Better Roads editors step up and choose their “best of the best”

Buoyed by CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2011, this year brought with it a wide, innovative range of new equipment and products for the road construction and maintenance sectors. Many of these keen new introductions marched across the pages of Better Roads and www.betterroads.com . . . and rolled right into the marketplace where they will undoubtedly serve both serve contractors and agencies exceptionally well as they embrace the opportunities to come.

Upon reflection of the year that was, of the hundreds of product introductions editors reviewed and processed for our monthly New Road Products section, these are the 20 that most caught our collective eye for their industry significance, their ingenuity, their filling of a market need and/or their just plain ol’ coolness. Keeping the list to 20 is difficult. It means, for instance, not choosing some tremendous new products that are exciting and important to the construction industry.

We, the editors of Better Roads, set ourselves the goal of determining our Top 20 only; and to reach it we had to do a lot of talking, negotiating and decision-making. We had to examine and then re-examine our reasoning and our selections. Believe me, this was one intense job.

Today we proudly toast these products and the deserving companies that create, design, manufacture and market them. Moving forward, we’d like to know how you have been, are or will be able to use any of these “best of the best”. Any and all comments are not only welcome, but encouraged. Please drop us an e-mail over the coming year at mike.anderson@randallreilly.com or give us a shout at (205) 248-1310.

Arctic Snow and Ice

HD Sectional Sno-Pushers

Bergkamp

Mobile Stockpile Trailer

Case

DV207, DV210, DV213 Double-Drum Compactors

Caterpillar

CT660 On-Highway Truck

Caterpillar

AP1000E, AP1055E Asphalt Pavers

Doosan

Portable HP750e Electric Air Compressor

Dow

FASTRACK HE-2706 Resin

Ford

F-150 Eco-Boost Pickup Truck

GOMACO

4400 Barrier Machine

Gradall

XL 4100 IV Highway Excavator with AutoDrive

John Deere

460E Articulated Dump Truck

Maxwell Products

Novu Gap Meltable Crack Sealer

Power Pavers

SF-1700 Slipform Paver

Takeuchi

TB117e Electric Excavator

Terex

RS950B Reclaimer/Stabilizer

Terex

Hydra Platforms HPT 11/38

Vaisala

RoadDSS Value Calculator

Vogele

VR 600-2 Extending Screed

Volvo

G900B-Series Motor Graders

Volvo Trucks

VNM Daycab Natural Gas Option

BERGKAMP Less time hauling, more time paving

A single piece of equipment that will cut out the need to locate, access, secure and manage off-site material stockpiles? It may seem like a dream to some roadbuilding contractors, but it’s a reality thanks to asphalt pavement preservation equipment manufacturer Bergkamp. Debuted at CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2011, the Bergkamp Mobile Stockpile is a material-transfer and storage trailer that is pulled directly to the jobsite. There, trucks bring aggregate and emulsion from the supplier directly to the trailer, to which truck-mounted slurry seal or microsurfacing pavers can in turn connect and be fully replenished in less than 10 minutes. The main 21.5-cubic-yard hopper can either store or simultaneously transfer material via the unit’s 24-inch discharge conveyor. The use of multiple pavers on surface treatment jobs as essentially haul trucks between off-site stockpiles and the application site is eliminated, thus allowing fewer pavers to do more actual work in less time, says Bergkamp. This, too, will avoid the risk of overweight citations. The mobile stockpile trailer is compatible with most slurry seal and microsurfacing pavers on the market, the company says. For more information, visit www.bergkampinc.com

CASE

Renowned brand goes big on compaction

One of the construction equipment industry’s signature brands, Case isn’t just compact on compaction any longer. The company’s first large double-drum vibratory compactors, the DV207, DV210 and DV213 unveiled at CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2011 have drum widths of 57, 66 and 83 inches respectively. This product introduction moves the Case DV family beyond the utility class – the previous largest model had a drum width of 51.2 inches – and into product asphalt paving applications. With machine weights ranging from 16,226 to 28,726 pounds, the three new Case double-drum compactors have rear-mounted power trains that lower noise, vibration and heat for operators relishing “superior comfort for long workdays,” says Woody Ferrell, Case global product marketing manager. Dual, multi-function, directional controls on both sides of the swivel seat allow for machine operation from the left or right position in the rotating operator’s station. The Case vibratory system automatically starts when the drive lever is moved from neutral; it automatically stops when the lever is returned to neutral. For more information, visit www.casece.com/wps/portal/casece/product?product=CompactionEquipment&brandsite_brand=CaseCE&brandsite_language=en&brandsite_geo=NA

CATERPILLAR

On-highway vocational truck

The “yellow iron” customer is the Caterpillar customer, the company firmly believes. So with upwards to 30 percent of all Class 8 trucks sold being put into vocational applications, there’s no secret at where the new Caterpillar foray into the manufacturing, selling and servicing of on-highway trucks is taking dead aim. “It’s really about a company for the first time that focuses not just on a truck, but on the application of that truck in the construction business,” says George Taylor, director, Caterpillar Global On-Highway Truck Group. “How does it work with load-and-haul? How does it work with the fill operations? How does it interact with the construction machines? That’s really the direction we’re going, because we know our customers don’t use that truck by itself. Even if the construction company doesn’t own the dump trucks it uses, as often the case in paving operations, the continuity of technology may still influence the spec’ing of the trucks that will ultimately land the sub work from the project contractor, says Taylor. “It’s about trying to leverage that interaction between the two.” Beyond the Navistar-made Cat CT11 and CT13 engines available on the sleek CT660 set-back-axle model built for mixer, dump and heavy hauler uses, a 15-liter CT15 will be available in 2012, boosting engine output to the 550-horsepower range from the current maximum 475. The same engine options will be available on the set-forward-axle CT680 truck model, due out in first-quarter 2013 with the same choice of 116- and 122-inch bumper-to-back-of-cab configurations. For more information, visit www.cat.com/truck

Ford