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When your company runs the largest impact crushing recycle yard on the East Coast, has 10 asphalt plants that consume large volumes of RAP and operates a highway and heavy contracting business that requires thousands of tons of recycled concrete for its municipal and private customers, then you have to have a big crusher to keep up with demand. Even though Tinton Falls, NJ-based Stavola Contracting had a high-production impact crusher, the company's appetite for recycled material was much greater than its existing impactor could deliver in an eight-hour day.

So Rick Stavola, president of the 50-year-old, family-operated contracting business faced a dilemma. Would he continue to pay large sums of overtime to produce more than 250,000 tons of recycled asphalt and concrete annually, or would he make the investment in an ultra-high production impactor and circuit to keep pace with consumption? "We were running the Tinton Falls crushing circuit 10 to 12 hours per day, five to six days per week just to keep up with demand," says Stavola.

High RAP demands

Feeding a constant flow of recycled asphalt to Stavola Contracting's asphalt plant and paving operations throughout central and northern New Jersey was a primary culprit in pushing the company's previous crusher to its limits. Ten asphalt plants — including the largest batch plant in the state of New Jersey — produce in excess of two million tons of asphalt annually.

The past couple of years have seen a rollercoaster ride for liquid asphalt prices, and today's New Jersey price index stands 30 percent higher than it was just one year ago. Having enough properly-sized RAP is as critical as ever for Stavola Contracting to help control the production costs of asphalt. The company runs RAP in a majority of its mix designs, up to a maximum of 20 percent. "Last year, we used approximately 100,000 tons of recycled asphalt in our mixes," comments Stavola.

A variety of spec sizes are needed to satisfy the company's craving for recycled asphalt. A minus 1/2-inch RAP is mixed with the company's top course designs, while a one-inch minus recycled spec product is reserved for its base mixes. The company also sizes a 1 1/2-inch minus RAP product to be used as road subbase.