editor's note January 2014 • Vol. 7 No. 4
My Ectomatic Processor Principle
2001 Corporate Place Columbia, MO 65202 573-499-1830 • 573-499-1831 www.theasphaltpro.com Group publisher
Chris Harrison publisher
Sally Shoemaker sally@theasphaltpro.com (573) 823-6297 editor
Sandy Lender sandy@theasphaltpro.com (239) 272-8613 Art Director
Kristin Branscom operations/circulation manager
Cindy Sheridan business manager
Renea Sapp AsphaltPro is published 10 times per year: January, February, March, April, May, June/July, August/September, October, November and December by The Business Times Company, 2001 Corporate Place, Columbia, MO 65202 Writers expressing views in AsphaltPro Magazine or on the AsphaltPro website are professionals with sound, professional advice. Views expressed herein are not necessarily the same as the views of AsphaltPro or Business Times Company staff, 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 Sates, 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-2. Single copies available $17 each.
Given the production schedule of a monthly magazine, I write the AsphaltPro editor’s note well in advance of you reading it. For this one, I sit in a doctor’s office while I type, thinking about germane topics for a first-of-the-year letter to the industry. A part of my brain wonders how this will influence my blood-pressure reading. The rest of my mind is focused on what we will still consider relevant when this edition of the magazine appears beneath the hotel room doors of the National Asphalt Pavement Association’s annual meeting in Boca Raton. I wonder if we’ll be planning ahead for the remainder of 2014. I believe the competition started planning ahead years ago when they saw the writing on the wall: Asphalt is the environmentally wise choice for sustainable, longterm, perpetual, cost-efficient paving. Now will we collectively grab the opportunity to set Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) as outlined in the December issue so a competing industry doesn’t try to do it for us? Will we fund the marketing campaigns NAPA and Asphalt Pavement Alliance prepares to show the agencies and MPOs around the country that reflective pavements exacerbate UHI effects while dark pavements such as asphalt reduce overall temperatures in urban environments? As a group, the asphalt industry has an opportunity to prove its quality before “someone” embeds misinformation and confusion so firmly in the minds of transportation officials and materials engineers that we can’t recover their senses. It’s reminiscent of planning for catastrophic business changes in any industry. We can see right now that we have a sustainable product with a low carbon footprint. We can see right now that the future demands an environmentally positive and sustainable product for roadway paving. It’s a match made in Heaven—if we proactively make the match obvious to the right people. When I began my career in magazine publishing, one of the many tasks I performed for production was developing black and white images for use in the layouts. I’d spend an hour or so in the dark room listening to the hum of the Ectomatic processor. It wasn’t long before that machine became obsolete because our creative services department purchased a scanner that took a couple steps out of the process and freed an hour or so of my time each month. Digital publishing had arrived and Kodak was about to take a hit to its stock. The chemical companies who supplied the liquids necessary for developing the black and white pictures I sent through the Ectomatic machine took a hit to their profits as well. That kind of hit is what the concrete industry faces in the coming years as the asphalt industry markets its positive story. While the ready-mix folks can still find statues and such to pour, their use as a pavement option is growing obsolete. They face extinction in the face of asphalt’s scientific truths. Why aren’t we shouting those truths from the rooftops? Are we planning ahead for the day when every road project is let as asphalt? When every bridge deck is overlaid with asphalt and every repair job is marked for an efficient overlay, our industry is going to be very busy. We have to plan ahead for the busy years to come, but first we have to plan how to get the message out. I hope to see you at industry events in 2014 to share ideas and get our good news in front of end users. Stay Safe,
Sandy Lender www.theasphaltpro.com | ASPHALT PRO 5