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The California Asphalt Pavement Association
Vol. 18, Issue 30 || July 28, 2025
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Dear Russell,
This weekly report contains news and information of interest to the asphalt pavement industry, customers and agency partners in California. Please feel free to distribute this newsletter to others who may be interested in asphalt pavements. To subscribe to the newsletter click HERE. To provide feedback or story ideas click HERE. Having difficulty viewing this newsletter? View as Webpage
| | Caltrans releases new dates for 'Contractor Corner' website outage: Aug. 30-Sept. 1 | | |
Due to a delay in the planned overhaul of the "Contractors Corner" area of the Caltrans website, the department released new dates for when the existing website will be inoperative for the changeover. Those dates are now Aug. 30 to Sept. 1.
The department previously announced the planned outage dates as Aug. 2-3, but since then identified additional fixes that need to be ironed out and tested before the changeover.
The schedule change was needed "to allow additional time to finalize technical components and ensure a smooth transition," said Jeremy Peterson-Self, deputy division chief of the Caltrans Division of Construction, in an e-mail message July 25 to stakeholders. An updated flier that describes the project and the schedule change is HERE.
The Contractors Corner of the Caltrans website has become increasingly popular in recent years as a comprehensive resource of information for contractors and others who want to monitor upcoming projects expected to be advertised by the department, including the quantities of construction materials, such as asphalt, expected to be used on those projects. The current direct URL for the website, which will change after the conversation, is HERE. Once the changeover is complete, those clicking on the old URL will be automatically redirected to the new site.
As previously reported in Asphalt Insider, because so many features have been added to the site over the years, the Contractors Corner area of the massive Caltrans website has become somewhat unwieldy to navigate, prompting the department to launch a project to redesign the stie to make it more user-friendly. Some of the features on the website include electronic bidding and status of bids, payments to contractors, subcontractor information, project plans and specifications, DBE program information and more. The site map with links to all the Contractors Corner content and features, including FAQs and tutorials, is HERE.
In an announcement posted to the site recently, the department said "the redesigned website offers several ease-of-use enhancements while maintaining a familiar look and navigation experience."
Part of the overhaul is moving the entire Contractors Corner site to a ServiceNow platform, which the department says will deliver "improved security, reliability and accessibility." The department said that for those who already have a "Bidding Connect" account, they will be prompted to update your password and profile information when logging into the new site for the first time.
Questions about the change should be directed to: Contractors.Corner.Support@dot.ca.gov .
| | Commentary: Any way you view it, the safety of our infrastructure costs us | | |
There's a quote, widely attributed to Albert Einstein, that goes something like this: Make everything as simple as possible, but no simpler. When it comes to our roads, it seems that principle is more important than ever.
Regular readers of this space know we have consistently kept our spotlight trained on this topic in an attempt to answer some basic questions. We're spending a lot of money, but is it enough? Are we spending it wisely? Are we spending it on the right things? That leads to the the essential question, Are things getting better, worse, or staying about the same? And finally, perhaps the most critical question of all, which was important enough to make the cover of the CalAPA association magazine not long ago: How do you know?
Trying to sift through the morass of reports, opinions, obfuscation and "jazz hands" on the topic of the state of our infrastructure can seem daunting. But every once in a while clarity arrives on scene from a credible source that helps us comprehend where we've been, where we are, and bring much needed context on where we may be headed.
One such report this month was produced by TRIP, a national transportation research non-profit organization, which sifts through all of the available data to identify where there are gaps between our goals what is actually happening on the ground. Full disclosure: TRIP is partly funded by those who are tasked with building and maintaining that infrastructure. CalAPA's association magazine, California Asphalt, previously profiled a top TRIP official, and that issue can be found on-line HERE.
The latest TRIP report issued this month focuses specifically on safety, or more importantly, the lack of safety, and how crashes on our transportation system contributes mightily to "societal harm." TRIP even puts a dollar figure on it: $1.83 trillion nationwide. That's trillion with a T. In California the figure is a whopping $152 billion. TRIP parses through tangible data that can be quantified, such as medical care, lost productivity, legal and court costs, insurance costs, congestion impacts and the like. And then TRIP adds some "crash cost" data that also factors in the cost of those crashes that cause serious injury or death, which includes loss of remaining lifespan, physical impairment and physical pain. Those costs linger long after a crash has been cleared by emergency personnel and tow trucks, and traffic returns to normal.
The July TRIP report flags some states experiencing alarming safety trends. California, thankfully, fares better than most, showing an 18% decrease in fatal crashes from 2021-24, although the overall trend is up 29% when viewed over a decade. In 2023 alone, there were 4,061 fatal crashes in California. Think of that in terms of every resident of a small town, or a couple of large high schools, and the number is even more sobering.
In another stat that strikes close to home, TRIP tallied 516 work-zone fatalities between 2019 and 2023 in California (4,470 nationwide). Think of all the families connected to each one of those deaths. Work-zone safety is one of the top goals of the asphalt industry nationally and here in California. A joint Caltrans-industry committee focused on safety has conducted educational safety "stand-downs" and safety summits that have brought forward numerous operational improvements in safety standards and procedures. More information on those efforts can be found HERE.
When viewed in this way, any investments that are made to improve safety on our roads seem almost trivial in comparison to the cost of doing nothing or not enough.
A tip of the CalAPA hard hat goes to the dedicated industry and agency personnel working tirelessly to make our streets, roads and highways safer. The latest TRIP report indicates that they have contributed to bending the curve in a more favorable direction in California. But there is still much more work to do. Every crash is costly -- in ways that can be quantified and some that cannot.
To read more about the TRIP report, click HERE.
In next week's Asphalt Insider, we'll spotlight on another illuminating report, and what insights it offers our state in how we are maintaining our pavement assets.
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Legislature sidelines CalAPA-opposed bill that would heap needless air-quality regulations on certain construction activity | |
A CalAPA-opposed bill to that would pile needless air-quality regulations on to certain construction-related activity has been sidelined by the California Legislature.
The bill was one of dozens being monitored by the association's Capitol lobbyists that are in the legislative hopper in the first year of the Legislature's two-year session. The Legislature is currently on a Summer recess that runs through Aug. 18.
SB526, authored by state Sen. Caroline Menjivar, D-Van Nuys, as originally introduced, sought to add additional air-quality regulations and requirements on construction-related activity in certain areas within the South Coast Air Quality Management District jurisdiction. The SCAQMD already oversees some of the most stringent and complex air quality regulations in the nation, with input from all stakeholders, which has resulted in marked improvement in Southern California's air quality in recent decades.
The Menjivar bill proposed to usurp the process of local air-quality rule-making, which is conducted in an open and transparent way that, while cumbersome, seeks to solicit technical expertise from those who will be regulated and balance that with community input. SB526 would add additional requirements with regard to fencing around construction sites, storage, construction material pile constraints and other prescriptive requirements that CalAPA and others have argued are confusing, redundant and may contribute to poorer air quality in the long run.
Introduced in February, the bill flew under the radar screen and passed the state Senate on June 4 before stalling in the Assembly. In an opposition letter submitted to a legislative policy committee, CalAPA said the bill "fails to recognize the constantly shifting nature of a construction materials facility, in which piles of materials vary in size based on season, demand and other factors."
As the bill continued to pick up opponents like lint in an overheated clothes dryer, it was parked in an Assembly policy committee as the Legislature headed into a summer recess, leaving its fate uncertain. CalAPA's longstanding position is that the Legislature is seldom an appropriate venue to develop construction standards or regulations.
Backround on SB526 can be found HERE. To learn more about CalAPA's advocacy program, click HERE.
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Each week we highlight a word, acronym or other term commonly used in the asphalt pavement industry in California.
FREEWAY: An expressway with full control of access and all grade crossings eliminated.
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Paving Pointer of the Week | |
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.
RECORD RETENTION AFTER PROJECT COMPLETION: Take a final photograph of the site for your records and retain all records from the project including: copies of all truck delivery tickets and record of all the temperature recordings and compaction readings you took during the project.
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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.
OZONE LAYER: Region of Earth's stratosphere that absorbs most of the sun's radiation.
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Caltrans Statewide Crude Oil Price Index | |
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 .
July 2025: $378.5 ($/ton)
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"You invest in your opportunities, not your problems."
– Scott Galloway
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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)®
| | The "Asphalt Insider" is an official publication of the California Asphalt Pavement Association. For more information or to inquire about membership, call (916) 791-5044, or click HERE to contact us. Copyright © 2025 California Asphalt Pavement Association -- All Rights Reserved. The CalAPA name (No. 5,621,794) and logo (No. 5,621,795) are registered trademarks with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. | | | | |
