Going municipal in Minneapolis
Sep 12, 2016
For over 120 years, the APWA has held their annual conference for public works professionals across the U.S. This year, Minneapolis hosted the more than 5,000 colleagues in attendance. Branding itself for the first time as “PWX 2016,” the event offered new education formats, innovations and technologies, as well as more networking opportunities than ever before.
Representing Ingevity’s Evotherm Technical Marketing team at the expo were Bryan Pecht, Matt LaChance and Melinda Furse. “The municipal market is an important market segment for us,” explains Bryan. “Our Evotherm® warm mix asphalt technology continues to be adopted by more cities and townships across the U.S. to improve pavement performance and to enhance environmental sustainability.”
In addition to being represented on the trade show floor, Ingevity’s Matt LaChance published a technical paper with an industry colleague, “Warming up to sustainable paving.” The show’s publication, “APWA Reporter,” published the paper and Matt presented the paper in a featured session on the opening day of the expo. Matt’s work is a case study on the Town of Dedham, Massachusetts, which used Evotherm as part of their long-term pavement management program. “Dedham is a great example of how a township can improve the condition of their pavements while creating a sustainable maintenance and improvement schedule,” states Matt. “Dedham set out to create a more sustainable paving program without increasing their overall budget. By developing a partnership with their paving contractor, engineering consultants and Ingevity, they have been able to increase the performance rating of their pavements from a 70 (failing) to an 84 (good), save hundreds of thousands of dollars, and exceed expectations for compaction and rideability of their infrastructure.”
In the case study, Steve Edwards, Plant Manager at TL Edwards, reports that he’s “seen a lot of change in this industry and not a lot of it good. I think Evotherm is one of the best things to come along in a long time. It makes the workability and compaction of our mix better and the crew really likes it.” Now in its third year of of their WMA program, contractor Lorusso Corporation has joined the team. Lorusso Project Manager, Wes Sterns, shares that the company prides itself “on being able to provide customers with a superior quality product while reducing our carbon footprint. The use of Evotherm has enabled us to achieve higher levels of compaction, avoid penalties and maximize incentives.” Co-author Joe Flanagan confirms: “Between the longer binder life and increased compaction, Dedham’s roads should last longer. That gives me more time to pave other roads before we have to come back to these roads.”
Read the paper in its entirety here.
Congratulations to Matt and Joe on their efforts to share the benefits of Evotherm with municipal representatives. Way to spread the message of warm mix in Minneapolis!