CALENDAR
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(Always on-line HERE)
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NEW EVENT!
Topgolf pre-conference networking event
Tuesday, Oct. 23, 6 p.m.
Topgolf, 1700 Freedom Way, Roseville
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HURRY! SEATS GOING FAST!
Fall Asphalt Pavement Conference, Oct. 24-25
Doubletree Hotel, 2001 Point West Way, Sacramento.
Details
HERE.
For sponsorship and exhibitor opportunities, contact Sophie You at (916) 791-5044.
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SIGN-UP NOW!
Southern California Paving Contractor Mixer
Thursday, Nov. 15, 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
J.T. Schmid's Restaurant & Brewery, 2610 E. Katella Ave., Anaheim
Contact: Sophie You (916) 791-5044
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SAVE THE DATE!
CalAPA Annual Dinner
Thursday, Jan. 10, 2019
Jonathan Club, 545 S. Figueroa St., Los Angeles
Details soon!
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SOCIALIZE
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| CHOOSE ASPHALT |
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Asphalt is used on about 93 percent of paved roads in California and across the U.S. Why? Because it's smooth, quiet, safe, durable and 100 percent recyclable. Visit the
Asphalt Pavement Alliance
website learn more about why asphalt is the right choice now more than ever.
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| GET TECHNICAL |
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Are you an engineer, designer or technical professional who makes decisions on pavement type selection? The DriveAsphalt website has technical reports and other resources may be just what you're looking for. Click HERE for more information.
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| CalAPA |
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California Asphalt Pavement Association (CalAPA)
Mailing address:
P.O. Box 981300
West Sacramento, CA 95798
Main office:
1550 Harbor Blvd., Suite 211
West Sacramento, CA 95691
(916) 791-5044 (phone)
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| BACK ISSUES |
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Did you miss an issue of the California Asphalt Insider? No problem! Past editions of the newsletter are available at the CalAPA newsletter
archive page.
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| MAGAZINE |
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CalAPA produces a highly regarded magazine,
California Asphalt, and an annual membership directory. To view current and past issues of the magazine, click
HERE. For advertising sales information, click
HERE or call Kerry Hoover with Construction Marketing Services at (909) 772-3121.
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| STAY INFORMED |
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Click HERE to receive California Asphalt Insider each week via e-mail FREE! Or visit our website at:
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GET CERTIFIED!
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The Caltrans-industry Joint Training & Certification Program (JTCP) for materials technicians is holding classes in Northern and Southern California. Click HERE to visit our JTCP resource page to learn more.
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DESIGN!
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To visit the PAVEXpress website, click HERE. To view the companion website, PaveInstruct, click HERE.
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LEARN!
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We can bring CalAPA's popular training classes to your facility at a date and time convenient to you! Click HERE to view our "hosted" training class flier, or contact CalAPA at (916) 791-5044 for details. This service is available to public agencies and CalAPA members only.
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This weekly bulletin contains the latest news and information of interest to the asphalt pavement industry in California. Please feel free to distribute this newsletter to others who may be interested in asphalt pavements.
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Sergio Aceves named new Caltrans state pavement engineer; numerous other positions remain to be filled
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In the annual "Top 10 predictions" article in the Asphalt Insider newsletter, published on Jan. 5, 2015, the following was reported: "The 'brain drain' of qualified and experienced engineers and technical personnel at public agencies at all levels will continue in 2015, resulting in increased pressure to recruit, train and develop the next generation of pavement experts."
It should be noted that this prediction came a more than two years before the Legislature passed SB1, a comprehensive road repair bill intended to address years of neglect of the state's transportation network, which had resulted in rapidly deteriorating state and local roads and bridges.
For the asphalt pavement industry in California, nowhere has that
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Sergio Aceves
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"brain drain" prediction been more visible than the top pavement engineer job at the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), which has seen eight different people occupy the position in the past four years, including several in a temporary "acting" capacity ranging from a few weeks to several months.
On Oct. 22, the latest name to head the Division of Maintenance, Office of Pavements, will be Sergio Aceves. He will only be the second person to receive an official appointment into the position since August of 2014 when Amarjeet Benipal left to take the top job at District 3 in Marysville. For most of the last year the job was held in an acting capacity by Mark Suchanek, on temporary assignment from District 1 in Eureka until his retirement last month. Although only filling in, Suchanek's tenure saw the official reorganization of how the Department and the construction industry interact in specification reviews, a revision in the specification related to the use of recycled asphalt in pavement mixes, and substantial work on a revised pavement smoothness specification, which is expected to be unveiled later this year.
The promotion of his permanent replacement, Aceves, was announced within Caltrans on Sept. 26. He began his Caltrans career in District 3 Construction, working as a resident engineer for eight years. He promoted to senior transportation engineer as district estimator in 2006 and also covered the duties of office engineer for six months. In the years since, he has worked in several positions in planning, project management, traffic management, maintenance, permits. For the past six months he also has been on a temporary assignment as deputy district director over Maintenance & Traffic Operations at Caltrans District 3.
The State Pavement Engineer, which is a part of the Division of
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Mark Suchanek |
Maintenance, oversees asphalt and concrete pavement maintenance and specification development. The State Pavement Engineer also sits on the joint Caltrans-industry Pavement & Materials Partnering Committee (formerly known as the Rock Products Committee), which vets changes in materials specifications and testing requirements. That committee is sponsored by Karla Sutliff, Deputy Director for Project Delivery and the Chief Engineer, and Steve Takigawa, Deputy Director for Maintenance & Operations.
Aceves reports to the Division Chief of Maintenance, who until last month was Tony Tavares. As reported previously by Asphalt Insider, Tavares was named permanently as District Director of District 4, covering the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area. That Asphalt Insider story can be viewed HERE. Tavares' position is being filled temporarily by Amer Bata.
In other Caltrans management shuffling, Construction Chief
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Bob Finney |
Rachel Falsetti recently moved temporarily into the top spot in engineering services to replace Mike Keever, who moved over to a temporary position in project management. Falsetti's position is being filled temporarily by District 4 construction chief Bob Finney.
The changes come on the heels of the departures earlier this year of Caltrans Director Malcolm Dougherty and Chief Deputy Kome Ajise. Dougherty was replaced by District 11 Director Laurie Berman, and Ajise was replaced by Ryan Chamberlain. All the management changes have a domino effect on other positions in the department. The organizational chart posted on the department's website, dated this month, lists a total of 61 positions. Of that number, 12 have people listed as "acting" and another three positions have no name identified with the position at all. You can view it HERE.
Aceves will have his work cut out for him as there also has been a large amount of turnover among the rank-and-file in the Division of Pavements. He told Asphalt Insider:
"I look forward to working with both internal and external stakeholders to maximize the performance and accountability of the pavement program for the traveling public."
Overall, Caltrans says, about 54 percent of its workforce is age 50 or older -- a phenomenon often referred to within the department as the "silver tsunami." There were 877 employees who left the department, many through retirements, in fiscal-year 2016-17, and another 1,023 in 2017-18. The department reports it has about 18,500 permanent full-time employees, and has embarked on a major recruiting effort to fill the vacancies. The Caltrans jobs page is
HERE.
SB1 and the thousands of road-improvement projects it has made possible will be on the ballot in the form of Proposition 6, which seeks to repeal the fuel taxes and other fees that pay for the work. A "no" vote will preserve the funding and keep road-repairs happening around the state. But it takes planners, engineers and administrators to convert those dollars into projects, and regardless of what happens with Proposition 6 recruiting and training the next generation of pavement experts will be a daunting challenge for all public agencies in California for the foreseeable future, just as it is for private industry.
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CARB webinar focusing on asphalt, aggregate and concrete operations to be held Oct. 18
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The California Construction & Industrial Materials Association (CalCIMA) is hosting a webinar this Thursday, Oct. 18 focusing on air quality regulations and compliance for the asphalt, aggregate and concrete industries. CalAPA members are invited to participate, but space is limited and an RSVP is required. Click HERE to view a flier with additional details. For more information and to RSVP, contact Courtney Orozco at CalCIMA at (916) 554-1000, ext. 4, or via e-mail at corozco(at)calcima(dot)org .
The featured speaker will Be Ben Sehgal, a senior engineer and
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Ben Sehgal
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staff air pollution specialist for the California Air Resources Board (CARB). With more than 26 years experience, Sehgal has been one of the instructors in the CARB training section since 2000. As a technical subject-mater expert, he has delivered complex engineering/inspector classes covering CEMs, CAM, Boilers & Gas Turbines/ power generation, control devices, Hot Mix Asphalt, aggregate and concrete batching operations.
The webinar, titled "Considerations for Operational Compliance and Best Practices," will cover issues such as modification of existing permits and associated planning, emissions and health impacts, regulation changes, movement of portable sites, activities that may lead to additional inspections and/or scrutiny, public perceptions that lead to complaints, investigations and potential violations.
In addition, the webinar will highlight Best Available Control Technology (BACT) controls and best-practices related to quarrying, sizing of quarried material, sorting, stockpiling and transfer of aggregate products, concrete batching, and blue-smoke curtailment and odor issues.
Sehgal of CARB can be reached directly at (916) 229-0638, or via e-mail at: ben.sehgal(at)arb(dot)ca(dot)gov . The training area of the CARB website is HERE.
Editor's Note: In the e-mail addresses above, the "@" symbol has been replaced by "(at)" and the periods have been replaced by "(dot)" to deter spam software.
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Job Opportunity: Hardy & Harper seeks estimator, project manager
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Santa Ana-based Hardy & Harper Inc., a CalAPA member, is seeking qualified applicants for the positions of estimator and project manager. Click HERE to view details of the estimator position. Click HERE to view details of the project manager  position.
Founded in 1946, Hardy & Harper specializes in a wide variety of asphalt pavement-related work, including new asphalt paving, removal and replacement, overlays, patching, pavement preservation and maintenance.
For more information, contact the company at (714) 444-1851. The company website is HERE.
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Women of Asphalt website, podcast launched; CalAPA Fall Conference panel featuring women leaders supports effort
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The CalAPA-supported Women of Asphalt (WofA) has launched a newly redesigned website and debuted a "podcast" focusing on issues of interest to women in the industry. Both can be found
HERE.
A special "Women of Asphalt" leadership panel discussion, to be held Oct. 24 in Sacramento in conjunction with the CalAPA Fall Conference, has been developed in coordination with the national WofA effort. A flier for the Oct. 24 dinner event can be found
HERE. Attendance at the leadership panel discussion and dinner is complementary for all Fall Asphalt Pavement Conference attendees, or tickets may be purchased for the dinner as a stand-alone event. Click
HERE for details about all the conference week events.
The WofA website has been expanded to serve as a hub for WofA membership, including a wide range of relevant, useful information for women in the asphalt industry, information about upcoming WofA events, and opportunities to become a mentor.
The new WofA podcast, "
Where We Belong," is dedicated to highlighting women in the asphalt industry, the group said in a recent announcement. The series focuses on discussions with women from across the county, discussing their experiences and available career paths within the asphalt industry.
The hosts and guests will talk about how they started in the asphalt industry, non-traditional roles they've taken on, obstacles they've overcome, and how they're changing the face of the industry.
In the inaugural podcast, "Who We Are," founding WofA members
 Amy Miller, national director of the Asphalt Pavement Alliance, and Natasha Ozybko, regional sales manager at Road Science, a Division of ArrMaz, discuss in detail why WofA was started, its main purposes, and its goals. Miller will be a featured speaker at the CalAPA conference and also on the dinner leadership panel.
Women of Asphalt is a national grassroots coalition started by women in the asphalt industry with the purpose of supporting career growth and development for women in all aspects of the industry. WofA encourages women to seek careers in the asphalt industry and provides mentoring, networking, education, and advocacy opportunities. The Asphalt Pavement Alliance provides technical and operational support to WofA. The Asphalt Pavement Alliance is a partnership of the Asphalt Institute, National Asphalt Pavement Association and the State Asphalt Pavement Associations, including CalAPA.
In addition to APA's Miller, the Oct. 24 Women of Asphalt leadership panel speakers will include: Mary Teichert, executive vice president / chief operating officer of Teichert, Inc.; Amy Epps Martin, Ph.D., research engineer for the Transportation Institute at Texas A&M University; Corrina Wong, P.E., quality control engineer, Granite Construction; and Toni Carroll, quality control manager, Graniterock. The panel will be moderated by Rita B. Leahy, Ph.D., P.E., former technical director of CalAPA.
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Tech Term of the Week
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Each week we highlight a word, acronym or other reference commonly used in the asphalt pavement industry in California.
ENGINEER: The term used in Caltrans specifications to refer to the department, as when the engineer will direct the contractor to do something. Similar in many respects to project OWNER.
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Paving Pointer of the Week
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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.
PREPARING FOR ASPHALT DELIVERY: Ask yourself: Has a pre-paving meeting been held with the paving foreman to inspect the sub-base? Have you checked the site for possible safety issues?
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Quote of the Week
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"Everyone's broken by life, but sometimes people are stronger in the broken places."
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We hope you enjoy CalAPA's
Asphalt Insider. We are committed to providing you with the most up-to-date information on technical issues, regulation, news, analysis, events and trends in California that may impact the asphalt pavement industry. Click
HERE to contact us with any comments or suggestions.
Sincerely,
Russell W. Snyder, CAE
Executive Director
California Asphalt Pavement Association (CalAPA)
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