Two of Slurry's four soil stabilization crews are on site. The other two are working road projects in Virginia. Despite their proficiency at managing a huge job such as Runway 4, the road jobs and subdivision work are more typical for Slurry. "A lot of our jobs run one to three days," says Frank Nash, Slurry's superintendent at Runway 4. "This is quite a jump up in scope for us."

How did they make the leap? Constant refinement of their operation, from fabricating their own hardware to developing their own system of hand gestures to communicate over the noise and distance of a job site. (Nash stops at one point while driving this reporter around Runway 4. Looking straight ahead, he takes both hands off the steering wheel, points his fingers down and wiggles them like fishing worms. Fifty yards away the operator of a Wirtgen reclaimer waves back. He got the message. Nash turns and smiles. "That's my sign to start the wet passes," he said.)

The greatest enabler, according to Roberts, is Topcon technology and the service that comes with it. "We couldn't handle a job with these demands the way we used to work. The lasers and GPS are essential to our operations now." As for service, Roberts can't stop praising John McCormick and Atlantic Laser. Asked for an example, he tells of a GPS that fell off a truck at ten o'clock on a Friday night. The unit was recovered, but was damaged. Roberts called McCormick. Come Monday morning, McCormick had another unit for Slurry to use while theirs was being repaired. "He gave up his weekend chasing down a solution to a problem that was entirely our fault. That's above-and-beyond, in my book."

The Dulles 4th Runway effort is a $190 million project, and Slurry Pavers' Road Reclamation and Soil Stabilization crew has a key role in its development. Not bad, considering the division involved was slated for death not long ago. Vision. Innovation. The right equipment. The first two grew internally. For the third, Slurry got help from the outside.