Business View Magazine
5
Construction
Octob r – Business View
33
training events. We have web-based training programs,
live classroom programs. We have networking
opportunities. Because of the broad swath of members
that we cover, all of those things are important to our
members, collectively.
BV: Five years from now, what do you think
will occur? What are you hoping will occur?
What are the priorities for the association? You
mentioned the long-term highway funding,
but are there other things as well?
DAVENPORT:
One of the keys to our success
in recent years is the use of thin-concrete overlays to
repair distressed roadways and, particularly, asphalt
roadways. Everybody has heard of blacktop, and
blacktop is placed over concrete. But we’ve had this
technology for many, many years to place concrete
over asphalt. And, it’s working. There’s more of it being
used every year, in large part because of the volatility
in oil prices. Asphalt oil is a derivative of oil processing,
so as oil prices go, so too does asphalt prices. So those
concrete overlays are increasingly important.
We are continuing to look for solutions that will help
the state agencies and the contractors place thinner
sections of concrete overlays, thinner typically is
associated with less expensive. We’re doing everything
that we can to do more with less, regardless of what the
culture is, we are trying to return the greatest possible
value and return on investment of highway, roadway
and airport dollars by using technology.
Another aspect is sustainability – that is a very
important initiative to us as an industry. People
wouldn’t really think of roadways as being green,
but nothing can be further from the truth. Concrete
roadways are inherently much more sustainable and
we are continuing to educate the marketplace, as well
as the public agencies about the environmental and
sustainable aspects of concrete. It really comes down
to cost, performance and sustainability, and those are
the key drivers that we continue to push forward with
and we anticipate doing so in the next coming years as
well.
BV: You mentioned specifically the long-
term highway funding and getting things
straightened out in Washington. In your own
expert opinion and heart of hearts, do you
think something is going to get done? Are
you optimistic? Is it an administration thing? If
Congress and the White House are on the same
side of the aisle, will things get done a little
easier? How do you see that going?
DAVENPORT:
We’re optimistic about it. The
administration has been, in the past few months, really
pushing hard to find solutions to the Highway Trust
Fund. We think that Congress will eventually come
around. Highway funding has not typically been a huge
political issue, although it has become one, just because
of everything that’s going on in Washington, D.C. But I
think most members of Congress would acknowledge
that highways, roadways and airports are extremely
important to their constituents. It’s the way they get from
point A to point B. It’s the way people enjoy time on
vacation with their families. There are safety and security
aspects of well-built, well-funded roadways.
Look at Florida for example. You know you can’t have
roadways that are in poor condition that are all jammed
up if there’s an emergency evacuation like a hurricane.
So there’s an acknowledgment in Congress, but
unfortunately, there seems to be other issues that tend
to block that highway bill from being passed in a timely
fashion. And again, the funding is something that we’re
dealing with on many, many fronts as a nation and we
certainly do not look at federal funding as an entitlement.
We look at it as an investment. We have plenty of models
that suggest that nations that invest in their transportation
infrastructure tend to be the ones that are leading the
world in terms of business, commerce, defense and
more.
You can point to India and China as some good
examples of nations that have emerged economically and
one of the underpinnings of that economic advancement
is their interest in infrastructure. We can’t keep operating
as a cutting-edge 21st century nation with roadways and
airports and ports, and facilities that are throwbacks to
the mid-20th century. We’ve got to modernize. We’ve
got to make that investment, or we’re going to see the
nation’s stature decline and put us in a very vulnerable
situation on many different fronts.
