Behind the Screed

Faces of Evotherm: Ben Bredenkamp

Those who know Ben Bredenkamp, know that he is defined by a never ending smile, a wicked, self-deprecating sense of humor, and the ability to engage just about anyone in conversation. By day, he’s a Technical Marketing Manager for the states of Kentucky, Louisiana, Tennessee and West Virginia, and recently wrote and presented “Optimizing Recycled Materials Content” at the 2015 Plant Mix Asphalt Industry of Kentucky (PAIKY) Winter Training School. Outside of the office, he serves as Chief Comic Officer for the friends and family in his life. You’ll see…

Name the key aspects of your role at Ingevity.

Adding value to my customers’ businesses, building relationships, having fun, improving the quality of roadways for the public, and bringing the average height of the team up by a few inches.  

What gets you out of bed in the morning?

Seeing my son for the first time every day, building relationships with customers beyond business requirements, and working with the people who are actually building America. Many people say that they have built or are building this country, but my customers are actually doing it.

What achievements in your life are most important to you?

My wife, Katie, and my son, Logan; Winning “Jump Rope Across America” at Copeland Elementary in 1995; Getting asked to leave an Old Country Buffet for eating too much in high school; Making eye contact with Darius Rucker at brunch in Charleston once.

You're stuck in an elevator for four hours. What items do you wish you had?

Snacks and the original Broadway recording of “Cats.”

What do you feel qualified to teach?

“Diaper Changing For Time,” a professional wedding attending course, and “How To Iron a Men’s Button Down Shirt Properly.”

If you were independently wealthy, how would you spend your time? 

If you count American Airlines miles as wealth, then I am independently wealthy.

Who is the most courageous person you have ever met? 

My grandmothers. My maternal grandmother had ten kids and my paternal grandmother had 12 kids. That is courage.

What books would you encourage others to read? 

“Gates of Fire,” by Steven Pressfield, “Living with a SEAL,” by Jesse Itzler, and “Drummer Hoff Fired it Off” by Barbara Emberley.

What's your favorite quote or line from a person, book, movie?

A line from Viktor Frankl in “Man’s Search for Meaning”: “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

Fiberless For The Future

At about this time every year, bright minds at the New Jersey division of Tilcon New York, Inc., based in Wharton, are contemplating the coming year. The Tilcon team has devoted a great deal of time and energy in becoming a regional leader that develops the newest technologies from their Mount Hope laboratory facility, which are then verified by the New Jersey Department of Transportation. One such technology involving Ingevity’s Evotherm® WMA technology in a fiberless stone matrix asphalt (SMA) mix was used in early summer of 2016 on Route 80 in N.J.

Aleksandra Rogozinski, Quality Control Supervisor with Tilcon in Wharton, N.J., explains: “At the end of 2015, our technicians in the lab, Peter Truncale and Brian Dailey, were experimenting with a winter design using no fibers. In the past, we had traditionally used SMA with fibers. Our team was evaluating a fiberless mix mainly because the fibers and filler are costly.” While still above the NJDOT minimum requirement of 6% liquid AC, Tilcon’s new design decreased the filler content by nearly two percent and the asphalt cement (AC) content by 0.4 percent - significantly reducing the cost of the mix.  Aleksandra continues: “There were concerns about whether the mix would hold together. But what we found is that this fiberless mix performed similarly to the traditional SMA.”

SMA’s commonly use polymer-modified asphalt at elevated loadings.  The production and placement temperatures needed to successfully place a conventional SMA project can result in asphalt drain down and fat spots in the pavement.  Fibers are used to reduce this problem. Using Evotherm WMA technology, Tilcon is able to reduce their production and placement temperatures. The reduced temperature enabled by using Evotherm results in a higher binder viscosity. The higher binder viscosity is less prone to drain down.  In fact, if one can reduce the temperatures enough, fibers can be eliminated entirely.  

To date, Tilcon is enjoying many benefits of their new fiberless mix. “The Evotherm allows us to reduce the temperature of the mix,” reports Aleksandra. “Using a 64E—22 liquid, we saw production temperatures as low as 295ºF, compared to a standard production temperature of 325ºF, and compaction temperatures as low as 250ºF in the lab. These lower temperatures reduce our energy costs.” Additionally, Tilcon is seeing improvements in compaction. With a greater compaction window, they can use fewer rollers on the job because there’s more time to work with the mix as it is placed.

“The contractor on the Route 80 job was originally hesitant to use this mix,” explains Aleksandra. “But after seeing these kinds of results, they’ve committed to no longer use traditional SMA. Their product of choice is a fiberless mix using Evotherm.”

What does your fiberless mix of the future look like?

SCDOT & Sloan Rebuild I-85

Adapted from "Fast Fix for Failing Freeway" by Tom Kuennen for Asphalt Contractor

A unique design for warm mix asphalt (WMA) enabled the South Carolina DOT (SCDOT) and its contractor, Sloan Construction, to get a mid-winter start early in 2016 on urgent reconstruction of failing I-85 in the northwestern corner of the Palmetto State. Because WMA can be compacted to required density at lower ambient temperatures, it can lengthen the paving season by enabling winter paving.

The warm mix additive also served as a compaction aid that permitted Sloan to quickly get specified density on twin lifts totaling nine inches, in time-limited night work, to avoid severe penalties for failure to reopen the highway in time for the morning rush in the busy Spartanburg—Greenville corridor.

On this project, in a single one-night shift, as much as nine inches of delaminated, failed pavement would be milled, and the warm mix additive Evotherm® allowed placement of two, four and one-half inch lifts in that single shift, rather than the three, three-inch lifts that would have been required under standard specs, making it impossible to open the pavement by morning rush hour.

The I-85 work was taking place between mile marker 56 to 68, milling out left and center lanes from five to nine inches, and for the right hand lane, milling out 10 inches and putting nine inches back. 

"The DOT realized that, in starting the project last year, the structure of the road didn't hold up the way they wanted it," said Dennis Ayers, senior project manager for Sloan North Region. "They re-let the contract to put in a new base course and reconstruct the road to handle the traffic."

"When we first started we were going to do a two or four inch mill-and-fill," said Chad W. Hawkins, P.E., C.P.M., state materials engineer, SCDOT, Columbia. "But some of the milling process got down into delaminated areas, and that's when the project was put on hold, and we thought 'What do we do now?'".

The pavements in this section were constructed in the 1950s and 60s, so finding out what went wrong is problematic. "Realistically, our two, three and four inch mill-and-fills over the last 50 years have caught up with us," Hawkins said. "It's time to do a major reconstruction, and that's what were finding on a lot of our interstates. We're having to do more than put a four inch 'band-aid'."

On a night in the northbound lanes in July 2016, crews were milling out 10 inches of failed pavement, and were replacing it with two, four and one-half inch lifts of leveling course pavement. They paved 1,000 feet in a single night shift, leaving room for the final driving course.

There, Ingevity's Evotherm enabled Sloan to get density on the first lift, and place the second four and one-half inch lift right on top of the first. Both lifts cooled rapidly to permit timely opening to traffic on the second lift.

Target densities were being met on site and in test strips. Also, Sloan was getting 93 percent density on the cold longitudinal joints, which go down nine inches. "The job is going well," said Todd K. Carroll, P.E., resident construction engineer, SCDOT, Spartanburg County. "They are able to produce a lot of mix every night, very efficiently. We've had a good project so far."

Read the full article in Asphalt Contractor Magazine here.

 

Faces of Evotherm: Lance Brooks

Former NFL wide receiver, Jerry Rice, once said: “Today I will do what others won’t, so tomorrow I can accomplish what others can’t.” Anyone familiar with Lance Brooks knows that he lives his life as if these words are his personal motto.

Lance is a Technical Marketing Manager for the southeast and Great Lakes regions who enjoys leading and developing his team at Ingevity, as well as innovating technologies with customers. Lance recently presented “It’s Not Just for Warm Mix Asphalt” at the 2016 Asphalt Contractors Association of Florida. Outside of work, he also takes pride in being the proud husband to Shaharra, and father to his 11-year old son, Rhett, and his coonhound, Tracker. 

If not yourself, who would you like to be?

I really enjoy being Lance. I truly enjoy my asphalt career and look forward to what the future holds.

Where would you like to live?

Prior to living in Charleston, it was high on my list, and now it’s home. Austin, Texas, is my Number Two. I lived there from 1998-2002. Fortunately, I've been able to live in 10 cities over the last 20 years.

Who are your heroes in real life?

My mother, Nancy. She, along with her parents, raised me and I owe them everything. My dad, Bruce, has been a great motivator. I get my selling genes from him.

What’s a natural talent you’d like to be gifted with?

I'd like to be a little taller. I always wanted to play football or baseball.

Name one thing about your work that gets you out of bed in the morning.

Problem solving with my customers. Seeing the joy it brings when our technologies make their lives easier and save them money (or make them money)!

When not problem solving or making customers’ lives better, Lance can be found running, weight lifting, and enjoying baseball with his family. Although not a Green Bay Packers fan, Lance is motivated by the words of Vince Lombardi: "Think of only three things: your God, your family and the Green Bay Packers, in that order."