September 2026

PRODUCTION – PROFESSIONALS – PRODUCTS

Update Batch Plants With Permitted Modern Tech

• Fall 2026 PreservationPro Supplement • Automate the asphalt lab • Stone on the water • Quality wins

SEPTEMBER 2026 THEASPHALTPRO.COM

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INDUSTRIES INC.

CONTENTS

asphaltPRO September 2026

DEPARTMENTS

24

EDITOR’S LETTER

8 – Top 3 Features You Don’t Want to Miss

By Sandy Lender

SAFETY SPOTLIGHT

10 – Suicide Prevention with K9 Support

By The Asphalt Pro Staff 12 – Preventing Fatalities in Work Zones

By The Asphalt Pro Staff

MIX IT UP

14 – Automate the Asphalt Lab

By Sandy Lender

STREET SMARTS

22 – Maintain the Pavement.

Strengthen the Industry.

By Bill Stanley

38

14

PRODUCT GALLERY

58 – Optimism Opens the Plant Gallery

By The Asphalt Pro Staff

OFF THE MAT

66 – Construction Materials Ops at a Glance

By The Asphalt Pro Staff

SPECIAL SECTION 37 – Fall 2026 PreservationPro PRODUCTION – PROFESSIONALS – PRODUCTS

38 – Standardize the Striping Industry New council can bring structure and improved safety with striping standard and certification

By Sandy Lender 42 – Blue Diamond Updates From The Asphalt Pro Staff 44 – Build the Schedule into the Bid

By Tarik Khribech 46 – Using AI to Suggest Pavement Maintenance Schedules

By Laurie Fickman 48 - Preservation Roundup

FEATURES 24 – Update Your Existing Batch Plant: Part 1 Gain efficiency, expand RAP production with expert guidance

By Sandy Lender 34 – Braen Stone Sets Sail 122-year-old company expands into barge logistics to reduce congestion and improve efficiency From Braen Stone 50 – The Birth of the Kentucky Paving Awards

By Sandy Lender

Update Batch Plants With Permitted Modern Tech

• Fall 2026 PreservationPro Supplement • Automate the asphalt lab • Stone on the water • Quality wins

SEPTEMBER 2026 THEASPHALTPRO.COM

ON THE COVER

Omann Brothers, Inc., St. Michaels, Minnesota, started with the electric and controls, and added recycle capability when upgrading a long-time batch plant to a combination facility. See related article on page 24. Photo courtesy of Motion Engineering, Caledonia, Wisconsin

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E D I TO R ' S L E T T E R Top 3 Features You Don’t Want to Miss

T

he team at The Asphalt Pro has built much to be proud of, but I want to point out three specific items we offer for free, on our website, that are of benefit to your team today. From helping you with marketing, with answers in the field and with whole body health, these three features on TheAsphaltPro.com were built for interaction, so I’ll ask you to not only check out these elements on our site, but I’ll also ask you to use and contribute to them.

Let’s start with the easy community outreach example. On the right-hand side of the home page, you’ll see rotating banner ads.

One of those ads belongs to The Asphalt Pro and its headline, on a yellow background, invites you to “Share Your Story with AsphaltPro.” You can interact with the ad right there on the screen, without leaving the window, to let me know you have a story that would make a good article in the magazine. The system sends me a note with the email address you enter, and we can strike up a conversation about starting some good PR for your company or one of your workers.

The next feature I want to highlight for you is far more robust, interactive and immediate. That’s our new AI-powered assistant: The Pro.

This online helpmate is available 24/7 to field your questions with answers from our 20 years of archived, technical, vetted industry articles. See the ad on page 36 for a summary of The Pro. Read a little more

8 | SEPTEMBER 2026

about how we built and tested The Pro in our August issue. And see what The Pro can answer for you at ask.theasphaltpro.com or by clicking on the icon in the lower righthand corner of TheAsphaltPro.com site.

Finally, as we recognize Suicide Prevention Month, I want to remind everyone that mental health wellness remains a priority for the asphalt industry all year. The Asphalt Pro has a page dedicated to gathering resources and information to assist safety directors in their construction of a whole-body safety culture within their organizations at theasphaltpro.com/suicideprevention.

This repository includes a library of past articles, collected in one place for ease of use, and a calendar of events that could be of help to safety directors and/or workers who may be struggling. While I always welcome articles from mental health professionals to assist members of the industry, I want to highlight the calendar for a moment. If your organization will be hosting an in-person or online conference, webinar or other mental health wellness event in 2027 that would be of benefit to the construction community, please reach out to let me know about it at sandy@theasphaltpro. com. I would be honored to list it for free on this calendar. It’s important to The Asphalt Pro staff that we share this information for the good of our industry members.

These are only three of the myriad features TheAsphaltPro.com offers to the audience. I could fill the next 60 pages with tips and notes of what to look for on the site. Instead, I’ll invite you to cruise the site when you have a minute, but make sure you check out these top three elements that can benefit you today.

Stay Safe,

Sandy Lender

September 2026 • Vol. 19 No. 11

asphaltPRO 602 W. Morrison, Box 6a Fayette, MO 65248 (660) 728-5007 • www.theasphaltpro.com GROUP PUBLISHER Chris Harrison chris@theasphaltpro.com EDITOR Sandy Lender sandy@theasphaltpro.com (239) 272-8613 DIGITAL EDITOR Sarah Redohl sarah@theasphaltpro.com (573) 355-9775 MEDIA SALES Cara Owings cara@theasphaltpro.com (660) 537-0778 ART DIRECTOR Kristin Branscom BUSINESS MANAGER Susan Campbell (660) 728-5007 OPERATIONS Natasha Nivens natasha@theasphaltpro.com The Asphalt Pro is published 11 times per year.

Writers expressing views in The Asphalt Pro or on the website are professionals with sound, professional advice. Views expressed herein are not necessarily the same as the views of The Asphalt Pro, thus producers/ contractors are still encouraged to use best practices when implementing new advice.

SUBSCRIPTION POLICY: Individual subscriptions are available without charge in the United States, Canada and Mexico to qualified individuals.

One year subscription to non-qualifying Individuals: United States $90, Canada and Mexico $125.00. For the international digital edition, visit theasphaltpro.com/subscribe/.

ON TRACK PERFORMANCE

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S A F E T Y S P OT L I G H T

Suicide Prevention with K9 Support Manitowoc’s veteran employee research group hosts wellness event

BY THE ASPHALT PRO STAFF

I

n honor of Suicide Prevention Month this September and the many entities bringing awareness to the mental health wellness of the construction industry workforce, The Asphalt Pro reminds workers of a valuable national resource: the 988 hotline.

If you’re in crisis, please call the national suicide and crisis lifeline at 988 or text “hello” to 741741. Skilled, trained counselors are available 24/7 to help you or a colleague.

Prior to September’s many events to raise awareness and offer support around the nation, one construction industry group held its second annual “Empowering Warriors & Raising Hope” event. Manitowoc employees united through this initiative to support K9s For Warriors, Ponte Vedra, Florida. The company’s Veteran Employee Resource Group led activities across its manufacturing plant in Shady Grove, Pennsylvania, its corporate office in Milwaukee, and all 17 MGX Equipment Services locations.

K9s For Warriors is a nonprofit that rescues shelter dogs and trains them as service dogs for veterans living with post-traumatic stress disorder. The organization’s programs help veterans regain independence, confidence and hope while giving rescue dogs a second chance at life.

The Empowering Warriors & Raising Hope event centers around number 22, a tragic statistic reflecting that on average, 22 veterans die by suicide daily in the United States. This figure has been widely used to bring awareness and advocacy efforts to veteran suicide.

Employees and supporters also purchased 45 limited-edition “22” shirts, with proceeds benefiting K9s For Warriors. Employee contributions and branch fundraising generated just over $4,000, while the Manitowoc Foundation committed an additional $10,000, bringing the current contribution to more than $14,000.

“Empowering Warriors & Raising Hope gives our employees a meaningful way to come together in support of veterans and their families,” said Heather Monn, HR busi10 | SEPTEMBER 2026

Employees at Manitowoc’s corporate office in Milwaukee also supported the Empowering Warriors & Raising Hope effort. On June 9, 40 employees packed 22 backpacks with supplies and collectively completed 22 laps along a designated walking path.

LEFT: At Manitowoc’s Shady Grove manufacturing plant in Pennsylvania, 56 employees completed a combined 1,181 laps around a Grove TMS800-2 truck crane custom wrapped in a U.S. flag design.

The crane marked the walking route and displayed the American flag and flags representing each branch of the U.S. military. RIGHT: Across all 17 MGX Equipment Services locations, 358 employees participated in a ”22 Lunch“ fundraiser, contributing $2.22 for a hot dog, chips and a soda.

ness partner and Manitowoc VERG chair.

“The participation across Shady Grove, Milwaukee, and every MGX location shows how strongly our people believe in this cause. Whether they walked laps, packed backpacks, purchased a shirt, or made a donation, every contribution helped extend the impact of the campaign.”

If your organization is holding a seminar or event to raise awareness or to educate others in our industry about suicide prevention, pain management options or other mental health wellness topics, please reach out to sandy@theasphaltpro.com to have that event listed in our events calendar at theasphaltpro.com/suicideprevention.

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S A F E T Y S P OT L I G H T

Preventing Fatalities in Work Zones

BY THE ASPHALT PRO STAFF

T

o assist contractors in managing traffic while reducing crashes through work zones, Acusensus solutions give real-time, recordable alerts to law enforcement officers (LEOs) who are working in tandem with state department of transportation (DOT) officials. During his presentation to the Plantmix Asphalt Industry of Kentucky (PAIKY) winter training school in February, Tim Pullin of Acusensus discussed how the technology works to detect the fatal five dangerous driver behaviors: • Speeding—Acusensus supplies speed enforcement technology and services in the United States, New Zealand and half of the Australian states.

• Distracted Driving—Acusensus supplies technology to identify distracted driver behavior.

• Seatbelt Non-compliance—Acusensus supplies technology to identify when a driver is not wearing his or her seatbelt.

• Impaired Driving—Acusensus is developing technology to identify whether drivers are under the influence of drugs and alcohol, and to provide real-time notification to police officers of suspected offenders. Acusensus deployed a worldfirst pilot of this technology in the United Kingdom in December 2024.

• And the fifth of the fatal five is Fatigue.

CRASHES ARE A FATAL PROBLEM

Anyone who has lost a colleague, friend or loved one due to a work zone incursion understands the importance of finding ways to grab the traveling public’s attention, slow drivers as they go past work zones and help motorists focus on driving safely. We shouldn’t have to provide price tags, but tax allocations often require justification beyond saving lives to implement new technologies around work zone safety. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) revised in February 2023 its 2019 Report No. DOT HS 813 403 on the economic and societal impact of motor vehicle crashes.

The report’s 2023 numbers give staggering costs of a single road fatality: 12 | SEPTEMBER 2026

Here the Acusensus trailer is set up alongside an Arkansas roadside within a work zone.

It is ideal to set up the trailer ahead of the active work area and to position marked officers after the active work area. When the solution detects a driver engaged in dangerous behavior, such as speeding, the system captures only vehicle imagery and speed data, without collecting any personally identifiable information. This evidence package is encrypted and transmitted immediately to the officer, who can pull over the driver and issue a citation in real time.

• Direct economic loss is $1.6 million—this includes medical, legal, property, lost productivity • Total societal cost is $11.3 million—this includes quality of life, pain, suffering • The state and local government payout per fatality is $51,700 (baseline estimate) • Through higher insurance premiums, taxes for emergency services and lost economic productivity, the average American “crash tax” per year is $1,036

TECHNOLOGY OFFERS A SOLUTION

Working with state authorities, teams from Acusensus use both fixed and mobile trail-

er-based systems to detect high-risk driving behaviors before they cause crashes. The system instantly generates certified, prosecutable evidence packages and transmits them securely to LEOs stationed a safe distance down the road.

These transportable trailers are designed to be moved along the side of the road, advancing as the work zone progresses. The trailers can “travel” through work zones due to their transportable nature, and they act as a visible reminder to encourage drivers to slow down before they reach the active work area.

Warning signs and flashing lights can be used to notify drivers they are entering an enforced zone and LEOs stationed at a safe dis-

tance from the area receive notification of which vehicles have failed to comply. The officer can then pull drivers over and issue citations in real time, with evidence packages that are gathered, encrypted, and transmitted from the cameras and radar to the officer. Armed with undeniable, real-time evidence, the officer can then use their discretion to determine the best course of action, whether that means enforcing the law with a citation or taking the opportunity to educate the driver on the specific dangers their behavior posed to the roadside workers.

Privacy protection is a core feature of the Acusensus technology. The system is engineered to safeguard the public’s data through a strict retention policy—every captured image is automatically and permanently deleted within minutes unless it is explicitly flagged and used as part of a verified evidence package.

limit) dropped at every monitored corridor: from 55% to 37% on I-75 in Whitley County, and by nearly half along both directions of I-64 in Shelby County. The most dramatic shift was on the rural stretch of Kentucky 3 in Martin County, where severe speeding fell from over 42% to 16.5%, the strongest behavioral correction of any site.

The underlying traffic data tells the same story. On I-64 westbound, a 55-mph corridor,

average speed fell from 64.4 mph to 60.9 mph once enforcement was active, and the share of vehicles speeding dropped from 89.1% to 80.8%. On the rural Kentucky 3 corridor, a 45mph zone, the effect was even sharper: average speed fell from 52.9 mph to 45.4 mph, and the percentage of vehicles speeding dropped from 79.8% to 43.5%.

For more information, contact tim.pullin@ acusensus.com or visit www.acusensus.us.

Kenco Engineering, Inc

KENTUCKY CASE STUDY

Four out of every five fatalities in the nation’s work zones are motorists, according to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), reinforcing the idea that a safe work zone protects the public as much as it protects the workers maintaining our roadways. Kentucky Work Zone Statistics from 2024 reported 1,223 crashes occurred in work zones, resulting in 298 injuries and 7 fatalities. In 2025, Kentucky Legislative Session HB 664 was passed and a pilot project officially launched in September 2025 in partnership with Acusensus, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC), Kentucky State Police, ATS Construction, Louisville Paving and Mountain Enterprises to lessen those numbers and save lives. It began with extensive training for the Kentucky State Police. Then five trailers were deployed and rotated through select high-priority work zones: • US23 in Lawrence County • I-64 in Shelby County • Kentucky 3 in Martin County • Richmond Road in Fayette County • I-75 in Whitley County KYTC had the benefit of seeing how the speed enforcement system had assisted the Arkansas Department of Transportation in three work zones from 2022 to 2024. The Arkansas Work Zone Speed Program demonstrated a 45% decrease in work zone crashes and 39% decrease in CMVs during its trial period.

In Saline County work zones, officers issued 4,591 warnings and 981 violations.

What Kentucky experienced was similar.

Once enforcement went live, severe speeding (more than 10 mph over the work zone

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WWW.THEASPHALTPRO.COM | 13

MIX IT UP

Performing automatic binder extractions offers consistency and safety for the lab technician. Photo courtesy of ATS

Automate the Asphalt Lab From sampling to data reporting and every test in between, automating various processes in the asphalt QC/QA chain offers consistency and safety along the way

BY SANDY LENDER

I

n and around the asphalt testing lab, there are repetitive tasks that can be relegated to a machine, thus freeing the human technician for other tasks in the quality control/quality assurance (QC/QA) and testing sphere.

AUTOMATED SAMPLING EXAMPLE

One of the automated QC/QA procedures that original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) have offered for decades is that of collecting hot-mix asphalt (HMA) samples from the truck bed in a safe and controlled manner. This process could involve a laborer climbing onto scaffolding, plunging a shovel into the back of a truck to get a few scoops of mix that he hopes represent the whole load. He then takes the bucket to the lab to be split and tested, etc. Or this procedure could be made more consistent and safer.

14 | SEPTEMBER 2026

For example, Pavement Technology Inc., Covington, Georgia, includes its remote truck sampling device (RTSD) within its automatic quality control system. This setup, to be erected immediately beyond the loadout area at the plant, sinks a mechanical arm into the fresh load of mix to safely capture a representative sample from the haul vehicle. The arm then retracts and travels along a rail to deposit the mix through a chute to a waiting field ignition oven, where the sample is weighed, burned and re-weighed. A test report produces the asphalt content of the sample. The burned sample is deposited into the field gradation unit, which performs a complete sieve analysis of the sample. All test data is displayed on an excel spread sheet and sent to the asphalt plant’s control house without anyone having to shovel mix, split samples or remove pans from the ignition oven.

Of course, truck sampling devices don’t have to be that complex.

In today’s changing environment, QC/QA personnel can select how much automation they desire and how much “hands-on” work they maintain control of from sampling to testing to reporting. Here’s

Baghouses

ATS Asphalt Binder Technician Rebecca Kohl measures the hardness of the asphalt binder during the penetration test. Photo courtesy of ATS

how some of your peers are removing variability and introducing efficiencies in, and around, the lab setting.

TAKING AUTOMATION INTO THE LAB

In a July 9 blog post for Humboldt Manufacturing, Zameer Syed wrote, “Laboratory technicians bring experience and judgement [sic] that no machine can replace. But many of the tasks they carry out every day are repetitive by nature. Handling specimens, recording measurements, moving samples between stations, and repeating the same process over and over again all take time. They also introduce opportunities for small variations between operators. If those repetitive tasks can be carried out automatically and consistently, technicians can spend more time where their expertise really adds value.”

While the technicians use their expertise where it’s needed most, automation can be applied to more mundane and repetitive tasks. Tanya Nash, director of engineering for Asphalt Testing Solutions & Engineering (ATS), Jacksonville, Florida, spoke of how she’s seeing this in action around the country, but specifically in her state.

“Automation seems to be everywhere from the binder lab, to design, to QC, to mix performance,” she said, sharing that some

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One of the truck sampling devices on the market is the Safe-T Sampler from Stansteel Hotmix Parts & Service, Louisville, Kentucky.

This structure is to be erected immediately beyond the silo loadout.

When a haul truck pulls alongside the device, an operator stands on the anti-skid tread-plate platform where he has a clear view of the material in the back of the truck, the hydraulic sampling arm, and the receiving splitter chute to the side of the structure, which uses the 180-degree motion capability of the Safe-T Sampler. The operator uses joystick controls to move the hydraulic sampling arm into the material and collects a 20-pound sample. He then uses the joystick to hydraulically move the jaw containing the sample to the splitter chute where the sample can be safely retrieved.

of the technology is now being evaluated across the country for its impact on how technicians are trained and how expertise is being passed down. She listed these four areas where she sees automation already changing asphalt labs in the Southeast, particularly Florida: • Binder Lab: “On the production side (suppliers), the idea is turnaround. The use of automated equipment is high— flash point, penetration, specific gravity, and even some viscometers.”

• QC Labs: “The use of automated truck samplers has been approved in Florida and being used by some contractors. The automated binder samplers used at the asphalt plants are in use. Although the automation of different volumetric tests are out there, I am not aware of anyone in Florida using the systems to date.”

• Performance: “The same volumetric automation is used, more for research purposes—universities and proof of concept ideas. Systems are currently being built to look at other performance tests and sample fabrication devices to assist in reducing variability and technician time.”

MIX IT UP

In the Solterra Materials lab, fully automated loading sequences and data collection allow technicians to process more samples and focus on data analysis. Photo courtesy of Solterra Materials

• Mix Design: “Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning is in place, and some contractors are using it for their design processes and optimizations in Florida.”

No matter what part of the country you’re in, Syed noted in his blog, “As testing becomes more demanding, consistency becomes just as important as speed.”

The consistency and speed that Syed wrote of were on the mind of Sathish Banda, P.E., the technical services manager for Solterra Materials, Phoenix, Arizona. “Solterra Materials uses infraTest automatic analyzer to improve the speed, accuracy and consistency of binder extraction testing,” Banda shared. “Automation reduces manual handling, minimizes operator variability and improves safety. This allows laboratory staff to perform other tasks while the analyzer is performing binder extraction.”

The technicians at ATS also incorporate automation during extractions. Nash shared: “ATS uses automation during their binder extractions—where it is not fully automated, some of the process is. This step is primarily for safety (solvent exposure), 18 | SEPTEMBER 2026

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MIX IT UP productivity, and for repeatability. We don’t have many ‘outside the normal’ automations when dealing with our mixtures. For example, the ignition oven; our ovens all have internal scales with automatic printout systems, which is an automation, just one the industry is so acclimated to. One automation that removes the human error is our DSRs. The programing on the instruments allows little room for error during setup and helps ensure the samples are performed the same every time.”

Banda shared that Solterra Materials also uses InstroTek and Humboldt loading frames to support balanced mix design (BMD) testing for the accurate evaluation of mixes. “Fully automated loading sequences and data collection minimize human error and allow technicians to process more samples and focus on data analysis.”

“ATS is always looking at different automated systems to improve efficiency,” Nash shared. “The key is making sure it is as good as the real thing.”

KEEP PEOPLE IN THE LOOP

ATS Laboratory Specialist Tanner Nestle prepares asphalt samples for the oven. Photos courtesy of ATS 20 | SEPTEMBER 2026

“Whenever people hear the word ‘automation,’ the assumption is often that it’s about replacing people,” Syed wrote. “I don’t see it that way.”

The people in the lab are integral to its success.

Austin Futrell, P.E., of Prairie Contractors LLC, Opelousas, Louisiana, shared that each of the company’s plants has its own lab with a semi-permanent lab technician. “However, we do have to move around quite often due to night work, multiple projects going on simultaneously, vacations/sickness, or other reasons.” To share files, they use Dropbox. “It connects all of our testing, designing, aggregate properties, and other documents so that each technician has access to every plant. It makes it easy to swap technicians if needed.”

The idea of communication and file sharing is integral to successful automation. This is the cornerstone of the connected work site.

While the Prairie Contractors’ labs don’t use automation “fully,” according to Futrell, they “have a long list of history with our materials that makes it easier for designing and comparing trends.” Futrell has already created multiple spreadsheets for designing and computing results and stated that the highly experienced team is comfortable with the system.

When it comes to that kind of communication and file sharing, whether your team participates in round robin testing out of a central lab you share with multiple contractors or you have a dedicated lab at each of multiple plants, you’ll be sharing data and test results with multiple entities. That data requires reliable transfer.

“Solterra Materials uses R18LabQMS to streamline its asphalt laboratory operations by centralizing quality records, automating calibration and maintenance reminders, and simplifying AASHTO R18 compliance,” Banda shared. “The platform reduces paperwork and keeps teams audit-ready with organized digital documentation.

This allows laboratory staff to spend more time ensuring quality and less time managing administrative tasks.”

R18LabQMS isn’t the only system Solterra Materials has in place for digital documentation. The team also uses Stonemont Solutions Software to streamline asphalt QC by managing mix designs, test results and production data in a centralized system. “It provides real-time tracking of quality control results, simplifies reporting and helps to ensure compliance with agency specifications,” Banda

Solterra Materials uses InstroTek and Humboldt loading frames to support balanced mix design (BMD) testing for the accurate evaluation of mixes.

Both photos courtesy of Solterra Materials

shared. “By giving laboratory and production teams quick access to data, Stonemont supports QC personnel to make more informed operational decisions.”

“When the automation is done correctly, the efficiency it can introduce can be high,” Nash said. “It frees up time in which technicians can be performing other tasks or analysis that does not have to be done by manually moving data around. Some of the efficiencies come from product use (our solvent extraction mentioned above), where we do not use as much consumable product as we would with a manual process. Other automation is about the workers’ safety. It prevents downtime from injuries or other issues.”

While sources have stated clear benefits to automating processes for efficiency, quality consciousness or safety, Nash offered a smart caution.

“Automation can be an asset but can also be a crutch,” she shared.

“As long as you have the checks and balances in place to verify the automation and what kind of data it is producing, there should be no hesitation to use it. There should always be a basic understanding of the task that is being automated to know when there are issues to be addressed or problems with the system.”

The foundational knowledge she speaks of is one of the many core values humans bring to the table. And one of the many reasons industry professionals from laborers to operators to lab techs to inspectors can rest assured automation is a tool to assist, not to replace, employees in the workforce, making them and their work more consistent and safer.

WWW.THEASPHALTPRO.COM | 21

STREET SMARTS Hard-won know-how for the next generation

Maintain the Pavement.

Strengthen the Industry.

BY BILL STANLEY

L

ast month, I talked about how today’s asphalt isn’t your grandpa’s asphalt. You know that, and I know that. But a lot of our customers—especially on the private and commercial side—don’t.

As we and other paving contractors do our part to educate our customers, I think pavement maintenance is only going to play a bigger role in our industry.

That said, if I were starting a business today, I’d take a hard look at pavement maintenance. I know folks in our industry have different definitions of pavement maintenance, but my definition is any treatment done to extend the life of the pavement between repaves.

That might surprise you because we don’t do maintenance at American Pavement Specialists (other than mill-and-pave, which some people might also consider maintenance). And we’re not looking to get into it. We’ve built our business around paving. But just because it isn’t our lane doesn’t mean I don’t see it as an opportunity.

If I were starting an asphalt maintenance business today, here are three things I’d do to build a business that customers can trust.

KNOW WHAT YOU’RE LOOKING AT

If you’re going to build a maintenance business, the first thing you’ve got to do is educate yourself on what you’re looking at. That’s more important than knowing how to run a crack-sealing machine or spray sealer.

Every parking lot is different. How old is it? Was it a full-depth pave or just an overlay? Is the problem in the asphalt, or is the base failing?

Is it sitting in full sun, or does it stay damp because it’s shaded all day?

Is that crack from traffic, water, tree roots, or a poor foundation? Before you can recommend the right maintenance, you’ve got to understand why the pavement is doing what it’s doing.

I see too many guys who know their product, but they don’t really know the pavement they’re standing on. They’re not trying to mislead anybody—they’re just selling what they know. But if all you know how to do is fill cracks, every problem starts looking like a crack-filling job. If all you do is sealcoat, every parking lot starts looking like it needs a sealcoat.

The best maintenance contractors won’t just know their products.

They’ll know pavement. And that’s what helps customers make the right decision.

PAVEMENT MAINTENANCE IS ABOUT TIMING

Maintenance has to happen at the right time. Too early wastes money, too late wastes money.

I had one customer show me a proposal for about $40,000 worth of crack filling, sealcoating and striping on a 10-year-old parking lot. I told him to spend that money repaving the worst section of the lot and work through it in phases.

22 | SEPTEMBER 2026

I have customers who see a few cracks and want to repave the whole lot. I tell them, “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Fill the cracks, seal it, restripe it, and you’ll get a few more years out of it.”

Because good pavement maintenance isn’t about selling sealcoating or recommending repaving. It’s about recommending the right solution so the customer gets every year they can out of their pavement.

The adage of “the right treatment on the right pavement at the right time” is a mantra in our industry for a reason! Throwing resources at the wrong pavement distress is a waste of time and money for the customer and the contractor.

PAVING CONTRACTORS AND MAINTENANCE CONTRACTORS NEED EACH OTHER

I think paving contractors and maintenance contractors need to work together a whole lot more than we do today.

When American Pavement Specialists finishes paving a parking lot, I make a point to talk to my customers about what to expect from their pavement and why maintenance matters. Then we stay in touch.

If they call me a year, two years or five years later asking what they should do, I’ll point them in the right direction. If I drive through one of our parking lots and notice it’s time to fill some cracks or seal the lot, I’ll let them know. I’ll also recommend a contractor I trust.

And vice versa. If a maintenance contractor is looking at a parking lot and decides it really needs to be milled and repaved, I hope they direct that customer to a qualified paving contractor. That partnership is how we take better care of the customer.

THE BOTTOM LINE

I think pavement maintenance is a huge business opportunity. But more importantly, it’s something our industry needs more of.

Today’s pavement is different than it was years ago, but a lot of customers still expect it to perform the same way. If we don’t explain what’s changed—and what they need to do to protect their investment—they’re going to think the pavement failed, when in reality their expectations haven’t caught up with the changes in our industry.

That’s why paving contractors and maintenance contractors need to work together to recommend the right treatment at the right time, so our customers can get every year possible out of their pavement.

If we do that, everybody wins: the contractors, the customer and the entire asphalt industry.

Bill Stanley owns American Pavement Specialists, Danbury, Connecticut, with his wife, Colleen.

Stanley has more than 40 years of experience in the asphalt industry.

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UPDATE YOUR EXISTING BATCH PLANT PART 1

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The Ammann UniBatch tower is designed to drop onto your existing footprint without moving your foundation, your permits or your production schedule, according to the manufacturer. Photo courtesy of Ammann Group 24 | SEPTEMBER 2026

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Both batch and drum hot-mix asphalt (HMA) plants have their purposes in North America. Even the combination batch/drum plant, which you may have heard referred to as a dratch, has its advantages in certain markets.

For those producers who have an older batch plant grandfathered into an area where disturbing the local regulatory authority could be a negative experience, making updates to run more efficiently or to run recycled content doesn’t have to be a frightening proposition.

While we will discuss upgrades that require alterations to your permit, there are actions you can take for efficiency that won’t require changes to your permit, such as performing routine maintenance and modernizing electrical components. Llew Williams, general manager, operations for Stansteel Hotmix Parts & Service, Louisville, Kentucky, spoke to this concept.

CONSULT YOUR PERMIT

“We would encourage owners to consult all applicable local, state and federal requirements before making modifications to their facilities,” Williams cautioned. “Every plant and jurisdiction is different. That said, many owners can realize meaningful improvements through maintenance, replacement of worn components, and operational optimization projects that improve reliability, consistency, and efficiency without significantly altering the fundamental operation of the plant.”

Some examples the Stansteel team listed include: • Using the customers’ right to repair by replacing worn drag conveyor components, bucket elevator parts, flights, liners, bearings, bin level indicators, load cells, weighing systems, instrumentation, and other high-wear or serviceable items.

• Modernizing motor controls, VFDs and electrical components.

• Retrofitting individual plant components such as cold feed systems, AC pumping systems, silos or material handling equipment.

• Installing updated plant controls and data reporting capabilities.

“In many cases, these types of projects can extend the useful life of a batch plant while improving uptime, mix consistency and operator visibility into production,” Williams continued.

Then there are some changes that require alerting your regulatory agency, and are likely to be met with immediate approval, such as improving air quality with a more efficient dust collection system or burner. T.J. Young, the proprietor of T2ASCO LLC, Overland Park, Kansas, shared that WWW.THEASPHALTPRO.COM | 25

“As for changing fuels, it really depends on what fuels are included in the existing permit,” she continued. “If multiple fuels are listed, the plant can switch back and forth as needed. The only requirement is that they maintain the appropriate documentation per the permit. However, they cannot switch to a fuel that is not specifically listed in the permit without contacting the permitting agency to obtain approval first. I worked on several permit revisions years ago for customers to add the ability to combust recycled oils to their permit.”

ADD RAP SYSTEMS

The addition of recycled material that Sutton-Choate references is a common theme for batch plant owners. Specifically, owners are often interested in adding the ability to run reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP), which the original batch towers weren’t engineered to do.

Jeff Meeker, CEO of Meeker Equipment Company, Belleville, Pennsylvania, and David Garrett, regional sales manager for Meeker, spoke of the history behind adding RAP systems to

Over the past decade, Oman Brothers, Inc., St. Michaels, Minnesota, has added recycle capability when upgrading their long-time batch plant to a combination facility. This represents one of many upgrades producers can consider for bringing older batch infrastructure up to date. Photo courtesy of Motion Engineering

you should double-check what you want to change with the existing permit’s fine print.

“Generally, you should be very careful of making any changes in your plant involving your burner, your exhaust fan, your dust collector or your drier without checking your permit rules first; unless it is a direct replacement as to size, make and model, even when installing more efficient equipment. If you find your equipment is listed in specificity, it is wise to let the regulatory people know that you are making changes.

“This also includes changing fuels,” Young continued. “When making changes to equipment or fuel source that is more efficient from a dust collection or emission standpoint, changes are typically welcomed.”

26 | SEPTEMBER 2026

Catherine Sutton-Choate, director of product compliance for Astec Industries, Chattanooga, also offered words of reassurance. You want to start with full transparency and a review of the existing permit, but you’re communicating the benefit for the community and environment.

“As for replacing a burner, it is never okay to not tell the regulatory agency,” Sutton-Choate said. “You must keep them informed of any changes to the main source of emissions at a facility. However, this does not mean that the permit will be opened or revised in any way.

As long as the burner has the same capacity as the one being replaced and the anticipated emissions are the same or less, the agency will merely document the change. This is more critical in some states than it is in others.

BEFORE: This belt conveyor was feeding 5% RAP directly to the weigh hopper.

AFTER: Upgrading with a custom rotary mixer allows more than 40% RAP.

Both photos courtesy of Stansteel Hotmix Parts & Service

can be integrated into any layout, easily allowing up to 30% RAP.” For higher percentages of RAP in the mix, the OEM can add its RAH50 drum to the Unibatch tower to preheat the RAP before introduction.

“It’s been an evolution,” Garrett concurred.

“When we started using RAP the goal was often 10% and we would weigh it in the aggregate weigh hopper. In order to incorporate the higher percentages expected today, we use a stand-alone weigh hopper for the RAP and enter it directly into the mixer.”

Converting to a newer, more efficient burner should be seen as an environmental improvement and will likely be met with approval from the permitting authority. Photo courtesy of Reliable Asphalt Products

Screen for Upgrades

If you plan to introduce continuous mix production at your batch plant facility to allow yourself flexibility between both, don’t forget to assess the screen deck. You may need to upgrade it to accommodate continuous mix production.

The screen deck often becomes the biggest production bottleneck. Smaller screen decks begin creating carryover once production exceeds their capacity. Consider this example from Omann Brothers. Their screen deck was limited to approximately 120 TPH. If capacity exceeded 120 TPH, carryover would occur, efficiency would drop and production would suffer.

If you can’t upgrade the screen deck, one solution is to bypass it. This is what Omann Brothers did. They maintained their original screen deck and extended the hot elevator to install a bypass that routes aggregate directly into the mixing drum. They then use a flap door/diverter to switch between continuous drum production and traditional batch production. This allows them flexibility while reducing waste and reducing wear.

28 | SEPTEMBER 2026

batch plants over the years and echoed Sutton-Choate’s optimism.

“Most batch plants were not designed to run RAP when built,” Garrett said.

The Meeker solution is the RAP Pak, which controls the flow of the RAP into the tower to minimize steam explosion. “We were delivering 15% RAP back when the systems were designed; now plants call for higher percentages and, depending on the customization, the system can do 40% in some towers,” Meeker said.

“Each plant is different.”

The challenge of material temperature differentials is one the industry had to address when it came to introducing RAP to the batching system. We all recognize that RAP is prized not only because it’s a great recycling story, but also because it replaces a percentage of costly virgin materials. It contains residual asphalt binder. It also contains moisture.

Both the binder and moisture contribute to blue smoke and steam concerns when added to the batch mixer, thus OEMs have assisted producers in finding custom solutions to introducing the material.

For Ammann Group, Langenthal, Switzerland, this is answered in the manufacturer’s UniBatch tower. A spokesperson for the OEM provided: “RAP usage is now easier than ever.” With the Unibatch tower, producers add RAP to the mix design via Ammann’s RAC system. “This cold addition of RAP…

The McCrossan Process “From the historical perspective, one of the first people to use RAP on a batch plant was C. S. McCrossan in Minnesota.

This was a 10,000-pound Stansteel batch plant that was producing in a major metropolitan location. With the introduction of the milling machines and maintaining many roads in the area, they were accumulating RAP. Why not incorporate it? This system utilized a recycle bin feeding to a long belt conveyor that elevated the material up to the batch tower level, then the material was fed down the chute into the weigh hopper and utilized just like weighing up another material in the batching process. They would weigh up the various materials from each hot bin and then weigh up the RAP, dump in the pugmill and mix it up. There was a lot of experimentation, but a tremendous amount of success.”—Llew Williams

Michael Petrie, the president of Motion Engineering, Caledonia, Wisconsin, shared how a customer in St. Michaels, Minnesota— Omann Brothers, Inc.—added recycle capability when upgrading a long-time batch plant to a combination facility. “Omann Brothers introduced RAP into their mix production by having a RAP collar on their aggregate dryer and running a two-conveyor system to be able to add RAP or RAS.” Sutton-Choate reminded readers of another vital component: “I have personally worked on batch plant scavenge systems, which are a necessity to run appreciable amounts of RAP through a tower based on most existing configurations.”

Whichever configuration turns out to be the most advantageous for your batch plant depends upon your specific plant. Mike Raasch, controls engineer at WEM Automation, Pewaukee, Wisconsin, stated, “The highest-priority upgrade will vary by plant.” He’s speaking not only in terms of adding RAP or

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Modernize Your Batches

Sources offered a number of upgrades batch plant owners/operators can consider for bringing older facilities up to date.

For simple maintenance and one-toone component replacement, owners have the right to repair and don’t have to alert regulatory authorities to their activities. But when it comes to upgrading or upscaling components, adding capacity, switching burner fuels or changing hours of operation, the proper governing bodies must be notified. Make sure you have a competent person assigned to assess the permit and assist in filing the proper paperwork. Then consider which of these upgrades can help you extend the life and efficiency of your older batch plant.

One of the options for updating the batch plant is to add warm-mix asphalt (WMA) and other specialty mix production. A dynamic foaming system allows the producer to meter and blend water and liquid asphalt cement (AC), creating a foamed product that enhances the coating of aggregates at lower production temperatures. This reduces fuel consumption and reduces the potential for blue smoke. Photo courtesy of Stansteel Hotmix Parts & Service

changing a burner, but in terms of updating the controls for all of the above.

“A system with obsolete controls but accurate scales has different needs from a plant with a supportable PLC and unreliable weighing equipment,” Raasch continued. “The best starting point is a field assessment that identifies the systems creating the greatest production and support risk.”

To assist in receiving approval for a change in the batch plant’s operation, Garrett suggested telling the township or regulatory agency how the new feature is the best or newest available technology, how the new component offers improved heat efficiency, how the change is facilitating the use of recycle, and so on. Communication and full transparency are key, especially when our industry has new technology to improve aging infrastructure. Let’s discuss some more of those options.

MODERNIZE THE OLDER BATCH

Williams shared that modernizing the older batch plant could be as simple as finding the right combination of replacement parts, controls upgrades, material handling improvements, combustion technology and engineering support to extend plant life and position owners for future production demands.

“Many batch plants operating today still have significant useful life remaining,” Wil30 | SEPTEMBER 2026

liams said. “Owners are increasingly focused on strategic modernization rather than wholesale replacement. Whether the objective is improved reliability, higher production rates, increased RAP utilization, better automation or lower operating costs, customized upgrades often provide a highly attractive return on investment.”

The team at Ammann shared, “Plants built in the 1970s and ’80s are still standing across North America, but the tower—the screens, hot bins, weigh systems and control—is the part that’s fallen behind. Parts get harder to source. Uptime gets harder to guarantee.

There’s no sound way of utilizing RAP. Every year, the gap to modern output and emissions standards gets wider. The UniBatch tower is built to drop onto that same footprint. It’s modular by design…[and] also built to interface cleanly with plant components from other manufacturers, so a full rebuild isn’t the only path to modern technology.”

For owners who seek the more complete makeover, the framework is already there.

Mike Mauzy, sales manager for Reliable Asphalt Products Inc., Shelbyville, Kentucky, spoke of converting the batch plant to a combo batch/drum. He mentioned this option as a major upgrade that would likely require permitting, no matter what state or municipality you’re working in, “but the benefits far outweigh the headache of permitting.”

• Replace worn components and high-wear items such as drag conveyor and bucket elevator parts, bearings, bin level indicators, load cells, and the like.

• Update/recalibrate weigh scales.

• Modernize motor controls and electrical components.

• Add variable frequency drives.

• Retrofit individual components such as cold feed systems and AC pumping systems.

• Add a storage silo as well as material handling/transfer equipment.

• Install updated plant controls and data reporting capabilities.

• Upgrade to a modern, LoNOx or Ultra LoNOx burner.

• Upgrade your exhaust fan and add a VFD. • Update your dust collector.

• Upgrade your dryer/dryer flighting • Incorporate modern drum control systems to optimize drying efficiency.

• Assess your screen deck’s capacity and consider bypass options.

• Consider adding warm-mix asphalt technologies, including dynamic foaming systems.

• Consider an external RAP or another RAP system to facilitate recycle.

• Update obsolete relay logic or an unsupported PLC architecture.

• Install blue smoke scavenging systems around the loadout area.

• What would you add to this list?

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For this type of upgrade, Mauzy suggested adding a mixing drum while keeping the batch tower so you can use the batching capabilities. Or you could remove the batch tower and use the existing elevator to feed an elevated mixing drum. “In either case, this major overhaul, which has been performed hundreds of times over the past 40 years, requires updated controls, screening equipment, belt scales, liquid metering upgrades, etc., to convert to drum mix plant capabilities,” Mauzy said. “Oftentimes, updated larger dryers, baghouses and increased silo capacity accompany these improvements. Utilizing existing equipment greatly reduces the investment over purchase of a new plant and likely reduces the permitting exposure while accomplishing some of the same benefits, like increased RAP usage, increased production, reduced emissions, etc.”

Petrie explained how Omann Brothers accomplished this task. Jim Omann had been a long-time batch plant owner, but within the last decade, had made upgrades to the existing batch plant that now allow the intro-

Ask the Experts

The experts who took the time to contribute to this article ascribe to The Asphalt Pro theory that all boats rise with a rising tide. They have years of experience to share and can be reached: Kiel Stead at Ammann Group NA (407) 634-7703 Kiel.Stead@ammann.com Catherine Sutton-Choate at Astec Industries (423) 618-9545 csutton@astecindustries.com Jeff Meeker at Meeker Equipment (215) 828-2651 jmeeker@meekerequipment.com David Garrett at Meeker Equipment (888) 333-0323 davidgarrett@meekerequipment.com Michael Petrie at Motion Engineering (414) 510-6097 mike@motionengineering.net Mike Mauzy at Reliable Asphalt Products (502) 529-9043 M.Mauzy@ReliableAsphalt.com Llew Williams at Stansteel Hotmix Parts & Service (502) 860-2997 lwilliams@stansteel.com T.J. Young at T2ASCO LLC (913)-634-4967 • tjyoung2@att.net Mike Raasch at WEM Automation mraasch@wemautomation.com

32 | SEPTEMBER 2026

duction of continuous mix production while switching between batch and continuous production as needed.

“It is absolutely possible to modernize an existing batch plant without replacing the entire plant,” Petrie said. “Rather than scrapping a functioning batch plant, owners can strategically upgrade controls, automation and production capabilities while extending the plant’s lifespan. Jim’s operation is a good example of converting a traditional batch plant to a flexible system capable of both continuous (drum) production and batch production, which has significantly reduced wear on the equipment while maintaining the ability to produce specialty mixes on demand. He upgraded his controls and automation first, allowing for expansion for future growth, then started upgrading equipment on the plant to avoid using the batch plant unless absolutely necessary for the specialty mix production, minimizing waste and wear on equipment.”

One of the areas batch plant owners might overlook when making an upgrade like this is the screen deck capacity. Petrie explained what Omann Brothers did.

“If looking to integrate an operation that involves switching from batch production to continuous mix, it is important to evaluate the screen deck,” Petrie said. “The screen deck often becomes the biggest production bottleneck. Smaller screen decks begin creating carryover once production exceeds their capacity. As an example, at Jim’s plant, their screen deck is limited to approximately 120 tons per hour; above that, carryover occurs. Also, efficiency drops and production suffers.

“Another thing to consider is bypassing the screen deck,” Petrie continued. “What Omann Brothers did is maintain their original screen deck, and extend their hot elevator to install a bypass that routes aggregate directly into the mixing drum. They then use a flap door/ diverter to switch between continuous drum production and traditional batch production. This allows them tremendous flexibility. It reduces waste and significantly reduces wear parts, which are one of the costliest items for a manufacturer.”

Williams detailed this combination concept as the next “phase” in the history of accommodating RAP in batch plant production.

Modifying the plant to have the best of both worlds allows the producer to keep the batch tower and the batch process for special mix designs and custom requirements while installing continuous drum mix capability that facilitates RAP introduction. Not every facility is a candidate for this combination.

“Each plant was individually evaluated and custom engineered to be able to operate still as a batch plant and as a continuous drum mixing type plant,” Williams said. “In this arrangement, all of the process had to be set up just like a drum plant with variable speed drives,

belt scales, and scalping screens in the process and a comprehensive control system to alternate between running batch tower and the continuous drum mix process.”

Given the efficiencies of newer componentry, the producer may be pleasantly surprised by the environmental “wins” he can offer to his region. The burners of today have engineering advantages that air quality boards prefer to the burners of the 1970s. But not every region is looking for the same thing.

“Each state has its own permit regulations for the air operating permit for the plant,” Young said. “In fact, it is not always called an air operating permit. The state must follow federal guidelines, and can be more stringent than the guidelines, but not more lenient…You really have to know your local requirements.”

Mauzy spoke of this as it relates to the burner, specifically. “I would not carte blanche state that changing a burner requires a permit. That is likely the case. I believe in many cases, improved emissions, improved efficiency and reduced noise make the permitting process simpler. However, in some cases, as long as you are not increasing BTU or plant productivity, I am not certain that a new permit is required.

In any event, converting to a newer, more efficient burner, especially if converting from an open air burner to a totally enclosed burner, should be seen as a major environmental improvement.”

It’s not just the addition of RAP capability or a more fuel-efficient burner that will delight the environmental boards. Also consider dynamic foaming technologies, which some OEMs call mechanical. Williams spelled out the exact reasons air quality authorities would look favorably upon this update to your facility: “By mechanically blending precisely metered water with liquid asphalt, the foaming process dramatically expands the asphalt binder and enhances coating of aggregates, RAP, RAS, and fines, creating a more homogeneous mix,” Williams said. “This improved blending allows producers to lower mix temperatures, reducing fuel consumption while helping cut blue smoke emissions and odors at the plant.”

A common theme from sources showed batch plant upgrades not only increasing efficiency, but doing so for the purpose of increasing production. Many upgrades and additional systems designed for the older batch plants are bringing those plants closer to the combination concept, and we’ll look more closely at that in part two.

No matter which upgrades you make, ensure all components and systems continue to operate cohesively. As hinted throughout this article, updating the electronics and controls is an important step for the batch plant owner, and that will be covered in depth in part two of this series in the October edition.

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Braen Stone Sets Sail 122-year-old company expands into barge logistics to reduce congestion and improve efficiency

A strategic expansion into waterborne aggregate transportation marks the first time in company history that Braen Stone Companies delivers stone products via barge.

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FROM BRAEN STONE

Braen Stone Companies, Haledon, New Jersey, is a fifth-generation, family-owned business with more than 122 years of experience in the quarry and construction materials industry. As of August 2026, the company has launched its waterborne aggregate transportation operations, marking the first time in company history that it will deliver stone products via barge.

This strategic expansion enables Braen Stone to transport its own aggregates across the waterways of the New York and New Jersey region—offering a more efficient, cost-effective and environmentally responsible alternative to traditional trucking. The move comes in response to increasing infrastructure constraints, including bridge traffic restrictions, congestion pricing, and growing demand for reduced roadway congestion in and around New York City.

“With the addition of our barge capabilities, we can better serve our customers while addressing some of the region’s most pressing transportation challenges,” said Scott Braen, president and COO of Braen Stone Companies. “This investment allows us to move significantly larger volumes of material more efficiently—up to 2,000 tons per barge compared to just 25 tons per truck—while reducing the number of trucks on already congested roads.”

Braen has acquired six barges to date, each approximately one year old at the time of purchase, and is actively exploring opportunities to expand the fleet in the future. The company’s entry into waterborne logistics represents a milestone in its evolution, positioning it to meet growing regional demand with greater flexibility and scale.

34 | SEPTEMBER 2026

“This is about building for the future,” said Will Hannema, Braen Stone production supervisor, Northern Quarries. “By integrating waterway transport into our operations, we can control more of our supply chain, improve delivery timelines, and provide a higher level of service to our customers across the NY/NJ metro area.”

The company’s recent infrastructure investments further support this expansion. Braen’s acquisition of the Whitehall quarry in November 2022 enables efficient movement of stone products downriver to distribution points, while its Newark dock—acquired in November 2024—serves as a critical hub for transferring materials between land and water. Through advanced conveyor systems and stevedoring operations, materials can be loaded and unloaded seamlessly, strengthening the connection between maritime and land-based logistics.

Braen has already demonstrated the effectiveness of its waterborne operations through recent projects, including transporting aggregates to Queens for use in asphalt production and supporting major infrastructure work at John F. Kennedy International Airport. Additionally, the company has used its barge fleet to support regional logistics needs, including leasing vessels for the transport of rock salt throughout New York Harbor.

As demand for smarter, more sustainable infrastructure solutions grows, Braen’s investment in barge transport underscores its leadership in adapting to the evolving needs of the construction and materials industry. The company’s expansion into waterborne aggregates reflects its continued commitment to innovation, operational excellence, and customer service.

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Diamonds /// Schedule Interruptions /// Safe Options /// News

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Striping Standard

fall 2026 www.TheAsphaltPro.com WWW.THEASPHALTPRO.COM | 37

Over his career, Jonathon Thompson has seen variations in striping and stenciling across state lines. He’s seen handicap-accessible spaces placed to match a drawing on paper, not the real slope of the lot and hand-cut stencils where the letter spacing was so far off it changed how the sign read at a glance. He’s now created the Parking Lot Striping Industry Council (PLSIC) to help bring consistency, quality and safety to this sector of the pavement maintenance community. All photos courtesy of Thompson

Standardize the Striping Industry

New council can bring structure and improved safety with striping standard and certification

By Sandy Lender

rior to June 2026, striping contractors, paint and thermoplastic manufacturers, and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) of striping-related equipment had not had a unified professional body to prepare guidance in their niche of the industry. The Parking Lot Striping Industry Council™ (PLSIC™), headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware, launched June 2, opening membership to the trade. Its stated purpose is to develop and publish technical standards for parking lot striping, administer a professional certification program, and maintain a public directory connecting certified contractors with the property owners and facility managers who need them.

P

An Industry Professional’s Vision Jonathon Thompson is the executive director of PLSIC and the entrepreneur who recognized, during nearly two decades of work in the striping profession, that a lack of consistent practices posed qual38 FALL 2026

ity and safety risks. His striping career started in the Detroit metro area in 2002 with a move to Colorado—where there was more opportunity for skiing—in 2007.

“That move alone opened my eyes to how differently two cities could approach the same job,” Thompson said.

The differences in how contractors viewed and handled this facet of pavement maintenance became even more apparent when Thompson began manufacturing stencils for his own use and then for local contractors around Denver.

“When I took stencils national as 1-800-Stencil, the variation only got bigger,” Thompson said. “Every region had its own answer, and every contractor was sure theirs was the right one.”

For example, what measured as a 30-inch accessibility stencil in one region would be accepted elsewhere at 42 inches. Letters could be 12 inches tall in one state, 10 inches in the next.

“It wasn’t just sizing, either,” Thompson continued. “I’ve seen fire lanes laid out that no fire truck could actually navigate. Accessible

k

Tailgate talks and pre-job meetings ensure the crew understands what each job requires before it starts. The PLSIC will offer training and certification for crew members to better understand and execute their craft for the job.

LEFT: The striping contractor is the last professional on the job. RIGHT: The professional certification program credential will give contractors a recognized qualification to carry. This credential proves a contractor knows the standards his or her work must meet. Three tiers cover foundational competence, ADA and specialty work, and master-level project management.

spaces placed to match a drawing on paper, not the real slope of the lot. I’ve seen hand-cut stencils where the letter spacing was so far off it changed how the sign read at a glance. None of these are style choices. They’re the result of nobody ever writing down what ‘right’ looks like.”

Not having a consistent guide—a standard, if you will—could leave the striping contractor with a unique level of liability.

“I know exactly where the lack of consistency shows up, because for 15-plus years I was the guy who paid for it,” Thompson said.

“Striping is the last trade on a job before it opens. Everyone else is already off the site, and the schedule has already slipped by the time the call comes to me. That’s the kind of pressure that makes ‘good enough’ start to look acceptable. It isn’t. A line that’s off, or a fire lane that doesn’t fit the truck it’s named for, isn’t cosmetic. It shows up later: a truck that can’t get through, someone hurt on a wet parking lot, an owner in litigation over a fall in a state where that’s a routine cost of doing business.

“What I eventually realized is that no one had ever written the standard down. So, the standard became whatever the contractor wanted, whatever looked right to them or whatever they could get away with under a deadline. That’s a fine way to make decisions in some areas of life, but it’s not how I think about pavement marking.”

40 FALL 2026

Building a Standard The passion project Thompson is building to address and correct the gap is a veteran committee that will not only develop standards for striping professionals but will also assist those contractors with continuing education and certification, and connection to clients who require exacting and professional services. PLSIC is built as a member organization serving every side of the industry from the contractors, material suppliers, OEMs, property managers and municipalities.

“A trade body that brings materials, equipment and the people doing the work into the same conversation is overdue,” said Kurt Gruenberg, the vice president of sales for RAE Products & Chemicals Corp., Chicago, which celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2026.

“When good paint goes down badly, the cost lands on the supply side as much as on the contractor. PLSIC gives the trade a shared place to define what good work requires, and we’re glad to support it.”

The council will operate as a standards-and-certification body, not a commercial vendor. Its positions are intended to reflect member consensus through open process, not the agenda of any single firm.

The technical standards PLSIC develops will address issues that are vital to pavement maintenance quality:

• surface preparation • material selection • application methods • ADA compliance and • quality verification.

Its professional certification program, the Certified Parking Lot Striper™ (CPLS™) credential, will give contractors a recognized qualification to carry. This credential proves a contractor knows the standards his or her work has to meet. Three tiers cover foundational competence, ADA and specialty work, and master-level project management.

To become a CPLS-certified contractor, the professional will pass a standardized exam, meet continuing education requirements for renewal and agree to PLSIC’s professional standards. The credential is verifiable in the PLSIC directory and belongs to the individual, not the company he or she works for. It moves with them across employers. Each tier builds on the previous, advancing from Uniform Pavement Marking Standard (UPMS) master specification literacy and surface preparation through ADA layout and specialty markings to multi-site program management.

The PLSIC public directory will let property owners and facility managers find certified contractors and suppliers directly.

The council will be governed by a board of directors, with an independent standards committee of nine members drawn from across the industry and from the broader business community responsible for technical standards. There will be additional committees formed to address specific issues, member events where direction gets discussed openly, and an open commenting process for every specification the council develops.

“A trade body that brings materials, equipment and the people doing the work into the same conversation is overdue.”—Kurt Gruenberg As of press time, the first three confirmed board members, along with Thompson and his employees, had drafted the first standard with documentation, the Uniform Pavement Marking Standard (UPMS). This first comprehensive quality standard for commercial parking lot striping covers surface preparation, material specifications, ADA compliance, workmanship tolerances, inspection protocols and seasonal application guidelines. Readers can follow the PLSIC trajectory, see when public comments open for standards, and see when CPLS exam windows open at the website’s Roadmap page: parkinglotstriping.org/roadmap.

With open enrollment in the organization ongoing and council members being confirmed as this issue goes to press, the PLSIC is in its founding stages. Thompson has an ambitious yet organized vision to bring structure, quality and safety to this niche corner of the paving industry.

“Pavement marking is a safety and organizational task,” Thompson said. “It isn’t art, and it isn’t a matter of taste. A line is either straight, or it isn’t. A fire lane either works, or it doesn’t. It’s either right, or it’s wrong.”

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Blue Diamond Updates From The Asphalt Pro Staff

n the realm of pavement maintenance, the original equip-

manufacturer Blue Diamond® Attachments, KnoxI ment ville, Tennessee, has made two substantial announcements

this summer. The company has rounded out its family of roadwork attachments with its new Extreme Duty Road Saws and has introduced its Blue Chip Dealer program.

Road Saws Make the Cut Designed for trenching asphalt, concrete and rock, the new Extreme Duty Road Saws are available in two models offering cutting depths of 6 to 17 inches or 8 to 24 inches. The attachments include saw discs featuring interchangeable tooth plate kits with cutting widths from 2 to 8 inches, along with a hydraulic depth adjustment that allows the operator to raise and lower the blade for consistent cuts. The road saws are intended for use with skid steers offering a maximum of 65 horsepower and operate at a recommended hydraulic flow of 21 to 42 GPM. The Universal Skid Steer Mount makes the road saws compatible with different skid steer brands in the marketplace.

“The Extreme Duty Road Saws provide our customers with cleaner, faster and more accurate cuts than traditional methods, along with the flexibility and performance they can rely on for their tough trenching jobs,” said Drew Truan, chief executive officer at Blue Diamond Attachments. “Together with our entire family of road work solutions, customers have attachments built to address multiple challenges in their roadwork applications.”

Blue Chip Dealer Support Selecting the right road saw is as easy as reaching out to a Blue Diamond dealer. And those dealers have a new program of support.

Blue Diamond Attachments announced June 16 its Blue Chip Dealer program, which the company developed exclusively for the highest level of Blue Diamond dealers throughout the country.

As part of this program, dealers will carry and support the Blue Diamond flagship offering of brush cutters, plus the company’s full lineup of attachments, parts and accessories. Dealers will also receive an increased level of customer service support, warranty, marketing, sales and dealer training.

“We’re very excited about our new Blue Chip Dealer program.

Each dealer has been carefully selected to participate based on their exceptional product knowledge and proven service and support,” Truan said. “Being able to work closely with these dealers is a privilege and we look forward to growing our partnerships with each one.”

At press time, 20 dealers were participating: • Abell and Son, Lake Charles, Louisiana • Ag-Pro, Middleburg, Florida • Ag-Pro, Rome, Georgia • Ag-Pro, McDonough, Georgia • AGUP Equipment, Canton, Mississippi • Appling Motors of Baxley, Baxley, Georgia • Bobcat of Knoxville, Knoxville, Tennessee • Boyd & Sons, Washington, Indiana 42 FALL 2026

The new Extreme Duty Road Saws from Blue Diamond Attachments feature a hydraulic side shift function of 0 to 18 inches, which allows for shifting the blade side-to-side from the cab. A trench clearing scraper blade and material flow diverter work together to clear asphalt and debris from the trench, eliminating the need for manual removal, and a depth gauge provides uniform depth for cut control.

The family of attachments of Blue Diamond includes a line of 12 hydraulic breakers and an Extreme Duty Series 2 Cold Planer, among other attachment offerings.

• Carleton Equipment, Kalamazoo, Michigan • Dooley Tractor, Athens, Tennessee • Farmbelt Equipment, Brookhaven, Mississippi • Garton Tractor, Fresno, California • Independence County Off Road, Batesville, Arkansas • Kubota Tractor of the TriState, Alexandria, Kentucky • Love Power Equipment, Homosassa, Florida • Mountain Farm International, Crossville, Tennessee • Southern Plains Equipment, San Antonio, Texas • Tyler Brothers Farm Equipment, Inc., Maryville, Tennessee • Valley Equipment Rental, Huntsville, Alabama • Zimmer Tractor, Monroe, Ohio For more information, visit www.bluediamondattachments.com.

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Build the Schedule into the Bid

Commercial paving and sealcoating crews can protect their margins by taking the daily, weekly or monthly schedule into consideration when estimating each project. Consultant Tarik Khribech shares tips for pricing with weather, crew gaps and slack in mind.

By Tarik Khribech

very small paving and sealcoating operation runs on two documents that almost never talk to each other: the estimate and the schedule. The estimate is tidy, factoring in square footage, material, labor and a margin you can live with. The schedule is where reality happens—the crewmember who calls in sick the morning of a big sealcoat, the rain that pushes Project A two days and shoves Projects B and C right along with it, the supplier who’s a day late on material delivery.

When those two documents don’t talk, the margin you priced in the office quietly disappears in the field. The good news is you can close most of that gap before you ever sign the bid, by treating the estimate as what it really is—a schedule in disguise.

E

View Your Estimate as a Schedule Walk through any winning bid and you’ll find time hiding in every line. Take labor as an example. Labor isn’t really a dollar figure; it’s crew-hours, and crew-hours assume the crew shows up, the weather holds, and the day runs in the order you planned. Think of material and mobilization that way, too. Material isn’t just a cost; it’s a delivery window. Mobilization isn’t a number; it’s a halfday you can’t bill twice if a job slips.

The crews that stay profitable don’t estimate cost and then deal with the schedule later. They estimate the schedule and let the cost fall out of it. That single reordering of time first, dollars second is the difference between a bid that survives contact with a rainy week and one that doesn’t.

Price the Weather as If You Expect It As contractors, you know paving, sealcoating, striping and other pavement work is weather-bound in a way most trades aren’t. You can’t seal a lot at 45 degrees and falling, and you can’t pave through a thunderstorm. Yet most small-shop estimates treat good weather as the default and bad weather as bad luck.

Flip that narrative. Look at the realistic working window for the part of the construction season the job lands in, and build a weather contingency into the schedule line the same way you’d build waste into the material line.

On a five-day job during rainy season in Florida, assuming zero lost days is optimism, not estimating. One built-in buffer day costs you a little on paper; one unplanned rain day on an un-buffered bid costs you the crew’s time, the re-mobilization, and the goodwill of the customer waiting behind that job. This isn’t padding the bid. You’re pricing a known risk instead of absorbing it for free.

44 FALL 2026

Workforce Accommodation The crew-availability line that nobody writes down could be costing you. This line item rarely makes it onto a bid sheet, but it wrecks more small-crew schedules than weather. A three- or four-person crew has no bench. When one person is out, you haven’t lost 25% of the day—you’ve often lost the whole day. This is because paving work is sequenced and you can’t run the paver and rolling train shorthanded.

Big firms absorb that with depth. You absorb it with planning.

Two habits help. First, sequence your week so the weather-sensitive, all-hands work has the most daylight and the most buffer around it. Don’t schedule your tightest job for Friday afternoon. Second, know before you bid which jobs can flex and which can’t, so when someone calls in sick, you’re moving the flexible job, not blowing the deadline on the rigid one. None of that shows up as a dollar

on the estimate. All of it shows up as protected margin at the end of the month.

Build In Slack on Purpose, With Discipline The instinct under a tight bidding market is to strip every cushion out to win the job. It feels disciplined but it’s the opposite, because a schedule with no slack doesn’t just risk one job. A single delay cascades through every job stacked behind it, and now you’re late on three customers instead of one.

Disciplined estimating means deciding where the slack lives and pricing it in deliberately instead of hoping you won’t need it. Maybe that slack looks like a buffer day, a not-fully-booked Friday, or a standing rule that you don’t promise a completion date you can only hit if nothing goes wrong. The shops that look lucky with their schedules aren’t lucky. They built the luck into the bid.

A Pre-Bid Gut Check Before you send the next estimate, run it through five questions. This is the kind of thing worth taping to the wall by the estimator’s desk.

1. What’s the realistic weather window for when this job runs?

(And did I build in a buffer day?)

2. If one crewmember is out, does this job stop, or can it flex?

3. What’s already on the calendar behind this job that a delay would hit?

4. Did I price mobilization as time I can’t re-bill, not just a flat number?

5. Am I promising a completion date I can only hit if everything goes perfectly?

When the estimate and schedule don’t talk, the margin you priced in the office quietly disappears in the field.

If you can answer those five honestly, you’ve already done more schedule-aware estimating than most of your competition. This is how you protect the margin you quoted.

The Estimate is a Promise About Time A bid isn’t really a promise about price. It’s a promise about time— that you’ll show up, sequence the work, handle the weather and finish when you said. The contractors that keep their margins are the ones whose estimate and schedule were the same document all along.

Stop guessing at the schedule after you’ve won the job and start pricing it before you bid. Rather than appearing on the estimate, the difference shows up in what’s left when the season’s over.

Tarik Khribech is the founder and CEO of AllBetter (allbetterapp. com), a home-services marketplace and field-service software company. He started the business in 2016 and works with small trades and paving operations on the estimating and scheduling discipline that keeps a crew profitable.

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WWW.THEASPHALTPRO.COM 45

Using AI to Suggest Pavement Maintenance Schedules A University of Houston professor of civil and environmental engineering is using large language models to identify roadway segments where pavement or roadway conditions may be linked to higher crash risk, offering a map for maintenance plans.

By Laurie Fickman

afety starts with connecting information. A University of Houston professor of civil and environmental engineering is doing that for roadways, using artificial intelligence to assess information that is usually analyzed separately. In a study funded by the Texas Department of Transportation (TexDOT), Lu Gao used AI to analyze large-scale roadway condition data, including pavement structure, surface condition, roadway geometry and crash records, especially police reports.

By bringing data sources together, the study helps identify roadway segments where pavement or roadway conditions may be linked to higher crash risk.

“A case study using over 24,000 police crash narratives linked to a pavement management dataset of approximately 180,000 data records demonstrates strong associations between friction/texture measures and wet-pavement crash mechanisms,” Gao said. His research results are published in the journal Accident Analysis and Prevention. “These results can help transportation agencies select candidate pavement-safety projects by identifying pavement conditions associated with elevated crash risk and prioritizing targeted, cost-effective countermeasures.”

The goal of the research is to help transportation agencies better determine which road segments are most in need of maintenance or safety improvements, so limited resources can be directed to places where they may have the greatest impact on improving pavement conditions and reducing crash risk.

Gao used large language model-based crash narrative analysis to identify and quantify pavement-related crash risk. The LLM component converts unstructured police narratives into structured,

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“Understanding how pavement conditions relate to crash outcomes can help inform segment screening and treatment selection.”—Lu Gao

Professor Lu Gao works at The University of Houston, which is a Carnegie-designated Tier One public research university recognized with a Phi Beta Kappa chapter for excellence in undergraduate education.

mechanism-specific labels (e.g., hydroplaning, curve-related loss of control), which enables outcomes that are directly linked to pavement and roadway-surface conditions that are often missing from conventional structured crash fields.

LLMs help decipher crash details, which are often embedded in free-text narratives, making large-scale extraction difficult using manual review or simple keyword rules.

“Recent work in traffic safety has explored large language models for crash narrative understanding and structured information extraction, which provides a useful foundation for narrative-based analyses in this study,” Gao said.

The study focused on pavement conditions, like roughness and skid severity, which play critical roles in influencing both crash occurrence and severity. Prior research found that highly rough pavement significantly contributes to increased crash frequency and that skid resistance has a strong negative correlation with crash occurrence, particularly under wet conditions.

“Understanding how pavement conditions relate to crash outcomes can help inform segment screening and treatment selection, especially by identifying high-risk segments where elevated crashes are more strongly associated with pavement-related conditions and may therefore be responsive to pavement-focused treatments,” Gao said.

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Preservation Roundup it much easier to see your mark from a distance or from the machine without constantly walking back and forth to check grade.”

The device is designed and manufactured locally by LmB Customs, made in Ohio, USA. For more information, visit https:// paverlaser.com/.

Pavement Franchise angrove Equity Partners, LP, Tampa, Florida, announced the launch of Peak Pavement Group, a newly branded, national pavement maintenance platform, and welcomed two additional partner companies: HD Sealcoating & Paving Solutions, LLC, Southeast Michigan, and Maintain It All, LLC, Southeast Pennsylvania.

Headquartered in Southeast Michigan, Peak Pavement brings together a growing family of high-quality pavement maintenance businesses focused on asphalt sealcoating, crack filling, and asphalt and concrete repair. The platform traces its roots to 2024, when Mangrove partnered with Rocky Ricelli, founder of A&R Sealcoating, LLC. As the parent company of A&R, and now HD Sealcoating and Maintain It All, Peak Pavement aims to build one of the nation’s largest pure-play pavement maintenance providers, with additional partnerships already in advanced discussions.

“When I founded A&R, the goal was simple: do great work and take care of people, customers and crews alike,” said Rocky Ricelli, founder and president of A&R. “Peak Pavement is that same idea on a bigger scale. We’re bringing together the best pavement maintenance companies in the country, keeping what makes each of them special, and giving them the backing to grow further than any of us could alone. Welcoming HD Sealcoating and Maintain It All to the family is exactly what this platform was built for.”

For the customers of every Peak Pavement company, the most important news is what is not changing. A&R, HD Sealcoating and Maintain It All will continue to operate under the names their communities know, led by the same founders and served by the same local crews.

Peak Pavement was created on the premise that the best pavement maintenance companies are built by founders who care deeply

M

The Grade Sniper is now available from PaverLaser and allows contractors to create consistent grade marks.

PaverLaser Saves Your Back When Setting Your Reveal o make marking curb heights easier, PaverLaser now offers the Grade Sniper tool. This curb grade marking tool is a rugged, curb-facing tool designed to make grade marking fast, accurate and highly visible on the job site. It’s built from CNCcut 1/8-inch aluminum and is adjustable from 1.75 to 18 inches to match your target curb reveal or grade height.

Instead of measuring, guessing and re-marking curb heights, the Grade Sniper lets you set your target reveal once and create consistent grade marks every time. You adjust the height, apply marking paint and move down the curb. It’s designed for crews preparing curb for stone grade, asphalt paving and final elevation checks.

“The basic idea behind it is to give a fast and highly visible reference mark for curb reveal while paving or grading,” said Frank Fore. “The ‘red smudge’ you see in the picture is a paint mark sprayed through the Grade Sniper. You set your reveal—whether it’s 4, 6 or 8 inches—and when the tool is set on the curb or gutter, it places the crosshair exactly where your grade mark should be. This makes

T

48 FALL 2026

about their customers, their employees and their reputations. Those founders deserve a partner who protects all three. Rather than absorbing companies and erasing what made them successful, Peak Pavement invests behind existing leadership, keeps local brands and teams intact, and provides the capital, resources, and peer network to help each business reach its full potential.

Peak Pavement is actively seeking partnerships with complementary businesses specializing in pavement repair and maintenance.

For more information, visit Mangrove Equity Partners or peakpavement.com.

Pipeline Safety Bill Update s of press time, the U.S. House Com-

A mittee on Energy and Commerce

had voted 41–8 to advance H.R. 9338 to the full House via an amendment in the nature of a substitute. This is the Pipeline Safety Authorization Act of 2026.

In September 2025, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee passed H.R. 5301, which is the Promoting Innovation in Pipeline Efficiency and Safety (PIPES) Act of 2025. Then in April 2026, the U.S. Senate passed S. 2975, which is the PIPELINE Safety Act of 2025, by unanimous consent.

The Damage Prevention Action Center (DPAct) applauds the Energy and Commerce Committee’s action as an important step toward strengthening America’s underground infrastructure safety and damage prevention framework. DPAct urges Congress to build on the bipartisan consensus reflected in the House committee vote and the Senate-passed legislation.

Sarah K. Magruder Lyle, executive director of DPAct, stated: “H.R. 9338 strengthens state damage prevention programs by limiting exemptions for the 811 process, encouraging greater use of GIS technology and improved enforcement and reporting, and represents meaningful progress to keep American communities safe and connected. These reforms will help prevent damage to the critical buried infrastructure on which all Americans rely. We urge the full House to pass the bill and Congress to complete its work.”

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WWW.THEASPHALTPRO.COM 49

THE BIRTH OF THE KENTUCKY PAVING AWARDS

BY SANDY LENDER

The Plantmix Asphalt Industry of Kentucky's Winter Training School is the state association's annual paving conference, attracting all the in-state contractors, the DOT and multiple vendors who make up the trade show.

W

With conference season approaching, it’s time to round up data to prepare submittals to various paving awards. The Plantmix Asphalt Industry of Kentucky (PAIKY) introduced its new awards program during its 2026 Winter Training School in February, and the deadline for applications ahead of its 2027 event draws near: Oct. 16, 2026.

Submissions for the 2027 PAIKY Quality Paving Awards program are open from Sept. 1-Oct. 16, 2026, via a Google form on the association's website. PAIKY member companies are welcome to apply.

• Smoothest Project Award (this one is selected by KYTC based on available ride quality data and the contractor does not apply for it) The PAIKY Quality Paving Award Categories also offer three awards: • Local Agency (County & City) • Airport Pavement • Commercial Application This is a slight departure from the first year’s offerings, so let’s look at the birth and evolution of this positive marketing opportunity for the asphalt community.

AWARDS BEGIN For the 2026 program, the available awards fall into two categories.

The PAIKY and Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) Quality Paving Award Categories offer three awards: • Resurfacing/Overlay Interstate/Parkway or any project with Type A or B • Resurfacing/Overlay Project (Type D) 50 | SEPTEMBER 2026

During a strategic planning refresh in early 2025, the PAIKY staff discussed the idea of an awards program and put the wheels in motion.

“We are obviously aware that other states have done this for many years and thought it would be a good program to implement here in Kentucky,” State Executive Director Brian Wood said. “It promotes quality, which is a clear focus area of our association, and allows us to engage with the KYTC in a positive way.”

Engaging with the KYTC on the initiative started early.

“We got the application and scoring details all drafted and vetted with KYTC and some members,” Wood explained. “The awards program was initiated with the idea of being a partnership with KYTC so that was critical to the success and to the prestige of the awards.

The university transportation center (KTC) was a terrific partner as well. Looping in Asphalt Institute, consultants and retired contractors made for a very impressive, robust and well-rounded committee.”

To get started, Erin Gibbs of PAIKY created an online portal to accept applications. Wood said the team then hosted a Zoom meeting to unveil the program and share details on how the applications would be accepted, before opening the website to accept applications.

Award applications in 2025 were due by Oct. 17, giving the committee made up of experts from KYTC, KTC, Asphalt Institute and industry a compressed window to assess submissions. Projects that took place from Oct. 17, 2024, through Oct. 17, 2025, were eligible and Wood explained, “To apply, the project needed to have the final riding surface placed and opened to traffic but did not have to be complete in every other way. The timing and deadlines involved working backwards from the Winter Training School in February, which was our best opportunity to recognize the winners.”

Once the applications were submitted, Gibbs organized them in specific folders and shared them with members of the committee for review.

“The committee had over a week to review the submittals,” Wood said. “It was difficult to arrange schedules, but they finally met Nov. 3 via Zoom to review and discuss the submittals. The members of the committee ranked the submittals, and those votes allowed us to determine the top three applicants in each category.”

Asphalt Pro 7.5x4.625 2026-08-11 OUTLINE.indd 1

During the 2026 PAIKY Winter Training School, attendees were able to hang out ringside and cheer on athletes from Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) who set up a ring at the conference hotel.

8/11/2026 8:22:32 AM

WWW.THEASPHALTPRO.COM | 51

Mago Construction took home the Over 20,000 Tons award for the crew's overlay on the Bluegrass Parkway in Nelson County.

Scotty's Contracting & Stone took home the Airfield Pavement award for the crew's work at the Leitchfield-Grayson County Airport.

Rogers Group took home the Under 20,000 Tons award for the crew's overlay on Ft. Campbell Blvd.

Mountain Enterprises took home the Smoothest Pavement award for its exemplary work on U.S. 23 in Boyd County.

Judging award-winning pavements isn't as easy as it might sound.

The team called on other state asphalt pavement associations (SAPAs) for guidance.

“Over the next several weeks, I spent many hours trying to coordinate schedules and arrange project visits,” Wood said. “Several of the other state associations were kind enough to share their scoring criteria, and we were able to use those to develop what we needed for our group.

“We made group visits [to project sites] where we had a critical mass of people who were available, but there were instances where some of the committee members had to visit on their own and do their assessment independently. It was just impossible to schedule with so many people and busy schedules. Additionally, we had several snow days that necessitated rescheduling.

“By mid-December, all the committee members had visited and rated all nine of the finalists’ projects. All the results were returned to me by Dec. 19. I used a scoring system that is familiar to most in our group, which made it easy to whittle it down to the three top vote-getters in each category.”

Although Wood was instrumental in coordinating the program, he chose not to be a judge in the process. He explained this and the makeup of the committee.

“For the evaluations, I coordinated and scheduled everything (meeting timing, logistics, traffic control, etc.), but I did not vote. I participated with the group but was a neutral party in the process.

For the paper review/submittal, the Asphalt Institute field engineer participated, but he was not available to assist with the field evaluations. The field committee consisted of KYTC staff from the

Divisions of Materials, Construction and Maintenance as well as Aviation; consultants; engineers from the Kentucky Transportation Center at UK (research entity); and some retired contractors.

Not everyone judged all nine projects, but I made it a requirement that the individual must visit all three projects in the category to vote in that category.”

While the process took a lot of work, it was rewarding, too.

“Visiting the airport projects was probably the most fun for me for several reasons,” Wood said. “We visited some of them by airplane, which was unique. All three finalist projects were general aviation airports, so there’s not much traffic, meaning it was possible to walk the runway and apron without heavy vehicle traffic. It’s quiet and easy to chat with the other committee members, which results in more conversation with a lot less stress than the roadway projects.

The evaluations on the roadway projects are different due to traffic, and some had to be done rather quickly and from the shoulder. The impressive thing to me was the joint construction and handwork at intersections and bridge ends, etc. I was impressed at the level of detail, effort and attention that went into these transitions.”

52 | SEPTEMBER 2026

CEREMONY AT TRAINING SCHOOL

The PAIKY Winter Training School is what most state associations would call their annual paving conference. It usually attracts over 600 attendees and includes the in-state contractors, the DOT and about 30 or so vendors who make up the trade show. It’s the association’s largest event of the year that pulls in nearly everyone from industry.

For the February 2026 event, Wood not only introduced the inaugural awards ceremony but also brought the state highway engineer as well as representatives from the Kentucky Transportation Research Center at the University of Kentucky to give remarks. For a special treat, he brought unique evening entertainment to the group. The state-certified wrestling academy, Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW), set up a ring at the conference hotel and held a number of matches to excite the crowd.

The winners of the first PAIKY Paving Awards were as follows: • Airfield Pavement: Scotty’s Contracting & Stone for Leitchfield-Grayson County Airport • Under 20,000 Tons: Rogers Group Inc. for the overlay and reconstruction of KYTC District 2’s KY 107 & 41A (Ft. Campbell Blvd) • Over 20,000 Tons: Mago Construction for the overlay/reconstruction of KYTC District 4’s Bluegrass Parkway in Nelson County • Smoothest Pavement: Mountain Enterprises for KYTC District 9’s U.S. 23 in Boyd County

PREPARING FOR THE 2026 PROGRAM

Wood offered some advice for contractors who wish to participate in the second year, and his guidance makes sense for any awards program.

“The committee members were very tough on their scoring of the paper submittals,” he said. “Some of the contractors did a better job than others with writing the narrative and providing the detailed photos that were requested. We don’t have time to visit all the projects, so when deciding on finalists based on a submittal, the contractors that put more time into those documents were given better scores.

The technical data, such as quality control testing, was summarized by engineers at the Division of Materials and it’s critical that the proj-

ects maintain consistent results throughout the project and are able to avoid any failing tests.”

As mentioned above, PAIKY has made some adjustments to the 2026 categories to standardize project comparisons. For example, in the first year, the projects were segmented by asphalt tonnage, but now include segments by a roadway classification type and mix type designation.

This change should result in more apples-to-apples comparisons of projects that have similar levels of complexity and testing requirements.

The variety of tonnages on both interstate and rural routes in the first year presented a unique challenge for the committee. “It’s hard to judge the complexity of an interstate and the testing that is required on a hightype mixture with a lower volume roadway that required less testing.”

For its first year, the PAIKY awards program didn’t draw as many entries as Wood has seen in larger states that can boast more numerous bid lettings and larger numbers of contractor members. But he anticipates more participation now that members of PAIKY are aware of the honor. He shared that, “Not every paving company was prepared for the program” or had time to gather the requested data during the first year. Now that the 2026 season is well under way, contractors in the state have been able to gather photos and data while working.

“That will be much easier and much better than trying to assemble all the information after-the-fact and in the days prior to the deadline.

I think that will result in more submittals and better-quality submittals in the years to come. Hopefully, the public recognition creates some pride and competitive spirit amongst the members and that companies and individuals elevate their efforts on individual projects to be successful in this program. The ultimate winner in that scenario is the taxpayers and motorists in the Commonwealth.”

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P R O D U C T GA L L E RY

Optimism Opens the Plant Gallery

BY THE ASPHALT PRO STAFF

D

uring the summer months when asphalt professionals are focused on getting the tons from the plant smoothly placed at the project site, fewer in-person shows distract you from making money. One event, scheduled in June, offered enough new iron and technology to pull quarry operators away from production for a couple of days. Hillhead 2026 gave one manufacturer in particular the opportunity to announce a sharpening of focus. Terex’s Materials Processing segment (Terex MP) announced from a press conference on day two of the June 23-25 exhibition that it is leaning into specialist markets and investing heavily in digital tools and distribution.

Materials Processing sits at the heart of the overall Terex strategy and is one of the company’s most consistent financial performers.

“Our focus is aggregates,” said Pat Brian, vice president, Terex Aggregates.

Terex Aggregates has a broad, multi-brand portfolio spanning crushing, screening, conveying and washing—the four pillars of modern aggregates production. Brands including Powerscreen®, Finlay®, EvoQuip®, Terex® Washing Systems, MAGNA™, ProStack®, MDS® and Terex® MPS operate across different segments, typically with distinct distribution channels tailored to specific markets. This multi-brand strategy allows Aggregates to cover a wide spectrum—from compact equipment for smaller contractors to high-capacity systems that support large-scale mining and infrastructure projects.

While machinery remains central to Terex MP’s identity, much of its future strategy lies in digitalization. At Hillhead, this was encapsulated in two key initiatives: INNEX and TRAC. INNEX is a digital platform designed to enhance the customer experience across service, parts and technical support. With a dedicated team of more than 20 specialists, the platform serves as a “wrapper” for a range of digital tools to improve uptime and responsiveness.

The TRAC system, meanwhile, brings real-time condition monitoring to vibrating screens. Using sensors positioned around the machine, it collects performance data, enabling operators to identify issues such as overheating bearings or misalignment before they escalate.

“What customers care about is uptime and productivity,” Brian explained. “TRAC allows them to foresee problems and make adjustments in real time.”

Artificial intelligence is also playing an increasing role, particularly in service and diagnostics. Tools such as Ask Terex provide users with access to technical information drawn from internal databases, ensuring accuracy while enabling rapid troubleshooting.

The outlook for 2026 is more positive than last year. Demand in the United States has remained resilient, supported in part by infrastructure and data center construction. Other markets, including India, have experienced more volatility due to fuel cost fluctuations, but remain key growth areas in the long term, supported by a strong Terex India operation.

To support the company’s growth ambitions, Terex continues to invest in its Materials Processing business in both manufacturing and infrastructure. Recent developments include: • Expansion of Powerscreen’s global headquarters in Northern Ireland • Increased investment in Indian production facilities • New manufacturing capacity for Franna cranes • A major parts distribution facility in Louisville, USA • Significant investment in fabrication capability in Northern Ireland As Hillhead 2026 drew to a close, Terex MP left with a clear message: focus wins. By narrowing its portfolio and investing in innovation, digital technologies and service, the company believes it is well positioned for the next phase of industry evolution.

For more information, visit www.terex.com

ADM

Asphalt Drum Mixers (ADM), Huntertown, Indiana, recently announced the appointment of Brady Umberger as president, effective June 22, 2026. Umberger previously served as director of operations at BOMAG Americas, where he played a key role in strengthening the organization’s operational foundation. Most recently, he served as COO of TAG Manufacturing.

As the newlyADM also announced that Mike Devine’s appointed president of tenure as president concluded on June 22, ADM, Brady Umberger 2026, following more than two decades of will work closely with dedicated leadership and service to the com- the ADM team to pany. Mike provided transition support support a smooth through July 19. leadership transition.

Since assuming leadership of ADM in 2004, Mike played an important role in ADM’s growth, development and long-term success. During his tenure, he helped strengthen the company’s reputation for quality, innovation and customer service while building lasting relationships throughout the asphalt industry. The company is grateful for his many contributions and years of service to ADM, its employees, customers and industry partners.

For more information, visit www.adamasphalts.com

ALLU Terex Materials Processing has invested in a major parts distribution facility in Louisville, Kentucky.

56 | SEPTEMBER 2026

ALLU, Pennala, Finland, debuted its concrete bucket during CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2026 and officially launched the ALLU Concrete Bucket, a new excavator attachment designed to crush and screen pulverized demolition concrete directly at the point of demolition, in July. The

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Designed for excavators in the 25- to 45-tonne operating class, the ALLU Concrete Bucket accepts feed material measuring up to 11 inchALLU has officially launched its es (300 millimeters) and produces Concrete Bucket, which uses finished aggregate in sizes of either rotating drums equipped with 0-2 inches (0-50 millimeters) or 0-4 replaceable carbide pics. inches (0-100 millimeters), depending on the selected counter blade configuration. Under suitable operating conditions, the attachment is capable of processing as much as 100 tonnes of material per hour, according to the manufacturer.

The attachment has also been engineered to perform effectively in reinforced concrete applications where steel contamination is commonly encountered. During operation, reinforcing steel and rebar can pass through or be separated as materials are processed, helping maintain continuous production. This capability allows contractors to process a wider range of demolition materials without compromising productivity.

The ALLU Concrete Bucket utilizes rotating drums equipped with replaceable carbide picks working together with a counter blade structure to crush and screen material continuously. Replaceable wear components allow routine maintenance to be completed directly at the job site, helping contractors minimize downtime and keep equipment in service without lengthy interruptions. Compatible carriers can also utilize ALLU’s Drain Line Eliminator™ hydraulic technology, further simplifying installation and improving operational efficiency.

For more information, visit https://allu.net/products/concretescreening-bucket/

AMRIZE

Amrize, Nashville, Tennessee, announced in June that Gaco™ and Enverge®, two leading brands within Amrize’s Building Envelope business, appointed Konrad Wernthaler as president of Gaco and Enverge. In this role, Wernthaler will oversee the strategic direction, operational execution and commercial growth of both business units, serving a broad spectrum of commercial and residential markets across the roofing, waterproofing, sealants, adhesives and insulation industries.

CAT

Caterpillar Inc., Irving, Texas, announced July 2, 2026, the launch of its workforce commitment in Texas, marking another step in its five-year, $100 billion Building the Future Workforce Initiative. With an initial allocation of up to $5 million, the funding aims to prepare current and future workers across Texas for advanced manufacturing and industry technician jobs of tomorrow. Then on July 30, the company announced the launch of its workforce commitment in Illinois, with an allocation of up to $10 million, the funding aims to prepare workers across Illinois for the modern manufacturing and industry technician jobs of the future.

“Caterpillar's roots run deep in Illinois, and so does our commitment to building a strong and skilled workforce,” said Christy Pambianchi, Caterpillar’s chief human resources officer. “This investment builds on 58 | SEPTEMBER 2026

that legacy, helping ensure people have a clear path to manufacturing careers today while equipping the next generation of Illinoisans with the skills they need to succeed.”

Texas is home to 6,630 Caterpillar employees spanning from the company’s Irving headquarters to 17 facilities across the state, including the 1.7-million-square-foot, high-tech engine facility in Seguin, where the announcement took place. Caterpillar’s initial investment will explore reducing financial barriers to training, developing a future-ready skills framework and strengthening pathways that connect students to careers in advanced manufacturing and industrial skills.

To advance these efforts across the state, Caterpillar is collaborating with leading organizations, including Texas State Technical College, the Manufacturing Institute, and local stakeholders such as the Seguin Economic Development Corporation.

COJALI

Cojali has been awarded the La Chambre 2026 Award in the “Innovation - Large Companies and SMEs” category thanks to Jaltest ESB, the ECU Simulation Bench developed by the company for the commercial vehicle sector. The award was presented during a gala dinner organized by the Franco-Spanish Chamber of Commerce – La Chambre, at the Casa de Mónico (Madrid), which brought together more than 250 CEOs, senior executives and institutional representatives from both countries.

ERIEZ

Eriez®, Erie, Pennsylvania, announced the promotion of Dan Zimmerman to general manager of Eriez-USA. In this role, Zimmerman has full responsibility for leading the company’s U.S.-based business, including overall performance, commercial and financial execution, manufacturing, and supply chain management.

Additionally, Eriez released in July a new technical paper identifying poorly designed hopper transitions as one of the most common—and frequently overlooked—causes of underperformance in vibratory feeding systems. Titled “Optimising Hopper Transitions: Design Guidelines for Maximum Hopper-to-Feeder Performance,” the paper presents practical engineering parameters to help processors achieve consistent material flow, protect equipment, and realize the full rated capacity of vibratory feeders across a wide range of bulk handling applications. It is authored by Clay O’Dana, Eriez global product manager-vibratory.

FASTWEIGH

Fastweigh, Knoxville, Tennessee, has unveiled a refreshed brand including a new logo, visual identity and website. Founded in 1988, Fastweigh has grown from a scale ticketing solution into a cloud-based operations platform serving aggregate, asphalt, waste and other bulk material producers. Since launching its cloud platform in 2015, the company has expanded to support hundreds of customers across the United States, including large producers with complex plant, dispatch, billing and reporting workflows.

“I am thrilled with how this branding update has captured who Fastweigh is and where we are going,” said Caitlin Pomeroy, CEO. “Our customers’ operations have evolved, and so have we.”

INTRAME

INTRAME, Valladolid, Spain, recently exhibited at Hillhead 2026, where the company presented its latest asphalt plant technologies focused on efficient aggregate handling, accurate dosing, high RAP

P R O D U C T GA L L E RY processing capacity and reliable production of high-quality asphalt mixes. With more than 1,000 plants supplied worldwide, INTRAME designs and manufactures continuous and batch asphalt plants for contractors, aggregate producers, and vertically integrated asphalt companies.

According to the manufacturer, one of its key technical advantages is its approach to aggregate dosing, drying and mixing. In its continuous Flow-Mix plants, virgin aggregates and RAP are dosed before being processed through counterflow drying technology. The final mixing process takes place in an external twin-shaft pugmill mixer, where liquid asphalt is injected outside the dryer drum. This configuration helps protect the binder from direct exposure to the burner flame and hot gas stream, improving mix homogeneity while reducing blue smoke, odors and VOC emissions.

IROCK

IROCK Crushers, Valley View, Ohio, has added Central Power Systems and Services to their dealer network, providing equipment solutions across West Texas and Oklahoma. “The addition of IROCK Crushers to our product portfolio represents another step in Central Power Systems and Services commitment to providing best-in-class equipment solutions, supported by the service, parts, and expertise our customers have come to expect,” said Ryan Chrisler, executive vice president of sales.

LIUGONG

LiuGong North America, Katy, Texas, announced July 14 the commercial availability of its battery-electric construction and material handling

portfolio, bringing to North America a proven electric platform supported by more than 60,000 battery-electric machines operating globally and validated through millions of operating hours in real-world applications.

One LiuGong battery-electric wheel loader has surpassed 20,000 operating hours in continuous production service—roughly the equivalent of a decade or more of operation for many wheel loaders. Those hours were accumulated on an active job site rather than under controlled testing conditions.

LiuGong’s initial North American battery-electric portfolio includes the 856HE Battery-Electric Wheel Loader, 820TE Battery-Electric Loader, 924FE Battery-Electric Excavator, and LRSE4531E Fully Electric 45Ton Reach Stacker, along with a growing range of battery-electric forklifts, warehouse equipment, and material handling solutions. This initial lineup marks the beginning of a broader North American rollout, with additional battery-electric products expected throughout 2027 as LiuGong continues expanding and validating its electric equipment portfolio for the region.

LUBRICATION ENGINEERS

Lubrication Engineers launched BioMax™, and integrated its RSC Bio Solutions into the BioMax brand, creating a broader environmentally acceptable lubricants (EAL) portfolio. From hydraulic and gear oils to greases and stern tube oils, BioMax covers critical lubrication points with products developed to perform in harsh operating conditions, according to the manufacturer.

MAGNA

MAGNA™, a Terex brand, made its Hillhead debut in June, exhibiting its MT400C large cone crusher and MT6S heavyduty scalping screen.

The MT6S has been engineered for highvolume materials processing across quarrying, mining, construction and demolition debris, topsoil, recycling, sand, gravel, coal, ore and aggregate applications. The mobile scalping screen offers a throughput of up to 800 tonnes per hour, with the flexibility to be fed by a tracked crusher, shovel or excavator.

At the heart of the MT6S is a 20-foot by 6-foot top deck screen and an 18-foot by 6-foot bottom deck, mounted in a modular screen box configuration. Hydraulic adjustment allows the screen angle to be set between 14–18°, while the discharge end can be raised by 600 mm to simplify media access and changes. All stockpiling conveyors feature hydraulic angle adjustment and extending head sections to maximize discharge height and stockpile capacity.

SUPERIOR INDUSTRIES

Superior Industries, Inc., Morris, Minnesota, highlights nearly three decades of TeleStacker conveyor innovation this year, showcasing how ongoing engineering advancements help producers build better stockpiles, handle material more efficiently and operate more profitably. Since introducing its radial telescopic conveyor in 1997, Superior has manufactured more than 2,000 units worldwide. The manufacturer’s first TeleStacker conveyor was decommissioned following the 2025 production season after nearly three decades of operation at a Midwest sand and gravel facility—a testament to the equipment’s design and durability.

Over thousands of field applications, Superior engineers have continued refining the TeleStacker conveyor to address customer feedback and changing operating conditions. The result is a portfolio of seven active patents across the TeleStacker product line. Among those innovations are: 60 | SEPTEMBER 2026

A comprehensive assembly custom engineered to offer the advantages of accurately injecting water, other liquid additives or a combination of these materials.

DRAMATIC blue smoke reduction Lowers carbon footprint

PLANT INTEGRATION FLEXIBILITY: Ability to retrofit on any continuous mix or batch plant.

COMPETITIVE MARKET ADVANTAGE: Ability to blend multiple liquid products: Warm Mix, Anti-Strip, Rejuvenators, Cold Mix Products and #2 Fuel Oil. FINANCIAL SAVINGS: Lower expenses from reduced fuel consumption.

IMPROVES ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT: Elimination of blue smoke emissions from plant, silos and from behind paver.

REDUCES PAVING CREW STRESS: From increased workability, reduction in roller passes and patterns, increased, longitudinal joint densities.

INCREASES PROFITABILITY: From increased RAP usage, silo storage time, and haul times in truck bed.

EXPAND PLANT MARKET REACH: Superior coating of the mix and haul-time performance allows expansion of your plant’s geographic reach.

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P R O D U C T GA L L E RY • FB® Undercarriage: Supports longer conveyors and larger stockpiles by improving structural stability and reducing flex throughout the machine.

• FD Auto Level Technology: Automatically levels the conveyor during radial travel to maintain proper operating position and help prevent belt mistracking.

• XTP Swing Axle: Simplifies the transition between transport and operation through faster power-travel engagement, fewer setup components and improved wheel alignment.

• 210-Foot Road-Portable Design: Uses a patented support structure that allows producers to build larger stockpiles while maintaining the stability and portability required for highway transport.

Today, Superior offers TeleStacker conveyors in standard lengths from 110 to 210 feet, with custom configurations and lengths available for specialized applications across aggregates, mining, and other bulk material handling industries.

VERDE-ERGON

Verde Resources Inc. (OTCQB: VRDR) (“Verde”), St. Louis, announced in July that its primary U.S. operating subsidiary, Verde Renewables Inc. (“Verde Renewables”), has entered into an additional commercialization and collaboration agreement with Ergon Asphalt & Emulsions, Inc. (“Ergon”). The new agreement builds upon the existing collaboration between Verde and Ergon which began October 2025. This new commercial agreement is designed to advance

the relationship toward commercial execution, beginning with test projects utilizing Ergon’s cold paving applications that incorporate Verde’s engineered biochar technology.

Under this arrangement, Verde will be a preferred vendor of engineered biochar for use with Ergon’s emulsion products in such cold paving applications. In addition, Verde and Ergon hope to expand into other applications across the road construction industry and other sustainable building materials.

Under the agreement, Verde and Ergon intend to pursue commercial projects during the remainder of 2026 and going forward during the term of the agreement. The agreement also includes target product volumes intended to support Verde’s transition from technology development and innovations into recurring commercial revenue.

“This agreement marks Verde’s transition from technology validation into commercial execution,” said Jack Wong, CEO of Verde Resources. “Our focus is sustained revenue generation, commercial projects with major customers, expansion into multiple material applications, and building a platform with a growth profile that extends well beyond our anticipated Nasdaq uplisting to support durable longterm shareholder value.”

The Verde-Ergon collaboration is also designed to combine Verde’s engineered biochar technology, carbon removal strategy, sustainability platform and carbon credit generation with Ergon’s commercial infrastructure, technical expertise, and deep customer relationships across the asphalt and infrastructure markets.

WWW.THEASPHALTPRO.COM | 63

AD INDEX ALmix. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6, 7

Motion Engineering, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Asphalt Drum Mixers, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . 19

Net At Work. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Astec, Inc.. . . . . . . Inside Front Cover, 54

Pavewise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

B & S Light. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Pegasus Trailers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Blaw-Knox. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Pugmill Systems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

BioSpan Tech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 BROCK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

QuikPave Products Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

CWMF. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3, 55

Reliable Asphalt. . . . . . . . . . . Inside Back Cover, Back Cover

Check Proof . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Sakai. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Dampney Engineered Coatings. . . . . . 63 Delta Services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Detroit Stoker Company. . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Elgin Sweeper. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Fastemeasure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Gencor Industries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 HITEK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Sripath Technologies, LLC . . . . . . . . . . 49 Stansteel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11, 61 Systems Equipment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Tarmac International . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Top Quality Paving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Unique Paving Materials. . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Holly Frontier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

W.R. Meadows. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

I.W. Tremont Co., Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Weiler Products. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Kenco Engineering. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Willow. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

KM International Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Wirtgen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Meeker Equipment Co.. . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Women of Asphalt. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

AsphaltPro’s advertiser index is designed for you to have quick access to the manufacturers that can get you the information you need to run your business efficiently. Please support the advertisers that support this magazine and tell them you saw them in AsphaltPro magazine.

64 | SEPTEMBER 2026

O F F T H E M AT

Construction Materials Ops at a Glance CheckProof’s maintenance and safety report shows gaps

BY THE ASPHALT PRO STAFF

C

heckProof, the SaaS operations management platform for heavy industry, headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, released a helpful report ahead of Hillhead 2026. The company published “Mind the Gap: A Construction Materials Industry Benchmark Report.” This survey-based study of 107 professionals working across quarrying, aggregates, asphalt, concrete, cement and recycling examines how the industry manages maintenance, safety, and operational data on the ground, and where the process consistently breaks down.

Mind the Gap: Available now.

• 41% say carrying out corrective actions is where things grind to a halt, • 30% say assigning responsibility is a consistent delay point, and • 14% say verifying that an issue has actually been closed is where things break—meaning completed work often goes unconfirmed.

These findings weren’t necessarily a surprise to industry leaders, but a confirmation of areas for improvement. Tom O’Boyle, the chief product officer for CheckProof, said: “These are patterns I recognized from my own time in operations. Issues get logged, and then nothing—no owner, no deadline, no confirmation the work was done. That gap between identifying a problem and closing it out is where downtime happens and where safety risks compound.

This report shows it’s not one site’s problem.

It’s industry-wide.”

FOUR GAPS DEFINE THE CURRENT STATE OF THE INDUSTRY

THE DATA GAP IS NOT WHERE MOST PEOPLE EXPECT IT TO BE

The findings of CheckProof ’s survey challenge a common assumption: that the construction materials industry lacks data. 79% of respondents say they use operational data regularly to make decisions. The problem is what happens next. 56% admit they are not getting full value from it.

The breakdown is not at the front end.

58% of operations log issues the same day they are identified. The real bottleneck is what comes after: • 42% say issues stall at the review and approval stage, 66 | SEPTEMBER 2026

The report identifies four interconnected gaps, which are data, execution, tools and priorities. Let’s break those down.

• The Data Gap: 79% collect data regularly.

56% say they are not getting full value from it.

• The Execution Gap: 58% log issues the same day. 42% say those issues then stall before anyone acts on them.

• The Tool Gap: Over 6 in 10 operations still run on paper forms or spreadsheets as their primary system.

• The Priority Gap: Unplanned downtime tops the priority list, but training and knowledge retention (57%) and accountability and follow-up (52%) are cited by even more respondents overall, pointing to a people and process problem, not just an equipment one.

When asked where the biggest opportunity for improvement lies: • 31% say real-time visibility from the field

• 16% say predictive or preventative maintenance • 13% say better issue tracking and closure

ANALYSIS AND RECS

The report includes a diagnostic framework and eight sequenced recommendations developed by O’Boyle, drawing on 13 years of experience in engineering and maintenance operations, including nine years at Heidelberg Materials. The recommendations are deliberately ordered: earlier steps create the conditions for later ones, starting with defining the process before digitizing it and securing site-level management commitment before anything else.

ABOUT THE SURVEY

The survey was distributed through a verified industry contact list and promoted to relevant industry audiences. All 107 completed responses are included in the analysis.

Respondents span quarry and plant management, maintenance and engineering, health and safety, executive leadership, and quality and environmental management, across companies ranging from under 20 employees to over 500. The majority of respondents are based in the United States, with a smaller group from the United Kingdom.

Note on percentages: Several survey questions allowed respondents to select more than one answer. Where this applies, percentages will exceed 100% and reflect the proportion of respondents who identified each factor, not a share of a single total.

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