A proposal by the cash-strapped City of Los Angeles to sell asphalt from two city-owned asphalt plants on the commercial market has drawn scrutiny from CalAPA.

Members of the CalAPA Legislative Committee voiced concern about the proposal introduced to the Los Angeles City Council and dated Aug. 13 by Councilmember Heather Hutt, who represents the 10th council district.

The city is facing massive budget deficits and city departments have been tasked with coming up with ways to trim costs or enhance revenue. The two city-owned asphalt plants operate to provide asphalt to city street paving crews, but have been dogged by controversy for being expensive and inefficient. A previous Asphalt Insider story about the plants can be found HERE.

The proposal to sell surplus asphalt on the commercial market, which also includes a provision to require city departments to mandate the use of city-produced asphalt on projects they oversee, was put forward by Hutt in the form of a resolution introduced to the City Council. It reads, in part: "The City has the capacity to manufacture a significantly larger volume of asphalt than it currently produces."

"Given efficiencies that would be realized where the City to increase its asphalt production capacity ... the City should explore its ability to sell the asphalt it produces in the open market.," the resolution states.

A link to the full resolution can be found HERE.

City officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment by Asphalt Insider.

The proposal has also drawn concern by CIFAC, the industry-funded Construction Industry Force Account Council, which monitors public works contracting to ensure that cities do not violate state and local law by self-performing more work than the law allows.

Tony Morelli, Southwest Regional Compliance Manager for CIFAC, told Asphalt Insider that the City of Los Angeles is a charter city and therefore may not be bound in this area by state public contracting code, but that it appears the city may need to pass a local ordinance for this to happen.

"It seems that ... the City Attorney will be investigating the 'feasibility of requiring non-City entities to use City-produced asphalt,'" Morelli said, citing the resolution. "The City Attorney will likely advise the City that they should enact an ordinance to this effect."

A Superior Court judge has sided with Caltrans in a lawsuit challenging the environmental impact report performed by the department on a major freeway project in the Sacramento region.

The project made headlines when a top Caltrans official who opposed it was demoted. The official, Jeanne Ward-Waller, later filed a "whistle-blower" lawsuit against the department, saying she was punished for speaking out. She later left the department and now works for a Sacramento lobbying firm.

The lawsuit by environmental groups challenged a 20-mile project on Interstate 80/U.S.50 that spans parts of Sacramento, Solano and Yolo Counties between downtown Sacramento and Davis. The $466 million project is currently under construction and includes elements of pavement rehabilitation, the addition of High Occupancy Toll lanes and electronic upgrades. It passes over the 3-mile Yolo Causeway, an elevated viaduct that spans a seasonal wetlands and wildlife sanctuary between Davis with West Sacramento. The Causeway structure and nearby land is home to, among other creatures, 250,000 Mexican ring-tailed bats.

Shortly after the project got the green light from Caltrans environmental groups sued, contending that Caltrans did not properly study the environmental impacts of the project in its analysis, known as an EIR, nor seriously consider alternatives. The wonky policy debate at times revolved around calculators used to determine estimates of Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) that would be generated by the project, and other factors. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit were the Center for Biological Diversity, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., and the Planning and Conservation League.

"The parties debate whether and how the VMT metric ought to be used to assess the project's impact," Alameda County Superior Court Judge Michael M. Markman wrote in his Aug. 13 decision. "The issue i relevant both to the consideration of alternatives and to Petitioners' objections concerning true estimates regarding the impacts of the project."

"The problem with Petitioners' argument," the judge continued, "is that Caltrans was aware of the shortcomings of (one VMT metric) and incorporated those issues into its analysis."

The lawsuit further contended that Caltrans did not seriously consider certain alternatives to the project, but the judge noted in his ruling that "not every potential alternative needs to be pursued, citing previous planning guidance that calls for considering "only those alternatives necessary to permit a reasoned choice."

"Petitioners have not carried their burden with regard to their argument that the EIR for the project was inadequate under CEQA," the judge wrote. "The project is far from perfect. But Caltrans did what it needed to do" and the EIR is "a good-faith effort at full disclosure."

The plaintiffs were seeking a "writ of mandate" from the court, which is a court order compelling a government agency to perform a duty that the law requires them to carry out. In ruling against the plaintiffs, the court concluded Caltrans had performed its duties as prescribed by law.

The lawsuit had been closely watched by transportation advocates, who feared an unfavorable ruling against Caltrans would further complicate the already arduous process to shepherd a project from the drawing board to construction.

Contacted last week by Asphalt Insider about the ruling, Ward-Waller declined to comment. Tony Tavares, who was Caltrans director when Ward-Waller was demoted, also declined to comment when contacted by Asphalt Insider last week.

It was not known what impact, if any, the EIR ruling would have on Ward-Waller's separate employment lawsuit, which is still active.

Suppliers are reminded that they have until Dec. 31 to submit Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) under the Caltrans-FHWA Climate Challenge initiative. The program helps offset the cost of developing asphalt EPDs by reimbursing suppliers up to $4,500 per plant/EPD, with a company cap of $18,000.

The FHWA Climate Challenge aims to expand the use of EPDs, improve transparency, and support California’s sustainability goals. Caltrans encourages suppliers to take advantage of this limited-time funding before spots fill up.

For more details on how to sign up and participate in the Climate Challenge, click HERE. A previous California Asphalt magazine story about EPDs is on-line HERE.

In last week's Asphalt Insider article about President Trump's praise of asphalt, we neglected to note that his asphalt-related comments are made shortly after the 33:30 mark of the video link we provided. The link to the video of the president's remarks is HERE. The Asphalt Insider issue that references the president's remarks is HERE.

Each week we highlight a word, acronym or other term commonly used in the asphalt pavement industry in California.

BITUMINOUS PAVEMENT: A pavement composed of crushed rock or other aggregate cemented together with bitumen.

Each week we highlight a key point or best practice of interest to asphalt paving crews, inspectors and others working in the field. We welcome suggestions. More tips can be found in our "Asphalt Parking Lot Construction Checklist" HERE. Information on the CalAPA "Quality Paving Certificate" program is HERE.

CALL BEFORE YOU DIG: Call 8-1-1 prior to construction when plans call for any type of excavation so that the location of underground utilities can be verified and marked. More information on the 8-1-1 program in California can be found HERE.

Each week we highlight a term that is specific to climate-change issues related to the asphalt pavement industry. This feature is intended to raise awareness of the asphalt industry's climate-change initiatives and the specialized terminology that goes with them. More information on "The Road Forward" asphalt industry climate initiative can be found HERE. A recent CalAPA magazine story on the topic is HERE.

BALANCED MIX DESIGN: Use of performance tests to design pavement structure.

Editor's Note: As a convenience to our readers, Asphalt Insider reports the most current Caltrans "Statewide Crude Oil Price Index" posting. The department posts this monthly on its public website HERE. The index is used to calculate payment adjustments for paving asphalt under special provisions section "Payment Adjustments for Price Index Fluctuations" in those projects containing the section. The department posts the index on or about the first business day of the month using the daily Brent crude oil prices from the previous month as reported by Business Insider. Inquiries about the index should be directed to Caltrans at: Oil.Index@dot.ca.gov .

August 2025: $375.2 ($/ton)

"The least amount of judging we can do, the better off we are."

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– Michael J. Fox

We hope you enjoy CalAPA's Asphalt Insider newsletter. We are committed to providing you with the most up-to-date information on technical issues, regulation, news, analysis, people, events and trends in California that is of interest to the asphalt pavement industry and our various agency partners. To subscribe to the newsletter, click HERE. For comments, questions or to suggest a story idea, click HERE. We are committed to promptly notifying our readers of any errors in this publication. Please click on the comment link above to alert the editor of any errors or omissions.

Sincerely,

Russell W. Snyder, CAE

Executive Director

The California Asphalt Pavement Association (CalAPA)®