A Vegas Show Stopper

If you’re reading this, chances are you’ve been to one of those large equipment trade shows at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Be it CONEXPO-CON/AGG every three years, MINExpo every four years or, most recently, World of Concrete early every year, you know full well that moving through the vast indoor halls and outdoor lots can, depending on the day and time of the day, be as different as . . . well . . . night and day. To say the flow isn’t even would be an understatement.

As the first day of World of Concrete 2012 wound down, and the early show attendees were typically losing steam, I found myself sorta off by my lonesome as I walked through the outdoor Silver Lot. Then I looked up . . .

And I certainly didn’t need to check any maps to find out where Arkansas-based concrete paving, placing and finishing equipment manufacturer Allen Engineering had set up its wares. Wow!

It wasn’t just that a crowd was gathered at the Allen booth; there was a buzz. Yes, the equipment was humming, but so too were the people gathered around it. And, as he moved from one side of the booth to the other, looking like he hadn’t been able to take a deep breath under the Vegas sun all day, Allen marketing manager Scott Ward was nonetheless grinning.

Literally completed in the hours leading up to the show, not one, but two major new pieces of Allen equipment were being shown for the first time anywhere – a significant feat even for a company whose roots in the concrete industry go back 48 years and has, since the first World of Concrete in 1977, never missed exhibiting at the big show.

Available in lengths ranging 14 to 52 feet, working widths ranging 12 to 50 feet, the 32-horsepower RS800 is the first in a new series of RollerScreeds designed for white-topping and highway panel replacements. With a boom of 16 feet 6 inches, the 56-horsepower LS175 is the first of the company’s Topcon laser-guided screeds – or LaserStrikers – designed to meet the stringent requirements for concrete floor levelness.

To successfully move into these markets, “a lot of it’s going to be the Allen reputation,” said Ward. “We’ve got lots of friends in the industry who already use our products.” And, with that, he was off to catch up with the many who had gathered around the new pieces. As he moved to the road guys at the RollerScreed, he smiled and noted: “We’ve had a few come by already who are ready for me to take it to them to demo.”

As trade shows go, not a bad first day at all.

Extra! Extra! Read All About It

By Mike Anderson

The headline was smart and catchy. Although I most certainly rolled my eyes, the typical response of trade press editors when our mainstream media cousins stretch their toes onto “our” turf, my eyes quickly refocused on the headline . . . and the tremendous coverage that followed it.

“‘Paved with gold,’ but low on cash” proclaimed the banner headline of the New Hampshire Sunday News, exactly one week before Christmas. Yeah right, I immediately thought, just another state barking up the Charlie Brown-like federal highway funding tree – fitting, at least, considering the season.

And while the focus of the banner story was on how the massive Interstate 93 widening/expansion from the Massachusetts line to Manchester could shut down in a few years if Congress cuts spending and New Hampshire can’t fill the shortfall, the coverage that accompanied it was among the most in-depth, well-rounded, informative we’ve seen in a long, long time. Much of the front page of the broadsheet Sunday News – the Sunday edition of the New Hampshire Union Leader – was devoted to the I-93 issue, as was the majority of five pages inside. Nine major stories, covering everything from construction plans and future economic spinoffs to kudos for equipment operators on site and even a commuter’s perspective, were complemented by strong photography and, most impressively, a massive map-like graphic on the front page that used bullet points to highlight the project’s accomplishments and future objectives at each of Exits 1-5 and a few miles beyond to Manchester. The total project value is $800 million, with work currently projected out to 2020. Wow . . . both for the project and the coverage!

For a newspaper in this day to put the effort and resources into covering what can often be shrugged off as just one of those things – road construction – is something I truly hope the fine residents of New Hampshire appreciate. I sure did . . . and I was merely visiting the state.

For every name that appears atop such articles, there are many other professionals who contribute to provide readers with the news they need. Everyone responsible deserves huge credit for the Sunday News coverage of Dec. 18, but officially let’s tip our cap to staff writer Michael Cousineau, whose byline appeared on five of the articles. If his effort is matched in thoroughness and leadership by those holding the purse strings on I-93, there’s no doubt New Hampshire will be an ever better place to live – and visit – than it is today.

More Top Rollouts Coming Up!

New year = new equipment innovations to come. That’s an equation sure to add up to more productive jobsites for road construction agencies and contractors. With World of Concrete this month and World of Asphalt in March, the annual rush of new products and services is upon us. We will not only report on them in the pages of Better Roads, but we want to know what you – the users and ultimate jury of the technologies – feel about them.

Last month, in our annual subjective celebration of the year that was, we chronicled the 2011 Top Rollouts. If you read the blurbs on the 20 introductions that stood out for us over the last 12 months, you undoubtedly realize this is a process the Better Roads’ editors enjoy. Heck, we have a little fun with it. But please let that not hide the fact we do think long and hard about what ultimately ends up on those pages each December. It’s important to you, so it’s important to us, and we don’t take that responsibility lightly at all. So much so that questions were being asked, answers debated and ultimately alterations made right up until the proverbial ink was drying on the December issue.

At this point, I’d be remiss not to point out the efforts – day in, day out; year in, year out – of executive editor Tina Grady Barbaccia and her dogged efforts to keep up with every new product, service and trend hitting your industry.

In recapping what stood out for us over the past year, we always try to keep in mind what we consider to be the true crux of the matter – the need to look ahead. The award-winning products will end up on your jobsites – they might even be there now – and we’d like to know how you will be able to use them to complete jobs safer, quicker and more cost-efficiently.

In working through the candidates for the 2011 Top Rollouts, we were reminded of this when re-reading a September Applications and Innovations story written by Tina. She chronicled the North Texas Tollway Authority’s use of the Mobile Barrier Trailer (MBT), an integrated, rigid-wall trailer that is simply pulled into place on the highway by a standard semi-tractor, providing a one-piece work zone barrier. This product has been accepted by the Federal Highway Administration for use on the National Highway System. Back in 2009, it earned a Top Rollout award for its manufacturer, Mobile Barriers of Golden, Colorado.

Again, can’t wait to see where the 2011 Top Rollouts end up.

We’ve all seen our neighbors and friends do it. Heck, most of us have even done it ourselves . . . and been caught doing so.

Face flush against the dirty plywood, peering through the inch-diameter hole hoping to catch even a glimpse of the excavator or crane at work behind the wall. It’s just one of those ageless activities. Young boys and old men alike have forever been drawn to the neighborhood construction site like bees to cans of pop. Mostly, though, it’s an exercise in frustration. Mostly, it’s a whole lot of stinging physical effort – back-breaking bending over or, for the little guys, calf-stretching standing on our tippy toes, followed by the unnatural straining of the eyes, up, down, left, right – for a mere split-second’s view of the heavy iron digging, loading, lifting or carrying quickly out of sight.

Over the years, a few job superintendents cut us some slack, installing viewing screens or windows along the sidewalk, perhaps simply to prevent the curious from getting injured trying to peer through the peephole or, worse, taking matters into their own hands and attempting to create their own viewing vantage points.

A recent trip to Austria, as part of an international trade press group hosted by equipment manufacturer Liebherr, revealed a totally different game from what many of us are used to. The tour group was escorted to two very different jobsites in Vienna – one for a new university campus and the other for a new unified central train station – that shared an approach to public relations that can best be termed as progressive. Welcome centers filled with interactive displays and observation decks do more than inform visitors of the how and why of the muck, noise and mess of machinery at work in their neighborhood. They actually suck onlookers into the spirit and excitement of the multi-year projects. I can’t imagine even the angriest of visitor, the guy who’s been kept awake all night and stomps in looking for a fight, leaving without at least a better sense of understanding of what’s going on, if not a pride-swollen chest about how his community is improving. Heck, the visitor center at one of the Vienna jobsites even had a café. There’s nothing like a latté and scone to smooth the aggression.

Granted both of these particular projects are relying heavily on the public dime, so perhaps their doors should simply be wide open. Nonetheless, in an industry long on solid conservative values, a little liberality might not be the worst thing right now: Please, everyone, come on in.

The less skeptical John Q. Public is, the more likely he is to support initiative and activity . . . and avoid straining his legs, back and eyes.

Yes, it’s a bit worn in spots. But let there be no doubt the Eisenhower Interstate System remains both the envy of many of us who hail from other nations and a shining example of what leaders in this country can do when they set their minds and hearts to it.

And what I truly appreciate most about the Interstate System is the ability I, as a motorist, have to hop off at a moment’s desire to explore any of this nation’s countless wonderful communities, and then to hop right back on and speed off to the next destination.

My favorite hop-off/hop-on spot? Well, maybe it’s all about being a little guy, but near if not at the very top of my list is . . . Erie, Pa.

Located about halfway between Buffalo and Cleveland –physically and metaphorically – Erie is one of those classic Rust Belt towns that just refuse to be kicked to the curb. It’s gritty, in every wonderful definition of the word.

And, true to form, Erie provided the highlight of my 2011 wanderings. You see, pulling off the Interstate, finding a humble diner, grabbing the local paper on the way in and plopping down on a lonely stool at the counter has forever been a personal weakness – and one I absolutely live for. Little guy, little going on? Sure. But I’d rather be Dreary in Erie than Lost in L.A. any day.

So, what set Erie apart from Battle Creek, Mich. or Needles, Calif. or Bowling Green, Ky. this year? Well, it all has to do with that local paper I dine with. It was the very end of August and, chewing my eggs, I read the section-front coverage in the Erie Times-News about the prior evening’s conclusion of a local waterfront summer concert series. Ray Schreckengost, executive director of the Erie-Western Pennsylvania Port Authority, told reporter Ron Leonardi: “People love this. First of all, free goes really well in Erie.”

Who knew? Free gs really welloe in Erie? It doesn’t everywhere?

If I didn’t know before why I love that town, I did right then. Forget news from Capitol Hill, the U.N. or Libya – Mr. Schreckengost delivered the Quote of the Year.

From Erie, it’s either east or west along Interstate 90, or straight south on Interstate 79. Pick your next stop: Buffalo, Cleveland or Pittsburgh. Or, better yet, Fredonia, Mentor or Slippery Rock.

Free really couldn’t go well in those towns, too, could it? Well, next trip, we’ll just have to get off the Interstate and find out, won’t we?

Can’t wait.

Can One Color Meet All Your Needs

What’s that they say, whoever they are? “You can’t be all things to all people.”

By Mike Anderson

While many construction equipment manufacturers and their respective brands have historically focused on particular sectors by offering products of only select types or even specific sizes within those select types, a few others have indeed tried to swallow the whole apple and not just take a bite or two out of the market. The second approach believes that if our customer needs it, whatever it is, we’ll have it. If that customer has $2,756,234.10 to spend this year on equipment products and services, we don’t want any of it – even that lousy dime – rolling off our yard and potentially onto our competitor’s. That’s because, next year, it might be more than that lousy dime that goes down the street. This year’s lost used coupler sale could become next year’s lost backhoe sale and the following year’s lost roller, paver and milling machine sale.

Makes sense, but is it practical?

The biggest challenge may not be that some manufacturers and their dealers aren’t equipped to provide all – or at least most – products, services and support. It might rather be just the age-old makeup of construction equipment users. No doubt, yellow ironers have they favorite equipment brands, but most often those favorites change from equipment type to equipment type, even within a type depending on application. For instance, a guy might absolutely swear by Brand A excavators for heavy highway work, but will just as quickly turn his back on them in favor of Brand B when equipping his utility division. And, of course, preferences do change over time.

It’s not like the farm tractor game, where if Grandpa dug with Blue (or Red, or Green, or whatever), Dad dug with Blue, I dig with Blue, and my boys will dig with Blue. By comparison, the excavator guys “have tried them all,” and undoubtedly have their opinions of each.

One day not that many years ago, I was driving a state highway, just picking up speed coming out of a small town when I spotted an excavator working off in a wooded area, almost hidden. Circling around to take photos of the machine at work, I was greeted by the shouts of the operator, who idled down when he spotted me, or my camera. Standard reaction was to reach for my ID, but he wasn’t angry, at least not at me, and not for reasons one would expect. “So, you don’t work for (Brand E)?” he asked. “Too bad, I have a message for them: They must be crazy. They make these great machines and then they don’t want to sell them. We had to beg just to get this one after we bought a few million dollars’ worth of other equipment they seem more interested in selling.

“This is the best excavator ever built,” he said as he climbed back into the cab, “and, believe me, I have tried them all.”

In my judgment:

“Stunning, magnificent, inspiring …”

By Mike Anderson

A few months back, I wrote that what we need right now is a little more of that good ol’ American swash. You know, that “we can and will do this, and we’ll be damned good at it” attitude that, admittedly, drew some of us wayward children here in the first place.

The column drew some response – and, thankfully for me, none of it included invitations, requests or downright legal orders to drag my tail back across the Niagara River. The message about shaking off the rust, picking up on Chrysler’s poignant and brilliant Imported From Detroit campaign, seemed to resonate. And that, believe me, is so very much appreciated. Thank you.

And, on the topic of thanks, we owe a big one to our friends at the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), who came right along and gave us yet another reason to beat this nation’s drum. Sincerely honored and likewise humbled are the best ways to describe being asked to join a jury of true industry leaders (with a couple of us ink-stained wretches thrown in) to judge the entries for the 2012 Outstanding Civil Engineering Award (OCEA), essentially a Project of the Year.

Stunning, magnificent, inspiring and just flat-out perfect were among the descriptions repeatedly jumping off the pages of my notes from some of the most enjoyable reading ever. Before the jury members put our heads together to drill down to the five finalists, we had individually worked our way through each of the entries and, for yours truly, the weekend spent privately huddled away with a stack of binders and booklets was the fastest, most satisfying, absolutely enjoyable one in a long, long time. Bottom line: The work people in this nation are doing, both at home and around the world, is awesome.

On Aug. 17, the OCEA finalists were announced by ASCE, in alphabetical order:

• Cherry Island Landfill Vertical Expansion Project, Wilmington, Del.

• Hoover Dam Bypass / Mike O’Callaghan – Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge, Boulder City, Nev.

• Nacimiento Water Project, San Luis Obispo, Calif.

• US-191 Colorado River Bridge, Moab, Utah.

• Willamette River CSO Tunnel Program, Portland, Ore.

Each will be recognized at the ASCE’s 2012 Outstanding Projects and Leaders (OPAL) Gala next March in Washington and, among them, an overall winner will be announced at that time. They, and every single one of the entries, are all winners in our books.

Are You a Fan of the Brand?

By Mike Anderson

What do you do when “your” brand drifts into history? What can you do?

Besides the proverbial gnashing of teeth, not much . . . other than accept the reality that such is the nature of the construction equipment industry. Brands come and go; they are created, built, nurtured, even loved, and then sold, absorbed, shut down and finally, we hope, simply remembered.

The flippant conclusions above notwithstanding, please don’t get me wrong about the hurt feelings of equipment users, owners and plain ol’ fans. Their sentiments are not only totally understandable; they are downright commendable and inspiring.

One can’t imagine that the men who started building machines way back when for Galion, or Allis, or Dominion, or Bucyrus, had any inkling whatsoever that they were, in fact, building legacies. How could they know that, for generations to come long after both they and their work had passed, good and honest people would celebrate that very work? The “fan of the brand” will literally spend years’ worth of weekends and nights toiling away in his barn or garage fixing up an old orange crawler tractor, just to be able to truck his shiny labor of love off to a farmer’s field six states away so that he can polish it up again alongside fellow aficionados and their orange crawler tractors. It’s wonderful . . . and, if the brand fathers could see what kind of kinship their work led to, it would be incredibly humbling, I suspect.

So, cheers to you and your brand, whether it’s Galion, or Allis, or Dominion, or indeed Bucyrus. Following the recent completion of Caterpillar’s $8.8 billion acquisition of mining equipment manufacturer Bucyrus International, a report we posted on equipmentworld.com brought this, unsolicited, from a gentleman living along Florida’s Atlantic Coast:

Dear Sir, I am a huge Bucyrus fan, I knew CAT would do away with the historic name, I am not happy at all . . .

Steve Wunning, Caterpillar group president, explained during the July 8 announcement: “As we examined this issue, it became clear it would be in the best long-term interests of our business to have a single brand for our mining customers.”

And so it goes.

Important people do, indeed, make important decisions. It is their responsibility and obligation to do so.

And the rest of us? Well, we’ll just head on back to our garages and barns. Such a tribute is, truly, the best we can do.

Let me tell you about my equipment. Please.

By Mike Anderson

Gaga is perhaps an exaggerated description for a 50-something man, especially a construction pro with 30 or so years of boots-in-the-dirt experience under him.

But after sitting beside the gent for a couple of days at the National Asphalt Pavement Association’s Asphalt In Depth conference last month, gaga remains the most accurate adjective I can come up with for him. That’s because this guy, a senior official with a huge Florida-based contractor, absolutely rekindled any waning fire I may have had for the construction equipment industry. It’s probably just regular CONEXPO-CON/AGG hangover, but since the industry extravaganza in March there’s been a slight dip in my level of enthusiasm for products.

But this time around, at least for me, any slight depression ended much more abruptly. In that hotel conference room in Nashville, the malaise was promptly . . . well . . . paved over.

While the Asphalt In Depth presentations were solid – kudos to NAPA for a thoughtful, well-organized, well-executed event – as is typical of industry conferences it is the casual conversations during breaks, or over lunch, or at the bar at night, that truly make the event memorable. True enough, everyone goes home with great expert information. But, equally if not more significantly, attendees also go home with nuggets of anecdotes, advice and perhaps even scuttlebutt from their peers. For the road contracting crowd, it’s the bonus, if you will.

Well, when making conversation with the guy from Florida during program breaks, I casually tossed out the questions we here at Better Roads so often ask: What makes and models of equipment do you operate? How do they compare with what you had before? What would you buy next time?

He lit up. Details of his milling machines, pavers, rollers, dozers, excavators, backhoes, heck even skid steers were enhanced with passionate, incredibly positive comments: Why, for roadbuilding, this paver is the best he’s ever seen, while a competitive planer is second to none; why, for earthmoving, one actual equipment type, not just make, is being replaced by another that until recently was considered too niche, too small to do what he needs it to do. What changed in the latter case, he says, is one particular manufacturer is just flat out doing its job better. His admiration for the brands he works with today is as convincing as every marketing campaign in the history of the industry combined. He’s … well … gaga over them.

Since his was a purely subjective viewpoint, we’ll spare you the names he trumpeted, but rest assured there is at least one absolutely huge fan of today’s construction and roadbuilding equipment. I know. I’ve met him.

Shaking Off the Rust and Getting Back In Your Face

By Mike Anderson

Imported From Detroit. I love it.

It may not be everybody’s cup of tea – either the ad campaign or the city it celebrates – but Chrysler’s continuing effort to sell big, new cars on the back of civic pride works just fine for me. The TV spots are just enough parts poignant, defiant, stark, and, yes, even a little cheesy to resonate with a guy who, when it comes to being on the receiving end of shtick, would normally brush it off like an 85-year-old man walking into a furniture store and smack into a Guy Smiley wannabe working the floor: “Seen it all before, son. Cut the crap.”

In actuality, I obviously hadn’t seen it all, until this year perhaps. Unveiled during the Super Bowl, the Chrysler campaign certainly made me sit up straighter than the game itself did. (Then again, that may not exactly be a ringing endorsement.) And, if you’ve seen any television at all in the past five months, you’ve undoubtedly been reminded The Motor City is alive and kicking. Judging by the changing, evolving ads, this effort clearly wasn’t a single stab in the dark at success. It’s not New Coke or Milli Vanilli; it’s pure Joe Louis, pure Detroit, in for the long haul.

This could be stepping into territory some would advise be best avoided by me, as someone toiling in this country as a guest, but the United States is failing in a once relentless trait that overwhelmingly drew so many of us here. Walking tall, with a bit of swagger: That, folks, is America. Or it was. And it needs to be again.

American manufacturing, indeed Detroit manufacturing, is just too important to undersell. It was once king of the world, and is proving it can be again. As the inaugural Imported From Detroit ad put it bluntly, “I got a question for you: What does this city know about luxury? What does a town that’s been to hell and back know about the finer things in life? I’ll tell you, more than most! You see, it’s the hottest fires that make the hardest steel. Add hard work and conviction. And the know-how that runs generations-deep in every last one of us. That’s who we are.”

Indeed.

During our recent sit-down session with Michigan Lt. Gov. Brian Calley to discuss ongoing efforts to get a new Detroit River International Crossing built, he seems to speak the same language. A new bridge as part of an international intermodal hub would “make a statement about southeast Michigan, and Detroit in particular,” says Lt. Gov. Calley. “We’ll compete with anyone anywhere. Just give us access to markets, and our employers will do what they do best.”

Eminem and/or his music may not be among your personal favorites, nor mine, nor perhaps even Calley’s, but as the poster child for the community equivalent of a scruffy, scrawny dog that’s been kicked too much, this Marshall Bruce Mathers III cat is perfect. Having Eminem, of all people, pull up to the Fox Theater in a shiny Chrysler 200 is just bang-on at so many levels.

And, truth be told, I’m much more of a Buffalo guy, an unapologetic fan of another ex-champion of a city that, in true Rust Belt gusto, may have seen better days, but is damned determined to do so again. Believe me, the heart’s willing . . . and that’s the most important ingredient.

For you, maybe it’s Cleveland, or Youngstown, or Flint, or Manitowoc. Regardless, take Chrysler’s cue and import a healthy dose of staunch American swash.