A while back, I spoke of the results of our most recent survey and one of the surprises it turned up—that 40% of our readers are involved in paving. The more I thought about it, I came to realize that the real surprise was not in the discovery itself but it the fact that we had not asked the question before. This was borne out in conversations I had during the past couple of weeks at visits, first to Volvo CE’s Road Institute and new plant at Shippensburg, PA, and then at Trimble’s Dimensions at Las Vegas, NV, where it was explained to me that (1) paving work seems to have been less affected by the downturn than most other tasks, and (2) dirt workers—particularly those who do the finish grading have an advantage in bidding for paving jobs because they have knowledge of and control over the precision of the preparation work.
Following up at World of Concrete and ConExpo/ConAgg/IFPE two months later, I received even more confirmation that Grading & Excavation Contractor needs to pay a lot more attention to paving equipment and practices as we move forward.
What about you? Have you found yourself able to take advantage of your dirt working expertise when bidding for paving work? How about shooting an e-mail to me at jtrotti@forester.net and telling me of your experiences?