Facts & Figures Book - KPI-JCI

Screenin gINTRODUCTIONAsphalt mixes first appeared in the United States in the late1800s. Natural asphalt from Trinidad Lake was placed in drumsand imported into the United States where drums were heatedand the asphalt melted to be mixed with combinations of aggregateof various sizes to produce a smooth, quiet road. ProfessorAlonzo Barber of Harvard College obtained a franchise fromthe British Government to bring Trinidad Lake asphalt into theUnited States and distribute it. From these early beginnings,asphalt roads have grown to become the major pavement ofchoice with approximately 94% of the roads in America beingsurfaced with asphalt.In the early 1900s, due to high cost of the Trinidad Lake material,recycling of old pavements was common. During the 1920s, withmore and more automobiles becoming available, the demandfor roads increased. Concurrent with this was the need for morefuel, and as oil was discovered in Pennsylvania and California,Trinidad Lake asphalt was replaced by a less expensive product,the residue from the refining process (the bottom of the barrel)and the roads were made from asphalt being derived from theoil refining process. Due to the fact that liquid asphalt was difficultto handle, sticky, and at low temperatures a rubbery-likesubstance, oil refineries just wanted to be free of the materialand basically gave it away initially. Due to the abundance ofcrude oil in Texas and other areas of the United States, asphaltand oil remained relatively cheap through the ‘50s, ‘60s and intothe early ‘70s.During the 1950s and ‘60s, liquid asphalt sold for approximately$20/ton. Since an average of 5% asphalt was used to gluethe aggregatetogether to form aroad, the glue orasphalt only costsapproximately $1/ton and aggregatewas approximately$1/ton, leadingto a virgin materialcosts of thehot mix asphalt ofapproximately $2/ton. By the early‘70s, liquid asphalt had increased to approximately $30/ton, withthe asphalt or glue at $1.50/ton and aggregate to about $1.50/ton, resulting in material costs of $3/ton.168