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CALIFORNIA ASPHALT INSIDER
The latest news and views from the California Asphalt Pavement Association
Vol. 12, Issue 42 <> Oct. 21, 2019
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CALENDAR
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(Always on-line HERE)
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'Asphalt Pavement 101' class
Wednesday, Oct. 23, 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
City of Lathrop Council Chambers, 390 Towne Centre Drive, Lathrop
Contact: Sophie You (916) 791-5044
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SIGN-UP NOW!
Topgolf networking event
Tuesday, Nov. 5, 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Topgolf Entertainment Complex, 1700 Freedom Way, Roseville
Contact: Sophie "Long Drive" You at (916) 791-5044.
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REGISTRATION OPEN!
Fall Asphalt Pavement Conference, Wednesday & Thursday, Nov. 6-7
Hilton Sacramento Arden West, 2200 Harvard St., Sacramento
Contact Sophie You at (916) 791-5044 for sponsorship and exhibitor information.
JOIN US!
Southern California Contractors' Dinner
Tuesday, Nov. 12, 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Dal Rae Restaurant
9023 E. Washington Blvd., Pico Rivera
Contact: Bill Knopf at (442) 400-9697
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SAVE THE DATE!
CalAPA Annual Dinner
Thursday, Jan. 16, 2020, 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Jonathan Club, 545 S. Figueroa Street, Los Angeles.
Contact Sophie You at (916) 791-5044 for sponsorship and table-reservation information.
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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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Caltrans honors collaboration that led to pavement smoothness spec revision
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The California Department of Transportation recognized Caltrans employees and industry experts Thursday for a yearlong effort to review and update the state's pavement smoothness specifications and related guidance.
"Partnership is about listening and learning. I think this is what partnership is about - finding something, working on it and getting it done," said Steve Takigawa, Caltrans Deputy Director for Maintenance & Operations during the Thursday award presentation at Caltrans Headquarters in downtown Sacramento. "I appreciate that."
He was joined by Cory Binns, District 11 Director and acting as the
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Don Matthews with Pavement Recycling Systems (left) is presented an award by Cory Binns (center) and Steve Takigawa of Caltrans. |
department's chief engineer. Both are sponsors of the Caltrans-industry Pavement & Materials Partnering Committee.
"You need to learn as you go and get something that you can administer and build and gets the product that you want," he said, noting that the revised specification was one such outcome of the collaboration.
Earlier this year Caltrans
released its long-awaited guidance to Caltrans engineers that makes
major changes to its pavement smoothness specifications for
existing asphalt pavement projects.
The Construction Procedure Directive (CPD 19-6), dated March 4,
2019, was posted on the Caltrans website and can be viewed
HERE
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The various supporting documents can be found
HERE. The Caltrans pavement smoothness resource page is HERE. New Caltrans projects featuring updated specification language began appearing in the months that followed.
They replace a previous version of the pavement smoothness specifications that were mired in controversy ever since they were first rolled out in 2014. As the complaints and claims piled up, the specs attracted the attention of elected officials and the news
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Tony Limas with Granite Construction (left) with his pavement smoothness award, presented by Cory Binns (center) and Steve Takigawa of Caltrans. |
media.
In an unprecedented action, CalAPA and several other construction trade associations last year identified Caltrans pavement smoothness specifications as the No. 1 industry concern. Shortly afterward, Caltrans initiated a collaborative effort between department engineers and industry advisers to revise the specifications, drawing heavily from research, practical experience and data gathered from the field.
After the new smoothness specifications were rolled out in early 2019, numerous training classes and seminars were conducted to help department and industry personnel understand all the changes. In addition to holding "Essentials of HMA Pavement Smoothness" classes held across the state in 2019, CalAPA also hosted a well-attended ProVal pavement smoothness software training in Sacramento. ProVAL is the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)-sponsored engineering software that allows users to view and analyze pavement profiles, which can be used to identify rough spots and develop grinding plans. The software
is free to download (more information on ProVal can be found HERE).
The department continues to evaluate projects under construction
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Don Matthews (standing) presenting data at a Caltrans-industry pavement smoothness meeting at CalAPA offices earlier this year. |
under the new specifications and will produce a formal evaluation and recommendations once more data has been compiled. In the meantime, the consensus opinion among industry and agency personnel is the new specifications are more reasonable to achieve and administer, prompting Caltrans to single out the effort for special recognition last week.
The plaques handed out Thursday to key participants in the specification-development initiative stated, "In recognition of your outstanding contributions in developing and implementing the new pavement smoothness specification for the Department, along with your partnering efforts with the Pavement & Materials Partnering Committee, Caltrans staff, external partners and stakeholders."
Before helping to present the plaques, Takigawa addressed the group and said, "I really appreciate this. Awards are great. Getting a spec out and being able to say, 'look, we accomplished something, we're on the same page, whether we had to give in a little here or there.' I think it is a big accomplishment and you should really be proud of it."
For more information, a previous Asphalt Insider report on this topic, published March 11, can be found HERE. More photos from the award ceremony can be found on the CalAPA Facebook page HERE.
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| A group shot of the industry and Calttrans personnel recognized last week for their work on the new Caltrans pavement smoothness specifications. CalAPA Technical Director Brandon Milar is fourth from the right. |
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First in a new batch of promotional videos touts asphalt's performance attributes
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The Asphalt Pavement Alliance, a CalAPA partner, has released a new series of brief promotional videos touching on various attributes of asphalt pavements. The first 1-minute video, highlighting asphalt's "street cred" on performance, can be viewed HERE.
CalAPA members are encouraged to utilize this and other  compelling video assets in presentations to customers, project owners and the community. Other videos will be previewed in upcoming issues of the California Asphalt Insider newsletter.
As a convenience, CalAPA has assembled links to these and other video assets on the association's video resources page HERE. A special asphalt-promotion themed issue of the CalAPA magazine, California Asphalt, which details a robust new marketing campaign and tools, was published earlier this year and can be found on-line HERE.
The Asphalt Pavement Alliance (APA) is a pooled-fund consortium that is supported by the National Asphalt Pavement Association, the Asphalt Institute and state asphalt pavement associations, Including CalAPA. The APA's mission is to support industry advancement through research, technology transfer, engineering, education, and innovation. Learn more about the APA and its various activities HERE.
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New TRIP report highlights logistics and goods-movement in California, U.S.
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California's prominent place in the nation's goods movement economy was highlighted in a recent report issued by TRIP, a national transportation research organization.
The report found California's freight shipments among the highest in the United States, and concluded that truck shipments are projected to increase at the fastest rate in the nation.
In the most recent data available, the value of goods moving through all modes in California was estimated by TRIP at $2.5 trillion annually, with $1,633 trilion moving via truck (or as one observer noted, "a number beyond all comprehension.") The report underscores the importance to the nation's economy of a robust and well-maintained street and highway network.
The report also found that inadequate investment in the
 transportation system, advances in autonomous vehicles, manufacturing, warehousing and e-commerce will place "unprecedented demands" on the U.S. freight system.
"The ability of the nation's freight transportation system to efficiently and safely accommodate the growing demand for freight movement could be hampered by inadequate transportation capacity, institutional barriers to enhancing the nation's freight facilities, a lack of adequate funding for needed improvements to the freight network, and a shortage of drivers," TRIP said in releasing the report Oct. 3. "At the same time, freight movement is being transformed by advances in vehicle autonomy, manufacturing, warehousing and supply chain automation, increases in e-commerce, and growing logistic networks being developed to accommodate consumer demand for faster delivery."
Among the states, California ranks near the top in value of good moved, traffic, safety, and other measures.
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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.
BIDDER INQUIRY
: A process by which a bidder on a public works
contract can make an inquiry of the project owner to clarify language
or plans that are part of the bid documents
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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.
SITE PREPARATION: If overlaying an existing or milled surface, has the surface been cleaned/swept and given a full "tack coat" (a bonding agent between the two surfaces)? What is the specified coverage rate for the prime/tack coat? Is the application uniform? Has the material been given enough time to "break" (evaporate the water)?
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Quote of the Week
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Don't spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door."
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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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The California 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 send us an e-mail.
Copyright © 2019 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.
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