ForConstructionPros.com

The slowing U. S. economy is having a significant impact on the asphalt industry. The reality of today’s ever-climbing fuel and liquid asphalt (AC) prices combined with shrinking state Department of Transportation budgets is resulting in fewer let projects, increased competition and asphalt producers looking for ways to be more efficient.

“When I first started in this business in 1974, AC was $28 per ton, and we were laying mix for about $10 per ton,” recalls Murrel Wisdom, general manager for Mountain Enterprises, a subsidiary of Oldcastle Materials, Inc. “Today, liquid asphalt is $700 per ton and mix is about $70 to $80 per ton.”

With its headquarters in Lexington, Mountain Enterprises has been a fixture in Eastern Kentucky for 32 years, and Wisdom has been with Mountain from the beginning. Today, he has managerial responsibility over 10 asphalt plants throughout the company’s Eastern Kentucky market. Five of those are batch plants, while the other five are counterflow drum mix plants. A common link for all of the plants is their heritage, in which all have Terex legacy brand — CMI, Cedarapids and Standard Havens — components.

The producer is undergoing a measured transition of switching all of their plants to counterflow drum mix designs. Its latest conversion and shift to increase efficiency included moving a 1990 Cedarapids counterflow drum, cold feed bins and conveyors from Paintsville to Hazard, KY, to replace a 1970s-vintage Cedarapids batch plant. “The old plant in Hazard was basically worn out, and we are able to cover the Paintsville market with a nearby asphalt plant,” explains Wisdom.

Supplying mix to its internal paving crews and public and private sector customers, Mountain Enterprises needs an efficient plant in Hazard to quickly make a variety of mix designs. Some of the most popular mixes are a 38D, 3/8 inch surface; 75D, ¾ inch base; and 1.5-inch number 4 base products. Whenever possible, the producer tries to run RAP in its designs. “Depending on the product, we’ll run between 10 to 20 percent RAP in mixes for both our public and private customers,” says Bob Graves, area manager for Mountain Enterprises.