The Asphalt Recycling & Reclaiming Association (ARRA) continues to find itself extremely active in spreading the good word on asphalt recycling across the nation.
The surge in demand for our members’ recycling processes coupled with an invigorated spirit of partnership from all those involved in the pavement preservation and rehabilitation industry has resulted in a number of ARRA initiatives coming to fruition.
Teamwork 2005—Preservation and Rehabilitation, the joint annual meeting of ARRA with the Asphalt Emulsion Manufacturers Association and the International Slurry Surfacing Association held in March, was an exceptional success. Over 300 pavement professionals, including FWHA and DOT representatives, spent four days learning, discussing and advancing the asphalt recycling industry and, surely, themselves. The program included updates and perspectives from a wide variety of senior practitioners, a range of working committee meetings, over 25 technical presentations and a focus session on pavement preservation initiatives.
It was the second year ARRA has teamed with these other industry groups and, based on this success, is scheduling a repeat in 2006 in Palm Springs. As the teamwork saying goes “Together We Accomplish More.”
In addition to its annual meeting, ARRA has traditionally conducted a fall semi-annual meeting featuring an owner agency seminar and maintaining a focus on technical issues and its working committees. This year ARRA is expecting 200-250 registrants representing owner agencies, consulting engineers, contractors and industry suppliers for its Semi-Annual Meeting and Recycling Seminar in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Oct. 5-6.
ARRA has always maintained a strong presence at a wide variety of industry stakeholder events, and 2005 is no exception. These opportunities to meet with other industry professionals continue to heighten the awareness of asphalt pavement recycling to all. With ConExpo now complete, the upcoming activities include the AASHTO Subcommittee on Maintenance in Lincoln, N.H., July 17-21, and the APWA show in Minneapolis, Sept. 11-14.
In addition to the increased awareness of the benefits of recycling that ARRA has garnered from working so closely with all these industry associations, ARRA also has made substantial strides in its initiative to increase the education of all facets of asphalt recycling to a wide range of industry practitioners. This is being achieved through the successful implementation of the NHI “Asphalt Pavement Recycling Technologies” training course. The development of this course, using ARRA’s Basic Asphalt Recycling Manual as its core reference, was a substantial collaborative effort of FHWA, NCAT and ARRA and is being delivered by the Asphalt Institute. This two-day course is being taught at nine locales across the nation this year and will continue
to educate attendees on the technical aspects of asphalt pavement recycling.
The association continues to develop its website to become the online site of choice for information on asphalt recycling. Work is under way to establish an electronic asphalt recycling library where valuable and pertinent presentations, papers and research studies can be found.
ARRA has always strongly supported the efforts of both the Foundation for Pavement Preservation and the National Center for Pavement Preservation. The need to preserve the nation’s pavements has never been greater, and recycling continues to play a valuable role in ensuring this happens. With Gerry Eller’s efforts at FP2 and Larry Galehouse’s at NCPP, ARRA is confident that pavement preservation will continue to be entrenched as a key part of all pavement management systems.
While much of our print media is moving electronic, ARRA recognizes that there is still great value in the production of quality brochures. As a result, the ARRA Technical Committees are in the process of producing PowerPoint CDs for each process and updating the current brochures.