Founded in 1955, the National Asphalt Pavement Association exclusively represents the interests of the hot mix asphalt producer and paving contractor on the national level with the U.S. Congress, government agencies and other national trade and business organizations.

NAPA supports an active research program designed to answer questions about environmental issues and improve the quality of HMA pavements and paving techniques used in the construction of roads, streets, highways, parking lots, airports and environmental and recreational facilities.

The association, which counts more than 1,100 companies among its members, provides technical, educational and marketing materials and information to its members, and supplies technical information to users and specifiers of paving materials.

NAPA president Mike Acott recently sat down with Texas Construction editor Mark Rea for an in-depth interview concerning some of today's most important topics that concern the hot mix asphalt industry.

TXC: Certainly reauthorization of the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century, which expires this year, would play a huge impact on your industry. What are your thoughts on the reauthorization of TEA-21?

Acott: "Reauthorization is clearly a major issue for us. We are committed to work on that issue through two major coalitions: the Transportation Construction Coalition and the Americans for Transportation Mobility. The TCC is made up of about 27 other construction industry associations including the unions, while the ATM is fairly new and, for the first time, is bringing the business community into the equation via chambers of commerce.

"Our goal is to help educate members of Congress as well as the White House in terms of the proper funding level to meet the needs of the highway system, which is essentially the lifeblood of our economy. Our basic position is to urge the Bush Administration and Congress to fund a six-year reauthorization bill at a $375 billion investment."

TXC: Didn't the White House recently unveil a new proposal for TEA-21 reauthorization?

Acott: "Yes, but their proposal was way short in terms of meeting the needs of the program. (The Bush Administration proposed $247 billion for the program.) This is a tough issue, but the construction industry and business community have formed a pretty formidable group to try and get these funding levels up to where they need to be."

TXC: With federal dollars earmarked elsewhere, how can you convince Congress or the administration to increase its investment in TEA-21?

Acott: "We will require that there be some improvements in the revenue streams. Our proposals would include spending down the balance in the highway trust fund, redirecting the revenue streams on gasohol into the trust fund and, if necessary, there could either be indexing of gas taxes or a gas tax increase to get those revenue streams flowing. But we've got to get moving forward on this now and we're not really interested in any type of temporary extension. We are looking for a commitment of uniform funding levels so business can be planned accordingly."

TXC: What are other legislative issues (including new Environmental Protection Agency regulatory initiatives) currently affecting the hot mix industry?

Acott: "I think the industry has done a very good job in trying to be responsive to the EPA. For example, we have been working for several years trying to get our products off the agency's list of hazardous air pollutants and we accomplished that last year."

TXC: How long was hot mix on the EPA's hazardous list?

Acott: "Since about 1992 or 1993. In fact, prior to being placed on the list, we had begun a major testing program to try and understand what sort of levels of different emission values we were dealing with around hot mix asphalt facilities. We had already spent several hundreds of thousands of dollars in the early Nineties and it became clear to us that we were incorrectly categorized. So we worked in partnership with the EPA and provided it with all of our data and information, and have - over the last eight to 10 years - really ramped up the testing program with the EPA at many hot mix facilities.

"Based upon that partnership, the EPA concluded last year that no asphalt concrete manufacturing facility has the potential to emit hazardous air pollutants approaching major source levels. That was a hugely positive thing for us in two respects. It really sent a great message to the communities in which we operate that our emissions are low and well controlled. And had we been subjected to these regulations, we would have had to meet very costly standards called Maximum Achievable Control Technology Standards. That would have cost each asphalt plant on the order of about $300,000 to $800,000. That would have cost over $2 billion industry-wide, so it was a major win for us."

TXC: What are some of the other environmental issues important to the industry?

Acott: "We entered into a voluntary agreement with OSHA several years ago to put engineering controls on hot mix asphalt paving machines. One of the issues has been the concern of emissions around paving machines. After a fairly lengthy process of evaluation and testing, we were able to show that we could effectively remove the emissions and fumes from around the workers by installing a venting and fan system on the machines. As a result, all of the highway paver manufacturers voluntarily agreed to make the necessary adjustments on their new machines. We have now had several years of experience with that process, and we are in a sort of phase two to evaluate the efficiency and levels of emissions reduction around the paving machines. The results coming out so far are extremely positive."

TXC: How has the economic downturn of the past few years affected the industry?

Acott: "It's been a very tough marketplace, particularly at the state level. Many states are in a deficit situation in terms of their budgets and that has definitely affected the amount of work that certain states are letting. The other section is the private sector and, despite low interest rates, we have seen a slowdown there as well. It's been a tough market for probably about three years now."

TXC: Have you seen a lot of consolidation in the industry? Are the Mom and Pop companies beginning to disappear?

Acott: "We've seen considerable consolidation over the last 10 years and that has only slowed down probably within the last year or so because of market conditions. Still, the hot mix industry is largely comprised of family-owned companies. There are probably close to 1,500 to 2,000 companies involved in this industry and it's still not what is considered a 'mature' industry in terms of consolidation."

TXC: Talk about the current and future demands placed upon aggregate suppliers as they relate to premium mixes such as Superpave and stone matrix asphalt.

Acott: "We have had some significant changes in the product that we mix and lay down. While we had undergone many improvements over the years in equipment and machinery, we had gone for several years without many improvements in the product. But in the 1970s, we started to see some serious issues such as rutting and/or stripping of the asphalt with use of heavier trucks and more traffic. From that point to today, there have been significant changes and most state DOTs and contractors have adjusted their mixes accordingly.

"Some of that was tied to major research programs, such as the ones that gave us Superpave and SMA. But for the most part, the mixes of today are much more robust and more dependent on the aggregate structure. Both Superpave and SMA are extremely dependent on the aggregate and, since that is 94 to 95 percent of the mix, the demand upon the aggregate suppliers has become greater. Higher levels of aggregate quality are now in demand. There are more requirements in terms of the amount of crushed material in the mix as well as the shape and cleanliness of the aggregate. I know one of the concerns of the aggregate industry is that it needs to run quarries that are balanced in the sizes of aggregate they produce."

TXC: Do you foresee the use of composite materials affecting how asphalt and aggregate companies do business in the future?

Acott: "It certainly makes it more complicated. There is an array of materials including polymer modifiers, asphalt rubber, cellulose and mineral fibers, all of which offer a lot of opportunities for the industry to build longer-lasting pavements. These materials are an essential ingredient, particularly in terms of SMA.

"We have found that fibers are needed in SMA to allow production of the richest mixes. Here in Maryland (where NAPA is headquartered), all of the interstate pavements are now surfaced with SMA. And under some of the toughest traffic conditions in the country, the surfaces are performing in an outstanding way. We fully expect to get 15 to 20 years or more out of these types of surfaces.

"In the cases of asphalt rubber and polymer, both have great potential in working with more of the open-graded types of material to produce very significant reductions in noise levels. We have seen - particularly in the Phoenix area as we overlay the concrete pavements - something on the order of 7 decibels in noise reduction. We have also seen reports in Texas under similar conditions where the noise reduction is up to 14 decibels. All of these materials give us the opportunity to customize the mixes, meet whatever requirements the customer may have and produce a more user-friendly product."

TXC: One perpetual pavement project has just been completed in Texas and another is scheduled to be let later this year. What are your views on perpetual pavement? Is it the wave of the future or just one more option for the HMA industry?

Acott: "I think perpetual pavement is a very exciting concept. We've kind of known about it for several years, but we've never really put it all together and synthesized what our objectives should be toward it. In conventional construction, you would never think of rebuilding your house when the roof begins to deteriorate. You simply put a new roof on every 20 years or so. Yet, with highways, we go through major reconstruction or rehabilitation of the entire structure. Now what we have with perpetual pavement is the concept of building a structure that is going to last indefinitely with resurfacing at 15- or 20-year intervals.

"We're finding many states now moving forward with perpetual pavement designs and we are complementing that with research at the National Center for Asphalt Technology (at Auburn University) and the Asphalt Institute. With all of these new technologies available, right now is a very exciting time in our industry."