www.acpa.org 7 Quarter 2, 2022 continues on page 8 » P A V E M E N T T Y P E C O M P E T I T I O N real change may only occur once state agencies see actual results in their regions. “One solution might be to begin with small projects that are Alternate Design/Alternative Bidding (AD/AB),” Kirchain suggested. “This is more of a challenge in states that exclusively use asphalt because they may not have design and engineering staff familiar with concrete.” In these cases, it is important for the concrete pavement industry to provide support, he added. History and Challenges “We are making some progress as we raise awareness of competition as a stewardship tool for state and local agencies,” said Leif Wathne, P.E., Associate Director of the National Concrete Pavement Technology Center (CP Tech Center). “Policy-makers and legislators aremostly unaware of the degree towhich a pavement typemonopoly has taken hold in their states.” The issue of promoting competition to benefit all types of pavement is not new, said Wathne. Following the enactment of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 (popularly known as the National Interstate andDefense Highways Act of 1956), $26 billion in federal funds were allocated to construct 41,000miles of an interstate highway system in the United States. “At the time, there was concern about the lack of pavement type competition, and the resulting lack of cost-effectiveness associatedwith this lack of competition, as concrete pavement dominated interstate construction in the early days of the program,” Wathne said. “In fact, AASH(T)O issued guidance in 1960 that clearly spells this out.” In a section on cost comparisons (what is now called life-cycle cost analysis) the guide states: … doubt as to the validity [of such analysis] arises in the case where on[e] type of pavement has been given monopoly status by the long-term exclusion of a competitive type. “The assertion is that the cost information is not meaningful unless you have project cost information to pull from,” said Wathne. “The guide continues in a section discussing competition: …It is desirable that monopoly situations be avoided, and that improvement in products and methods be encouraged through continued and healthy competition among industries involved in the production of paving materials. Highway officials of the day recognized the importance of establishing and maintaining competing industries in order to achieve competitive pricing, improve quality, and spur innovation.” Today, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law provides approximately $350 billion for federal highway programs over a five-year period. It’s the most significant investment in highways since the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act of 1956’s investment, which would total more than $264 billion in today’s dollars. The volume of funding increases the need for pavement-type competition to ensure states have access to the best prices to maximize this investment’s reach. “Two challenges in states that lack a competitive marketplace include: a lack of concrete expertise on agency staffs; and a lack of cost information for concrete pavement to help inform a rational pavement-type selection process—an issue highway officials acknowledged over 60 years ago,” said Wathne. “ACPA’s network of engineers, university resources, and industry experts can help fill the design and engineering expertise gap and can also assist in determining reasonable concrete pavement costs by translating information from states with more competitive environments,” he said. “However, the most effective means to address these challenges is for agencies to send a clear signal to both industries that they are serious about marshaling the benefits of competition between industries—and taking a programmatic view of competition,” suggestedWathne. “Once confident that the agency is committed to the health of both the concrete and asphalt pavement industries, both industries will make the necessary investments in equipment, training, research, and innovation that enable improved quality and lower unit costs.” He added, “All of this is to the benefit of the agency and aligns squarely with the overarching objective of highway agencies as articulated by AASH(T)O over 60 years ago: … to assure the public of full value for their highway dollar.” A Tale of Two States Pennsylvania is one of the states with insufficient inter-industry competition. Less than 7% of pavement tonnages placed on PennDOT projects in 2021 were concrete, with virtually no concrete pavement work taking place in six of the 11 PennDOT districts, said JohnM. Becker, P.E., President of the Pennsylvania Chapter of ACPA. Concrete’s reputation as a long-lasting pavement material was damaged in the early 1990s by state standards that mandated concrete to be placed over open-graded, unstabilized stone. “Before the end of the decade, we had miles of mid-slab cracking, and to this day, some of the slabs built with those standards continue to move because of secondary consolidation,” Becker said. “It took more than five years for the agency to rectify the standards for newwork, but by then, the damage in the confidence of concrete pavement was done.” Concrete pavement performance on the Pennsylvania Turnpike is another story. All interchanges and all expansion work, including the construction of the beltway around Pittsburgh, are concrete. This work represents a significant reason why the Pennsylvania concrete pavement industry recently delivered over 1.25 million square yards of pavement in one year, said Becker. “Unfortunately, the next major concrete paving work on the Turnpike is not expected to begin until later next year, leaving the industry with the opportunity to bid on just 500,000 squares of PennDOT work this year.” In recent years, PennDOT’s use of AD/AB has diminished, leaving even fewer opportunities to bid on work, said Becker. “One of the other challenges we face in this state are maintenance cycle policies used for Life-Cycle Cost Analyses that are flawed,” he said. “More asphalt is added to the concrete pavement alternate than the asphalt pavement alternate, which results in the price of asphalt having a disproportionate negative impact on concrete pavement.” Concrete pavement contractors in Iowa work in a different competitive environment than contractors in Pennsylvania, with the state’s design-bid-build process allowing for both types of pavement to be considered. “Overall, it is about a 50/50 split between concrete and asphalt pavement,” saidGregMulder, P.E., Executive Director of the Iowa Concrete Paving Association.The key to state, county, and local agencies considering both pavements for projects is a matter of proven performance over the years. “We have 40-, 50-, and 100-year-old concrete pavements performing well throughout the state, so the value of concrete is proven.” Policy-makers and legislators are mostly unaware of the degree to which a pavement type monopoly has taken hold in their states.
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