ForConstructionPros.com

Most contractors have realized that the current economy has increased material costs while many customers' budgets have shrunk. This is no different if the majority of your work comes from cities, counties, or states. But it's not all bad news if you're in the pavement maintenance industry.

"We're going to see a lot more maintenance like chip seal and other types of sealing with the cost of asphalt going up," predicts Tracy Turner, owner of Southwest Surfacing in New Mexico. Southwest Surfacing is a chip sealing contractor that does most of its work for counties. To make sure his company stays ahead of the game - and the economy - Turner has turned to technology and new equipment.

In 2007, Quay County, NM, hired Southwest Surfacing to chip seal nine miles of road. The county, which is on the eastern side of the state and has limited access to asphalt materials, was very conscious about saving money, Turner says. And Southwest Surfacing had just the thing to help.

Turner employed his 2004 E.D. Etnyre chip spreader with computer controlled accuracy for the nine-mile stretch of road. Having computer controlled accuracy for the chip spreader provided benefits for both Quay County and Turner.

"With a manual controlled machine, when you take off it starts dumping the same amount whether you're going five miles an hour or 10 miles an hour," Turner says. "The computer controlled machine evenly distributes material from start to stop. It's always an evenly spread amount of material because it's calculating the speed of the machine. So every time you start and stop you're not wasting a bunch of material."