Pavement paradise? St. Louis' 3 days at the center of the asphalt universe

ST. LOUIS — A crowd of thousands in attendance, packed downtown. A dizzying range of souvenirs, up for grabs. Eyes trained on a guy who strolled out with Led Zeppelin walk-up music blasting.

That was the scene last week, not at Opening Day for the Cardinals, but for the World of Asphalt Show and Conference — which bills itself as the largest and leading event for asphalt professionals and contractors — along with an accompanying show, called AGG1, dedicated to the aggregates and raw materials that make paved surfaces.

Beneath the show’s fanfare and at times industrial carnival-like atmosphere, the multi-day extravaganza was all about pavement: the pervasive and critically important material we walk, drive and park on that can also exacerbate the hotter, wetter weather wrought by climate change by fueling urban “heat islands” or stormwater runoff.

Some at the event, which ran from Tuesday through Thursday at the America’s Center Convention Complex, said the timing couldn’t have been better, with pavement in some ways caught up in the zeitgeist and tied to hot-button issues locally and nationally.

Potholes, for example, have featured prominently in St. Louis’ mayoral race. And amid the Trump administration’s funding cuts and stated fixation on efficient government spending, some at the show said it’s more crucial than ever to do better, smarter roadway construction and maintenance, which guzzles billions upon billions of tax dollars annually.

“It could not be a timelier conversation,” said Lindsey Hermes, the president and chief operating officer of BioSpan Technologies, a locally based company that makes soybean-based treatments to preserve pavement and prolong its lifespan. “We have such an opportunity to make an impact.”

Federal spending on roads and highways has exceeded $50 billion annually in recent years, per the Congressional Budget Office — a figure that it has projected to grow, moving forward.

Meanwhile, state and local governments across the country have spent triple that amount, dumping more than $150 billion toward roadways in 2021, for example, based on U.S. Census Bureau data compiled last year by the Urban Institute, a nonprofit focused on policy issues.

Amid that backdrop, companies like BioSpan aim to deliver savings that yield both economic and environmental benefits, by helping asphalt last longer. Hermes says applying the company’s top-selling product, called RePlay, onto roads can save ultimately save governments more than $37,000 per mile, per year, in avoided maintenance and construction costs.

BioSpan, based in Washington, Missouri, made its sales pitch at the World of Asphalt through tabletop demonstrations of fixing a pothole with its products, in a setup that resembled a cooking show.

BioSpan was just one of more than 400 exhibitors at the World of Asphalt show, which took up a bigger footprint than ever, according to its organizers. Event officials said an early tally counted more than 11,500 attendees.

Registration for the convention cost $109 to $709, with programs aimed at paving company personnel, the companies that help supply the industry with materials and equipment, and a large contingent of prospective customers in the form of government and city officials from departments of transportation and public works.

Once inside, acres of gleaming, monstrous construction equipment filled the event’s cavernous space — machines seemingly ready to level just about anything, or grind up and spit out the rocks, hydrocarbons, and old, recycled pavement, called “RAP” — an acronym for Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement — that becomes new pavement.

(Remarkably, the multi-ton machines were parked atop plush carpet without leaving any tracks.)

The show floor boasted lots more than just industrial-scale equipment, free tote bags and hardhat-shaped trinkets, and stations for businesses called Towmaster, SealMaster, ShoulderMaster and RUBBLE MASTER, in all capital letters.

Amid the sea of specialized products and services were places to talk mineral sizing, buy specialized footwear for walking atop asphalt and sell used milling teeth — thus knocking out what one might imagine could be standard industry errands.

Attendees could also snag the March issue of Pit & Quarry magazine, featuring “the top 100” crushed stone producers and the next inductees of the Pit & Quarry Hall of Fame. Nearby, colorful cartoon posters at a station for Asphalt Pro magazine advertised Asphalt Lane, “a children’s activity book designed to deliver a positive educational message to your local school children.”

Some exhibitions featured particularly elaborate production value. The central area occupied by Volvo’s line of construction equipment was replete with a hype-building DJ who teed up Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song” as the intro music for Scott Young, the company’s head of sales for North America. He then proceeded to talk about an array of vehicles, including asphalt rollers in the company’s “compaction lineup” that he described as being especially “near and dear to my heart.”

And beneath the glitz and showmanship, one could find serious discussions about building materials and innovations aimed at figuring out how pavement-heavy cities can avoid drowning or cooking themselves amid hotter and wetter extremes.

Some proven technologies or designs — like permeable or porous pavement that lets water seep through it — are already able to help on both fronts, said Amlan Mukherjee, the senior director of sustainability and intelligent construction for the National Asphalt Pavement Association.

“Instead of that water running off, it goes in right through the pavement,” he said in an interview at the show Tuesday. “It cools your pavement as it does that.”

Mukherjee said the asphalt industry seeks to evolve along with the challenges at hand.

“In all areas of engineering, we’re seeing the impact of changes in climate, overall, and how that impacts our designs and our choice of materials,” he said.