A Clean Sweep of the Paving Industry

Paving is a booming industry. Demand is high as highways, roads and parking lots are constantly expanding, contracting and cracking with the effects of weather and general wear and tear. Many sweeper companies are expanding their repertoire of services to include some resurfacing and sealing. Pave Tech and American Pavement, Inc. are two paving companies and leaders in their industry from which those looking to expand their services could learn a thing or two.

Glenn Wrobleski, Equipment Manager for Pave Tech’s Wisconsin location knows that the task of sweeping is laborious and time consuming. He says, “Even on a small hardscape project, there’s a lot of sweeping to be done. Get onto a medium or large project, and sweeping will quickly move from obscurity to pain-in-the-ass-task-number-one.”

But he says it doesn’t need to be that way. Like every other task, tools and equipment are readily available and help to reduce labor and time spent sweeping. For instance, Pave Tech employs the PaverSWEEP and PaverSWEEP PRO. Wrobleski says, “When it comes to clean-up, nothing beats the PaverSWEEP with reversible head rotation so sand and other debris can be constantly swept to one side as you walk back and forth over the pavement.”

As for the PaverSWEEP PRO, it’s a walk behind rotary sweeper that more closely resembles a snow blower. The PaverSWEEP PRO has the ability to clear snow, too, and
clean pavements and backfill.

“This type of orbital rotation sweeper,” Wrobleski says about the PaverSWEEP, “I don’t want to say it’s unique, but I really haven’t seen a lot like it.” This is due, in part, to its slow rotation and ability to move debris to one side. “You can reverse the rotation and go in the opposite direction,” he explains, “It’s very effective.”

For spreading sand and chip and working the material into paver joints, Pave Tech uses two types of sweepers. The ScatterMAX is an eight foot wide push broom designed to attach to your loader. Just like the manual Paver Broom, the bristles are the perfect stiffness, with the perfect spacing and mounted in a pattern to optimize spreading of material to work it into the joints.

The HydroSANDER is a powered sweeper that uses water to flush sand into the joint. With two counter-rotating brushes and a water metering system, the HydroSANDER works at least three times faster than hand sweeping.

Wrobleski describes Pave Tech as a developer, manufacturer and distributor of tools and supplies for the concrete construction industry with a special focus on the segmental paving industry. They cut across many trades, primarily dealing with the segmental paving industries. For more information on Pave Tech visit www.pavetech.com or call 1.800.728.3832 at their Minnesota location and 1.800.247.3343 at their Wisconsin facility.

American Pavements, Inc. has seen some nice weather in their Plain City, Ohio headquarters site and is taking advantage of the good weather they’ve been having. They’ve been hurrying to capitalize on servicing Plain City, the state of Ohio, as well as those surrounding, before the harsh reality of fall, followed by an even harsher winter, sets in. The company, which specializes in pavement maintenance products, as well as processes including surfacing and applying chip seals and crack sealants has been under its current ownership for 15 years.

While they employ their own Elgin sweepers to sweep up excess material from chip and slurry seals, American Pavements focuses primarily on paving services. Sales & Market Development Manager Bob Khanna says, “We’re the first to bring micro-surfacing and slurry sealing to the Ohio area.” He goes on to explain that micro-surfacing was a process developed in Germany with the goal of preserving the Audubon in mind. Slurry seal is a highly versatile and cost effective way to preserve and protect paving over time. By protecting the undersurface from the effects of aging and the environment, applying slurry seal can significantly extend the life of existing pavements.

With the cost of asphalt having doubled in the last 12 to 15 years, American Pavements is constantly looking for more cost effective methods. In the past, agencies typically re-paved roadways every 8 to 12 years, depending on region. Waiting that amount of time allowed for damage to accumulate, making re-paving costly, as well as time consuming.

American Pavements, therefore, focuses on preventative measures to remain competitive in their market but to also provide customers with cost effective maintenance that yields better results in the long term. “We do what is called ‘perpetual paving.’ We’ll seal every four years and then do a slurry seal or thin overly four years later, which will then be good for six to eight years.” This method of perpetual paving prevents oxidation and water intrusion which are two of the biggest problems in paving.

Khanna describes American Pavements busiest market as townships and DOTs, with 40 to 50 percent of American Pavements business going to large municipalities, 30 percent to DOTs and the remaining 30 percent going toward servicing smaller agencies such as townships and villages.

“We’re in a growing phase here,” Khanna says, “Our crews are working seven days a week.” Busy is never a bad thing.

For more information on American Pavements visit www.americanpavements.com or call 614.873.2191.

Story by Megan McClure