AMAP Hall of Fame

AMAP Paving Hall of Fame inductee Jean-Pascal Planche displays his award alongside former AMAP president Gaylon Baumgardner.

AMAP hosts annual meeting in Kansas City, Mo.

Nearly 140 individuals recently gathered in Kansas City, Mo., at the beautiful Westin Crown Center hotel Feb. 15-17 for AMAP's 12th annual conference.

As in years past, the event featured a broad-based group of presenters from government and industry, including the Asphalt Institute, the National Asphalt Pavement Association, the National Center for Asphalt Technology, the Mexican Asphalt Association, the Western Research Institute, the New Jersey Asphalt Paving Association, Conoco-Phillips and numerous state departments of transportation. The meeting also featured a special keynote address from former Missouri Supreme Court Justice Edward (Chip) Robinson and a number of informational sessions on a range of topics, including the status of global raw material supply, the effects of crude supply on asphalt distribution and Mexico and Europe's experiences with modified asphalt.

AMAP Hall of Fame

AMAP president Gaylon Baumgardner congratulates AMAP Paving Hall of Fame inductee Jim Collins.

The meeting was capped off with a special banquet in which Jim Collins and Jean-Pascal Planche were inducted into AMAP's Paving Hall of Fame (see full story here). During the banquet, AMAP board member Kevin Carlson was also named AMAP's Person of the Year for his work with the board's Website Committee to spearhead the full redesign of the AMAP website.

During the conference, AMAP also announced new board members and a new president for 2011. New board members are John Chipy, Jr. of Valero Refining, who was appointed as a producer member, and Hal Panabaker of DuPont Chemicals, who was named a supplier member. Ron Corun of NuStar Energy has assumed duties as AMAP's new president, with the offices of vice president, secretary and treasurer to be filled at the June 21 board meeting in St. Louis.

AMAP annual

AMAP Executive Director Bob Berkley presents the Person of the Year award to AMAP Website Committee chairman Kevin Carlson.

This year's event was another huge success. Special thanks go out to the members of AMAP's Program Committee for their hard work in planning the event and to our speakers for their willingness to present. Please remember to mark your calendars for our next meeting, which is set for Feb. 7-9, 2012, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, at the lovely Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort and Spa. We hope to see you there!

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Message from the Executive Director

Bob BerkleyThe current political stage reminds me of a saying by Missourian Mark Twain: "I have my values, and if you don't like them, well I've got some others."

I search every politician's face I see on television. I listen carefully for words that truly indicate the values of early Americans. Instead I am reminded of Twain's saying. What I see is political maneuvering and vacillating values. In my opinion, both parties and fractions of the parties are doing nothing but working to secure their jobs. It is as if issues like jobs and the economy are nothing more than clubs being used by our lawmakers to beat each other over the head.

Despite all the current political posturing, I am still convinced that a well-chosen group of highway industry leaders could prepare a program of infrastructure construction plans that could and would move the states to let many jobs they sorely need, but are too financially strapped to even consider now.

These jobs are critical, but finding a way to pay for them has been a struggle. As I am writing, the situations in the Middle East, particularly in Libya, are causing fuel prices to skyrocket. At this time, asking for a 25-cent tax increase on a gallon of fuel may be a really tough sell. But that quarter tax, if used solely for state and municipal highway projects that require a fast-track completion schedule, would serve as a catalyst for contractors to hire more people and buy more equipment and construction materials.

Instead, our roads continue to deteriorate. Unsafe travel conditions and faulty bridges are prompting highway prophets to envision a future of chaos. If this situation continues unabated, changes will have to be made, but at what higher cost? At some point, the public will not accept the deteriorating road conditions. Then what?

A user tax like a gasoline and diesel fuel tax would be hard on all of us, but we have to do it. With so much at stake, now's the time to tell your congressman what you think.

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Collins and Planche inducted into AMAP Paving Hall of Fame

AMAP's prestigious Paving Hall of Fame grew again this year with the induction of James Collins and Jean-Pascal Planche during a special ceremony that was held during AMAP's recent annual conference.

With lifelong careers in the modified asphalt industry, the men were recognized for their individual commitments and dedication to the improvement of highway materials and construction.

James Collins
James CollinsAs a former research chemist with Shell Development Company, Collins was responsible for new market and new product development in polymer-modified asphalt during the mid-to-late 1980s and early 1990's. He worked as part of a small group within the larger Shell organization that was focused on developing polymer-modified asphalt technologies based on those that were being used in Europe during the time, with the goal of making the European technologies applicable in the United States.

"This was when the Strategic Highway Research program was underway, and asphalt modifiers were really growing in Europe," said Collins. "But, in the U.S., many were still opposed to using additives. Our group at Shell believed in the improved quality and cost-performance benefits that polymer-modified asphalt could provide, and we used the quality benefits as a selling point."

Collins and his team worked closely with asphalt producers, contractors, department of transportation engineers and administrators, researchers and the sales and marketing teams at Shell to promote the benefits of modified asphalt, while also demonstrating the improved performance of modified asphalts by implementing highway test sections across the U.S.

In 1993, Collins took early retirement from Shell Development Company to start his own consulting business. Since then, he's provided research, development and consulting services to a wide variety of clients in the asphalt manufacturing, paving and roofing industries. His most notable efforts to date include his work to co-author a patent on the modified asphalt developed and implemented in Utah; his development of a binder that was used in the asphalt at a NASCAR track in Las Vegas; and his efforts to develop modified asphalt test sections in Alaska, a state which had previously been seen as unchartered territory.

Today, Collins continues his consulting work and spends his free time travelling to visit his children and grandchildren, and working with his wife to develop a wildlife preserve on his 25-acre ranch in central Texas.

"I never really thought I made that much of an impact on the modified asphalt industry, until I found out that I was being named to AMAP's Paving Hall of Fame," noted Collins. "This recognition is a true honor, and I'm grateful to AMAP for thinking of me."

Jean-Pascal Planche
Jean-Pascal PlancheAs a native of France, Planche got his start in the modified asphalt industry 25 years ago as a research engineer for asphalt binders in the Refining and Marketing Research Center at Solaize, France-based oil company Elf Asphalt, Inc.

During that time, the company was in the process of developing a polymer-modfied asphalt, known as Styrelf�, that required further technical development for the U.S. market. By 1991, the project had brought Planche to Terre Haute, Indiana, where he worked at Elf's Central Laboratory on the transfer of Styrelf� technology from France to the USA. After two years in the states, Planche returned to Elf's Solaize, France Research Center where he spent seven years as team and project leader of asphalt binder research and development before relocating to Paris, France, to become marketing-research coordinator for Total Bitumen worldwide.

Having completed the majority of his work in France, Planche has first-hand knowledge of the ways in which asphalt binders are used overseas, and he says the United States and Europe can learn from one another.

"In Europe, asphalt pavement layers have well-defined roles requiring different binder types, and I think the U.S. could learn how to use PMA more efficiently in applications that really need those products," says Planche. "But with Europe lacking the performance-based specification system that's in place in the U.S., the U.S. may be in a position to take the lead in modified asphalt use."

As a Frenchman who's worked in the U.S. and has interacted with numerous other individuals from a variety of different cultures throughout his career, Planche considers his ability to unite all these cultural groups in the pursuit of better asphalt technology to be one of his greatest accomplishments. He says he has also been most proud of his work to carry out a variety of important modified asphalt research projects, communicate about them and develop them to a commercial/industrial level.

In October 2010, Planche got the opportunity to return to the U.S., after assuming new duties as vice president of transportation technology at the Western Research Institute (WRI) in Laramie, Wyoming. His current work includes team management, the supervision of large research projects and contracts, the commercialization of research products and the development of new research businesses.

"My goal is to help WRI Transportation Technology become a worldwide reference through the development of innovative, breakthrough asphalt products," said Planche.

Upon hearing that his work had earned him a place in AMAP's Paving Hall of Fame, Planche says he was shocked.

"I had to ask myself if this recognition was real," noted Planche. "I'm very proud of the honor, and I hope I deserve it. I want to be seen as a guy who's helping to make asphalt binders perform better and last longer in a more economic and sustainable way. If I'm doing that, then I'm doing my job."

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AMAP's technical committee to host March meeting in Tampa to discuss RAS/RAP mixtures

In conjunction with the upcoming Association of Asphalt Paving Technologists annual meeting, which is being held March 27-30 in Tampa, Florida, AMAP's technical committee has scheduled a meeting to discuss the issues surrounding the use of Recycled Asphalt Shingles (RAS) and Recycled Asphalt Product (RAP) mixtures.

The meeting will be held March 27 from 2-5 p.m. at a location still to be determined with the goal of preparing and reviewing a research needs statement and request for proposal related to the use of RAS and RAP mixtures. Those in attendance will also work to identify other asphalt modification-related issues that are pertinent to the member companies.

Any member company representatives interested in participating in this important meeting and joining the AMAP technical committee are welcome. Please email committee chairman Laurand Lewandowski at [email protected] for more information and/or to be added to the group.

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AMAP selects 2011 Dave Jones scholarship recipients

AMAP is pleased to announce that three students have been chosen as recipients of the 2011 David R. Jones IV Scholarship. This winter, three $1,000 awards were presented to students from Mississippi State University, the University of New Hampshire and Villanova University.

Brennan AndersonPursuing a degree in civil and environmental engineering, Mississippi State senior Brennan Anderson was selected based on his co-op work with Ergon Refining. In 2008, Anderson spent 18 months alternating full-time work at Ergon with his full-time classroom work. At Ergon, he gained experience in project engineering, which, combined with his school research work and prior internship at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Engineer Research and Development Center, has inspired his interest in a career in the modified asphalt industry. Anderson says he was surprised to learn he was a 2011 Dave Jones Scholarship winner. "I'd prepared myself for the possibility that I didn't win, so I was really excited to get the call letting me know that I'd actually won. Because of this money, I will be able to work less and focus more on my last semester of school, so it's a huge help."

Katherine GrayKatherine Gray, a senior at the University of New Hampshire, applied for the Dave Jones scholarship after learning about the opportunity from her professor. Pursuing a degree in civil engineering, Gray recently completed an undergraduate research project in which she was assigned to evaluate various asphalt concrete mixtures containing different types of recycled asphalt shingles to determine how they perform compared with traditional asphalt concrete mixtures. The project made Gray a standout for the 2011 Dave Jones Scholarship. While she is still unsure where her career will take her, she says she was very excited to learn she was selected for the award. "I'm definitely interested in the modified asphalt industry, and the scholarship money will help me finish my senior year and move forward with the start of my career."

Andrew HorganAndrew Horgan is a senior at Villanova University who will graduate in May with a bachelor's degree in civil engineering. Horgan was selected for the Dave Jones Scholarship based on his undergraduate research work in pavements and the time he spent as a summer intern in highway construction for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. After graduation, Horgan plans to pursue a master's degree in flexible pavements. As a post-graduate, his work will begin with a joint National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) project between Villanova and Rutgers Universities that will test the effectiveness of using an indirect-tension insert in the asphalt pavement materials. With the start of graduate school just around the corner, Horgan says he was thrilled to learn that he'd won this year's Dave Jones Scholarship. "I applied based on a recommendation from one of my teachers, but I had no idea I'd actually win. This money will be very useful as I pursue my master's degree."

The David R. Jones IV Scholarship Fund was founded by AMAP in 2009 in memory of late asphalt industry leader Dave Jones IV, who served in a variety of capacities in the asphalt industry, including time at the University of Texas, where he was a key member of the Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP) team responsible for Performance Graded (PG) Asphalt Binder Specification.

"Dave Jones was an asphalt industry pioneer, and this scholarship is our way of honoring him and his many contributions," said Bob Berkley, Executive Director of AMAP. "We congratulate all of this year's winners and hope this award goes a long way towards helping them achieve their career goals."

The David R. Jones IV Scholarship program is funded by contributions from AMAP and outside donations. To make a donation, or for more information on the scholarship fund, contact Kevin Hardin, chairman of AMAP's Scholarship Committee, via e-mail at [email protected].

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AMAP welcomes 10 new member companies

We're pleased to announce that American Heating Company, Asphalt Products, LLC, BASF, the Greater Cincinnati Asphalt Terminal, Holly Corporation (formerly Sonoco, Inc.), IKA Works, Inc., International Surfacing Systems, Liberty Tire Recycling, Marathon Oil Corporation and NuVention Solutions have joined our list of distinguished member companies.

Based in Clifton, New Jersey, American Heating Company (AHC) specializes in heating solutions for the asphalt industry as well as a variety of other industries. AHC provides engineered equipment, including hot oil heaters, exchangers, tank coils, and steam generators with an emphasis on high efficiency solutions. AHC is considered the single source for asphalt heating.

Asphalt Products, LLC produces and sells Butaphalt� Cross-Linking Agents. This family of Cross-Linking Agents offers Liquid, Liquid Slurry (the "LXL"- products) or Powder (the "B"- products) Agents to match customer equipment, needs and requirements. The company also offers specific customer development products and proprietary formulation production and markets SBS and other special polymers, such as those used for Warm Mix. Proprietary (the CDS Mixing Technology) and Conventional PMA Plant Design and construction services are offered, and Anionic and Cationic Emulsifier Agents are also available through the company.

BASF is a global leader in the supply of high solid styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) polymer dispersions for all types of asphalt paving applications. The company creates chemistry for pavement preservation with a focus on eco-friendly solutions that don't sacrifice performance. Asphalt modified with BUTONAL� SBR polymers helps protect road surfaces, promote better driving conditions, and minimize surface deterioration and the potential for structural failure. BASF's Charlotte Technical Center (CTC) provides a broad portfolio of services, including formulation and production of unmodified and polymer-modified asphalt emulsions in-house in its pilot mill; full testing of emulsion liquid and recovered residue properties; chip seal, slurry and micro surfacing emulsion system performance testing; complete Superpave SHRP "Plus" hot mix asphalt binder testing; and latex polymer evaluation for asphalt modification.

The Greater Cincinnati Asphalt Terminal (GCAT) is a family owned liquid asphalt terminal on the Ohio River, located 17 miles west of downtown Cincinnati. GCAT is capable of producing polymer-modified and emulsified asphalt products serving the construction industry.

Holly Corporation (formerly Sunoco, Inc.), headquartered in Dallas, Texas, is an independent petroleum refiner and marketer that produces high-value light products such as gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel and other high-value specialty products. Through its subsidiaries, Holly operates a 100,000-barrels-per-stream day (bpsd) refinery located in Artesia, New Mexico, a 125,000 bpsd refinery in Tulsa, Oklahoma and a 31,000 bpsd refinery in Woods Cross, Utah.

Based in Wilmington, N.C., IKA� Works is a worldwide manufacturer and technology leader of High Shear mixing, dispersing, and milling equipment for the Asphalt, Chemical, Petroleum, Renewable energy, Pigments, Food/Beverage, Pharmaceutical, Coatings and Personal care/Cosmetic industries, among others. IKA offers a scaleable program from laboratory to production-scale with the stand-alone high shear milling and emulsion equipment and full turn-key systems. IKA has a North American manufacturing facility and parts warehouse, along with direct engineering for product development and process engineered systems.

International Surfacing Systems (ISS) began in 1983 and was purchased by family owned Basic Resources, Inc. ,of Modesto, California, in 1997. ISS specializes in field-blended asphalt rubber and polymer-modified asphalt rubber binder products. The company is a full-service chip seal company offering complete engineering and design services. ISS and its sister companies Valley Slurry Seal, VSS Emultech and VSS Macropaver are industry experts with more than 60 years experience in pavement preservation, asphalt emulsions, specialty binders and equipment manufacturing.

Pittsburgh, Pa.-based Liberty Tire Recycling processes over 130 million scrap tires each year into a variety of beneficial end uses, including rubberized mulch for landscaping and playgrounds, and crumb rubber for artificial turf for modified asphalt applications. With over 30 facilities and locations across North America, Liberty Tire Recycling can provide economic and environmental solutions to sustainable paving applications. The organization can also deliver engineered rubber suitable for surface courses, friction courses, bituminous surface treatments and dense graded mixes.

Marathon Oil Corporation is an integrated international energy company engaged in exploration and production; oil sands mining; integrated gas; and refining, marketing and transportation operations. Marathon, which is based in Houston, has principal operations in the United States, Angola, Canada, Equatorial Guinea, Indonesia, the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, Libya, Norway, Poland and the United Kingdom. Marathon is the fourth largest United States-based integrated oil company and the nation's fifth largest refiner.

Founded in 2010, Valley View, Ohio-based NuVention Solutions, Inc., specializes in the commercialization of a platform technology designed to convert livestock solid waste into Bio Oil. When blended with petroleum asphalt, the Bio Oil helps improve polymer compatibility in pavement binders and roofing products, and has the capacity to allow for the greater use of Recycled Asphalt Product because of its ability to offset stiffness.

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Our President's View

Ron CorunState and local highway owner agencies today are facing shrinking budgets and growing demands from the driving public. Some agencies are abandoning the use of modified asphalts as a way to stretch their dollars. This short-sighted approach ignores years of pavement performance that has clearly demonstrated that the small additional upfront cost for modified asphalt actually reduces the life cycle cost of asphalt pavements and saves the taxpayers money. The long-term pavement study sponsored by AMAP clearly defined the benefits of modified asphalt, and industry members need to reinforce this message with every highway agency.

Highway agencies and contractors are also looking to lower the cost of asphalt pavements by increasing the use of Recycled Asphalt Pavements (RAP) and Recycled Asphalt Singles (RAS). The addition of high percentages of RAP and/or RAS dilutes the benefits of modified asphalt in an asphalt pavement, and most agencies restrict the usage of RAP and RAS with a modified asphalt binder to 10 percent or less.

AMAP recognizes the need to develop a modified asphalt binder designed specifically for use in high-percentage RAP/RAS mixes, which will deliver the economy of recycled asphalt with the performance of a modified mix. To bring this technology to the asphalt industry, AMAP will sponsor research this year designed to develop and test modified binders that will perform well with mixes containing RAP and RAS.

This research will provide the perfect marriage of high-performance and lower cost that the owner agencies and the asphalt industry are seeking. I am excited about the programs that AMAP is undertaking, and I look forward to working with all of the members to spread our message about the benefits of modified asphalt.

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We need your feedback!

We hope you’ve enjoyed this issue of AMAP News. As we plan upcoming issues of this newsletter, we are looking for your input on how we’ve been doing so far. Following are some questions we’re hoping you’ll take a few moments to answer. Your feedback will help us craft upcoming issues of AMAP News, and help us ensure that we are providing our readers with the latest and most pertinent information on our organization and the asphalt industry as a whole. Please feel free to e-mail your responses to the following questions to [email protected] or [email protected]. We look forward to hearing from you.

  1. Do you find the stories in AMAP News to be informative and interesting? How or why?
  2. What topics would you like to see addressed in the newsletter?
  3. Are there people you would like to see featured in the newsletter that we haven’t yet written about? 
  4. Do you feel that the newsletter serves as a good resource for information on AMAP? Why or why not?
  5. How do you feel AMAP News compares to other organizational newsletters that you receive?
  6. Do you like the e-mail format of the newsletter?
  7. We currently send out two newsletters a year. Do you like this frequency, or would you prefer more frequent distribution?
  8. Would you be interested in having access to past newsletters on the AMAP website?
  9. Have you ever forwarded AMAP News to other friends/colleagues in the industry who don’t receive it?
  10. Do you have any other suggestions that could help us improve the newsletter?

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INSIDE THIS ISSUE

AMAP hosts annual meeting in Kansas City, Mo.

Message from the Executive Director

Collins and Planche inducted into AMAP Paving Hall of Fame

AMAP's technical committee to host March meeting in Tampa to discuss RAS/RAP mixtures

AMAP selects 2011 Dave Jones scholarship recipients

AMAP welcomes 10 new member companies

Our President's View

We need your feedback!


AMAP Headquarters
P.O. Box 270006
St. Louis, MO 63127
Phone: 1-314-843-2627
www.modifiedasphalt.org


AMAP MEMBERS

  • Alberty Additives
  • American Heating Company
  • ARR MAZ Custom Chemicals
  • Asphalt Institute
  • Asphalt Materials, Inc.
  • Asphalt Products, LLC
  • Asphalt Refining & Technology Company
  • BASF
  • Better Roads Magazine
  • Bit Mat Products
  • Bitumar, Inc.
  • Blacklidge Emulsions, Inc.
  • BP Bitumen
  • Bright Star Energy
  • BWS Technologie GmbH
  • ChevronTexaco
  • CITGO Asphalt Refining Company
  • ConocoPhillips Company
  • Construction Resources Management
  • Dalworth Machine Products, Inc.
  • Dexco Polymers LP
  • DuPont
  • Dynasol, LLC
  • ECF, Inc.
  • ECOPATH, LLC
  • Ergon Asphalt & Emulsions
  • Ergon Asphalts, Inc.
  • ExxonMobil
  • Flint Hills Resources, LP
  • Holly Corporation (formerly Sunoco, Inc.)
  • Hudson Liquid Asphalts
  • ICL Performance
  • IKA� Works
  • Innophos, Inc.
  • International Surfacing Systems
  • Irving Oil Limited, Refinery Div.
  • Jebro, Inc.
  • Kraton Polymers
  • Lake Asphalt of Trinidad and Tobago Limited
  • Liberty Tire Recycling
  • Malvern Instruments, Inc.
  • Marathon Oil Corporation
  • Mariani Asphalt Co.
  • McConnaughay Technologies
  • Midwest Industrial Fuels
  • Modified Asphalt Research Center
  • Modified Asphalt Solutions
  • Momentum Technologies, Inc.
  • NuVention Solutions, Inc.
  • Oldcastle Materials
  • PRI Asphalt Technologies, Inc.
  • Reichel & Drews, Inc.
  • Seneca Petroleum Company
  • Shell Oil Company
  • Sinopec Asphalt Sales Company
  • Suit-Kote
  • The Greater Cincinnati Asphalt Terminal
  • Ultrapave Corporation
  • Valero Energy Company
  • Vance Brothers, Inc.
  • Warden Modified Asphalt, LP
  • Wright Asphalt Products Company