Over 200 individuals from industry, WVDOH, and academia joined together for the 44th Annual Asphalt Paving Conference and WVDOH Statewide Asphalt Preconstruction Meeting held in Charleston on February 27 and 28.

The conference, jointly hosted by APAWV, WVDOH, FHWA and WVU, kicked off the day-long event with their statewide preconstruction conference where DOH staffers offered presentation on Specification Updates, Maintenance Topics, Division updates, among others.  A WVDOH also took time to answer critical questions submitted by industry.  A recording of the pre-construction meeting can be found at www.asphaltwv.com.
Following the Pre-Construction Meeting, the Asphalt Paving Conference commenced and included presentations from industry experts from West Virginia, WVDOH, WVU, FHWA as well as the Asphalt institute and National Center for Asphalt Technology (NCAT).  Topics covered included: Binder availability in Reclaimed Asphalt Pavements (RAP), Asphalt Binder Refining, Screed Plate Innovations, Thick Lift Paving, Sustainability Studies, Suicide Awareness, and AASHTO-ware project implementation.

The paving awards luncheon featured remarks by John Crane APAWV as well as WVDOH Chief Engineer of Construction Todd Rumbaugh.  Mr. Crane and Mr. Rumbaugh presented industry and the WVDOH the following awards at the luncheon:

In addition to the Paving Awards, the APAWV presented the 2023 Asphalt Industry Stewardship Award, an award to show appreciation towards someone within our industry that pours their heart and soul into what they love.  This year, Mr. Crane presented the award to Bob Brookover, Executive Vice President of CRH Appalachian Materials Region.