New Jersey’s American Asphalt Company is all about servicing the customer. When they realized a key market was not getting its needs met, the company decided to add a third plant to the mix.
“We realized our smaller paving customers – the guys who need a batch for a small parking lot or curbs – were not getting their needs met at our location, and we had to do something about it,” says Chris Jennings, production manager at the company’s Burlington, NJ, location.
Before adding its latest addition – a used 5-ton Stansteel batch plant – American Asphalt operated two state-of-the-art plants, one located near the Camden and Gloucester County boundary line in West Collingswood Heights, NJ, and the other in Burlington, just off State Route 130. With these locations, the company has the ability to service all of South Jersey and the southeastern portion of Pennsylvania.
American Asphalt offers high quality NJDOT- and PENNDOT-certified asphalt mixes designed for highway use. It also produces EZ STREET, a green high-performance cold patch that can be used year round for patching roads, parking lots, driveways and utility cuts.
Customized operation
American Asphalt turned to Reliable Asphalt Products when it decided to add the batch plant at the Burlington location. “We needed a company that had the experience more in new and used retrofit projects, rather than just selling us the equipment,” says Jennings.
The 5-ton batch plant would be the third addition for American Asphalt.
“We have a 4-ton batch plant at our other location, but that’s about 40 minutes away,” says Jennings. “The 400-tph Dillman drum mix plant at our Burlington location was at maximum capacity during last season, and we were having to buy material from our competitors in order to serve our customers.”
With a goal to serve the smaller contractors at Burlington and eliminate the need to purchase HMA from others for their own jobs, American Asphalt worked with Reliable to upgrade plant capacity and flexibility. Reliable and Jennings designed a customized cold bin system that would serve both the drum mix plant and the batch plant simultaneously, cutting loader costs and enabling American Asphalt to lower their costs
The 10,000-pound Stansteel batch plant originally had four hot-bin dividers, but Jennings says American Asphalt required diversity. “We needed more bins for different mixes for different customers throughout the day,” he says.
The new cold feed system features a conveyor system that feeds both the batch plant and the drum mix plant. “It’s essentially an 8-bin dual-feed system,” says Jennings. “We have 16 feeders from 8 bins.”
Typically, dual feeder systems are side-by-side, he explains. “But we wanted an offset, one-loader setup that could serve both plants,” he says.
One benefit of this set-up is only needing one wheel loader to load for both plants. “We saved money on not having to buy another loader,” says Jennings. “We don’t need haul trucks either. It’s easier to keep track of what’s in the bins with this setup too.”
Reliable configured a fifth hot bin system that didn’t require any major upgrades to the screen decks or other components. “The extra bins were built off the original system,” says Jennings. “With New Jersey DOT emphasizing high-RAP mixes, we added a recycle bin, which Reliable designed as well.”
The new batch plant setup also includes an all-new MINDS control system – BatchTronic. The system runs on Microsoft Windows via a communication driver. One major benefit of BatchTronic is the exact 3D representation of the actual asphalt plant which helps reduce the learning curve needed to use the system.
With the MINDS system, operators can actually link what is seen to the actual physical mechanisms. Large arrays of numbers are avoided in favor of clear symbolic information. The operator is always in control of the process which can be stopped and resumed anytime while direct control of motors is always possible.
The bottom line
American Asphalt President & CEO Robert Brown purchased the assets of a small asphalt company in 1986 that he grew from five employees to the current 150 employees.
From its beginning, the company has focused on customer service. That one goal – to offer the best customer service possible – has driven its decision making and growth.
“Bob Brown, our CEO, emphasizes customer service as our number one priority,” says Jennings. “We care about all our customers, no matter their size.”
Today, the company offers high capacity manufacturing rates, heated silo storage facilities, a no charge “GREEN” release agent which is automated and safe, and a fleet of delivery trucks to bring materials to the jobsite.
The company’s equipment fleet incudes milling machines, a material transfer buggy, several pavers, rollers, backhoes and a large fleet of tri-axles that are available on a rental basis. The Burlington plant also has the added ability of servicing customers 24/7 if needed.
In addition to asphalt production, American Asphalt also handles all aspects of paving projects including: planning the job, referencing grades, ordering inspections, “proof rolling” the site, completing the grading, manufacturing the product, compacting and striping.
The company’s highly skilled and experienced paving team, including foremen that are all New Jersey State certified asphalt paving technologists, plan and handle all project details which prevent frustration, miscommunication and wasted worker-hours for customers.
American Asphalt also has a pavement maintenance division, which offers patching, crack filling, sealcoating, line striping, wheel stops/bollards, speed bumps, ADA compliance solutions, traffic signs and more.
While American Asphalt produces over half a million tons of asphalt per year, Jennings says the numbers are not what is important.
“We’re focused on quality not quantity,” he says. “It’s all about the customers and their needs. Happy customers come back.”
