Think Concrete Blog

• Asphalt Spike Erodes State Budgets

  Posted On: March 29, 2012

  "Cost increases may cause another round of asphalt-price escalation overruns for many state transportation departments this year, which may cut their paving outlays for the season."

  So concludes a report in the March 26, 2012, issue of Engineering News-Record titled "Higher Oil Prices Push Asphalt Up 11.2% from a Year ...

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  Category: Market Intelligence

• Free Webinar: Building Resilient Communities

  Posted On: March 27, 2012

  Resilience is fast taking its place alongside energy and resource effiiciency as a key tenet of green construction.

  And rightly so. Sheer survival has a huge environmental impact. The ability of a building to stand the tests of time, changing uses, and natural disasters saves resources and energy squandered in demolition and ...

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  Category: Sustainability

• What if the Path to Paradise Really is Paved with Concrete?

  Posted On: March 16, 2012

  "A little more concrete could save the world. Really."

  We've always thought so, too, but for different reasons than Charles Kenny in the latest issue of Foreign Policy magazine.

  Writing in his The Optimist column titled "Paving Paradise," Kenny makes a compelling case that a little development, in the form ...

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  Category: Paving Projects

• Pothole Season: It's Not Your Fault, It's Asphalt

  Posted On: March 14, 2012

  Potholes and ruts are almost exclusively limited to asphalt roads and streets.

  Each year, rain, ice, heat, and vehicle traffic weaken or damage asphalt surfaces, creating potholes and ruts.

  And each year, cities patch the potholes as a rite of spring.

  But potlholes are more than a bump in the ...

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  Category: Paving Projects

• Asphalt Costs Impact Maintenance Outlays, Budget Shortfalls

  Posted On: March 12, 2012

  Rising asphalt prices are changing more than the cost dynamics of initial road construction.

  They are also driving up maintenance costs of our asphalt-centric transportation network and putting financial pressure on already cash-strapped state budgets.

  "Highway maintenence costs are rising rapidly and represent huge problems for state DOTs," says PCA ...

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• Send Congress a Message About Infrastructure, Job Needs

  Posted On: March 09, 2012

  "With continued high unemployment—combined with the loss of construction sector jobs—the need for strong surface transportation legislation has never been more important."

  Not to mention that every item delivered to your door has traveled on a road or highway.

  It's hard to argue with organizers of the second annual Rally ...

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  Category: Transportation funding

• Checking the Math on Asphalt

  Posted On: March 08, 2012

  It doesn't take a team of renowned economists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to figure out that asphalt costs have soared while concrete prices have remained stable.

  Anyone who buys gas knows that the cost for petroleum-based products has soared along with crude oil prices.

  But it makes a nice proof point for ...

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  Category: Marketing and Promotion

• The Greenest Building is the One Still Standing

  Posted On: March 07, 2012

  Is resilient the new green?

  Each year in the United States, more than $35 billion in direct property loss is caused by natural disasters.  Beyond enhancing safety and reducing property damage, resilience for buildings and homes is taking its place alongside energy use and resource efficiency as a key component of sustainable ...

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  Category: Sustainability

• Asphalt Escalators Limit Competition, Cost Taxpayers Billions

  Posted On: March 06, 2012

   Rising oil prices not only affect fuel and transportation costs, they also have a direct impact on the cost of building and maintaining our streets and highways. States are losing hundreds of millions of dollars due to outdated bidding policies that favor petroleum-based asphalt over other paving materials.

  “Even outside ...

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  Category: Market Intelligence