Chuck Fuller or Corey Schwarz with your comments or call TXAPA at (512) 312-2099 with questions. Please provide your comments on or before the deadline of March 6, 2020. 

New TxDOT asphalt pavement specifications go into effect in the 2020 February Highway Letting. To help you prepare, TXAPA has created two documents in partnership with TxDOT's Ryan Barborak. The first, titled, Top 10 Significant Changes That Could Affect Your Cost is a quick list of the most important changes. The second document, TxDOT Specifications and Test Procedures Checklist will help you find out which special specifications, special provisions, and test procedures (200 series and 500 series) have changed and which will be changing soon. There are many more changes to the specifications and test procedures. Additional changes can be found on the TXAPA website and the HMAC website. We urge all technicians to log in to txhmac.org to see if their specific certification level has been changed.

This year’s Membership Meeting at La Cantera Resort & Spa in San Antonio, Texas, was a highly informative few days, fostering increased partnership, open discussion, and setting ambitious plans for the year to come.

 

We kicked things off with our first ever Winter Classic Golf Tournament, which helped raise money for the TXAPA Scholarship Program and saw seamless success thanks to Golf Tournament Committee Chair David Johnson of Colorado Materials, Ltd.

 

The first day of sessions was packed with important technical information from several speakers offering diverse industry perspectives. Our 2020 TXAPA President Geno Carrier IV was sworn in, along with the new board members, as outgoing committee chairs, board members, and 2019 President Bill Thomas were recognized for the role they’ve played in TXAPA’s success.

 

On the second day, we heard from the TxDOT Materials and Test Division, continuing our partnership to provide quality asphalt pavements across the state of Texas.

 

The highlight of this year’s meeting was when TXAPA President Geno Carrier IV made a surprise announcement about building dedications. We are proud to announce the Gene Carrier III HMAC Building, the Albert Schlather TXAPA Building, and the Harold Mullen TXAPA Campus. We so appreciate these men and their longtime dedication to asphalt pavements, and are proud to have their names engraved into the future of our industry.

 

For quality mix, there are many items that should be evaluated/completed before any mix ever hits the ground. Below are a number of best practices that, if utilized, will ensure that the hot mix placed has the best opportunity to achieve the desired quality.

 

• Bring excellence in asphalt pavement education to our city, county, and private developer owner segments
• Provide an opportunity for attendees to earn Professional Development Hours as required by the State of Texas
• Showcase services and new technologies including equipment, materials, software, consulting and more
• Provide an opportunity for attendees to interact directly with the asphalt pavement industry's most knowledgeable researchers and subject matter experts

Dates: 2/12/2020 9:00 AM through 2/13/2020 3:00 PM CST  

Location: Embassy Suites by Hilton San Marcos Hotel Conference Center & Spa

 

Special Room Rates are still available but running low. Click Here to Register

 

Agenda: Click Here

Exhibitors: Currently, there are 20 exhibitors signed up for MAPS. See Exhibitor List Here

 

Let’s make MAPS another big success for our industry! Email Jenna Nyberg, Marketing Assistant if you have any questions.

Join TXAPA to learn how the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority (CTRMA) achieved award-winning PFC pavements. Participants will be able to identify:

Join TXAPA's Director of Engineering and Technology Jim Warren for an in-depth look at the importance of balancing asphalt production rates (plant, trucking, paving, and compaction) relative to quality improvement. Jim will review several case studies and integrate the concept of “time available for compaction” and how that condition can actually be used to set maximum production rates. He will also incorporate a discussion of Multi-Cool software, other apps, and programs.

 

The spreadsheet referenced in this webinar can be accessed here.
 

The safety of drivers on Texas roadways is TxDOT's top priority. The Highway Safety Plan for FY 2019 has identified various emphasis areas that significantly contribute to crash counts, including being run off the road, distracted driving, DUI, intersections, pedal cyclists, and pedestrian.

 

TxDOT's goal areas emphasize the need to reduce annual fatalities and serious injuries. As Texas' population increases, however, keeping incident rates low becomes an even more difficult task. Texas' population has grown at an average annual rate of 1.8%—the third highest growth rate in the country. Fortunately, traffic fatality and serious injury rates have not increased at the same rate. But we can do better.

 

Certarus is a leader in providing a fully integrated compressed natural gas (CNG) solution for the North American commercial and industrial markets. Our primary business is the creation of a “Virtual Natural Gas Pipeline” through the compression, transportation and integration of CNG for the energy services, mining, forestry and industrial sectors. Our solutions target diesel and propane fuel displacement projects to lower operating costs and reduce environmental impact.

Now operating from offices in Houston and San Antonio, Hayden Paving services all of Texas. We are licensed in Louisiana and Mississippi, and are extending our service areas in these states as well. We have expanded from our initial service of hot mix asphalt paving to a full-service construction company including base work, concrete flatwork, sealcoating, and pavement repair with a specialization in athletic facilities installation.

Commercial Supply, Polymers for Asphalt Modification

MacRebur’s mission is to help solve the waste plastic epidemic and the poor quality of roads we drive on around the world today. Our innovative solution involves processing waste plastics destined for landfill or incineration and adding them into asphalt for road construction and surfacing to extend and enhance the bitumen (fossil fuel) binder.

Founded in 1968, Raba Kistner, Inc. has become an industry leader among engineering consulting firms, specializing in addressing the key risk areas of management services that address the complete Life Cycle of our clients’ capital investments.

Distributed to nearly 5,000 industry professionals, Texas Asphalt magazine features articles about environmental issues, safety, new technology, best business practices, and more. Texas Asphalt is also distributed in an interactive, digital format. Subscribers do not have to be members of TXAPA to receive Texas Asphalt.

 

 

 

Did you know about PaveXpress, a scoping tool to help you create simplified pavement designs while taking into account key engineering inputs?

Explore and analyze IRI data in the FHWA Long Term Pavement Performance (LTPP) database to gain insights into the factors that have historically governed and/or influenced the change in pavement IRI over time.

Are you working with an exemplary company that would be a good fit for TXAPA? Send them the link to our new, fillable, application available at the link below:

Make sure you are receiving important information from TXAPA. Double check your email address and update your email preferences. 

If you have been having trouble accessing the TXAPA website there are two things you can try.

Cancel or add subscriptions and update your address—it's as easy as logging into TexasAsphalt.org!

Certification and training classes through the HMAC are filling up fast! Check on the schedule online.