NAPA's WMA conference was HOT!

The NAPA conference was pretty hot to be all about Warm Mix. What with all those people getting "Poken-ed", who's surprised? Thanks to everyone who stopped by the Evotherm booth. It was a pleasure to meet you and hear your warm mix questions and concerns. A special thank you to Steve Jackson for schooling several international delegations on the finer points of Evotherm WMA at NB West's St. Louis plant. Here are some other impressions and highlights:

• There was a lot of interest in using additional amounts of recycled asphalt pavement (RAP) and/or recycled asphalt shingles (RAS). 
• People became much more comfortable with Evotherm as their warm mix technology, especially considering the favorable presentations and contractor opinions. 
• Many research studies presented at the conference included Evotherm and many of those studies were on actual field mix. This suggests that Evotherm is one of the most popular technologies, next to foam, that is regularly used on the roadways. 
• Liquid antistrips are more expensive in some states - making Evotherm, an approved antistrip in 9 states, an attractive, economical option.
• The Illinois Tollway and Illinois DOT were at the show in full force. The tollway is specifying 600-750,000 tons of warm mix for 2012, and Evotherm is one of three approved products for use on tollway.
• The subject of 'compaction aid' vs. 'WMA' come up in several discussions.  Some presentations were on WMA that was mixed at 275 or higher.  Several of these presenters even mentioned that this should not be considered a WMA, but a compaction aid.  There needs to be a distinction between using a technology to aid in compaction and using a technology to lower production temperatures.

Over and over, people were impressed by how easy it is to get started using Evotherm. "Be paving Evotherm WMA by lunch" may be our new tagline.