|
|
| Santa Barbara - Site of NAPA's Midyear Meeting |
Our Technical Director, Kimberly Lyons represented SCAPA at the 2022 NAPA Midyear Meeting in sunny Santa Barbara, California. Several committees met during this meeting to discuss important industry issues: Sustainability Committee, Southeast Region Advisory Council, Committee for Engineering Application and Practice (CEAP), Legislative Committee and Committee for Asphalt Research & Technology (CART). The keynote speaker was Dr. Elliot Eisenberg, a chief economist at Laughs and Graph, LLC. Dr. Eisenberg talked about the economy and how the economy has affected the construction industry and transportation by means of inflation as well as supply and demand issues. His presentation “Economic Forecast and Its Impact on the Public and Private Asphalt Markets” was very entertaining while informing and educating the attendees on the current recession due to COVID-19.
During the CART meeting, the committee discussed how to define Warm Mix Asphalt through temperature categories. The goal of this definition is to focus on the reduction of asphalt mix production temperatures to eliminate emissions and lower GHG potential of asphalt mix production. asphalt mix temperature definition. Warm Mix Asphalt (WMA) was removed for the title based on the Task Force’s discussion and temperature reduction categories were added. The following definition of Asphalt Mix Temperature was developed: "Asphalt mixtures can be produced within a temperature category with technologies to reduce emissions while still achieving compatibility, in-place density, and short and long term performance." The NAPA Midyear meeting was a successful meeting to discuss industry issues while networking with professionals across the country.