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by Arnie Consdorf
Contributing Editor, Better Roads magazine

How do you justify the extra cost of BOMAG’s intelligent compaction technology? We ask early users what they’ve found.

Intelligent compaction is a concept gaining increasing attention from asphalt paving contractors. It means more sophisticated compaction equipment, but it also means paying more for the machine. So, how do you cost-justify the extra expense? Can those added dollars help the contractor deal with more complex asphalt mixes, meet more demanding specifications, and get the job done better or faster the first time?

To find out, the editors here at Better Roads talked to some of the first users of one specific technology, BOMAG’s intelligent compaction application called Asphalt Manager.

“It’s instant gratification,” says Bill Hoffman, vice president of JoB Construction. “This allows the roller operator to know when he reaches density as the work progresses. There’s no guesswork.

“For the contractor to stay in business, you need to have something like this on your side. If everything goes right and the work passes, you get paid what you bid. But if it goes wrong somewhere, it costs you money. There’s no real margin for error today. The expense of the unit is well worth it. I’m really impressed with the machine and the work we’ve done with it.”

JoB Construction has used a BOMAG BW190AD-4 with Asphalt Manager on a wide variety of work, from parking lots to big highway jobs. The Oklahoma-based contractor used the intelligent compaction technology on Highway 69S, a fourlane paving job from Tulsa into Texas.

“That route carries heavy truck traffic,” says Hoffman. “We were laying a fine asphalt mix comparable to a Type B or C. It’s a tough mix in terms of working it in the tender zone. But we had no problems.”

With changing job conditions and a growing number of high performance asphalt mix designs, proper compaction can be a challenge even for the most experienced contractor. Compaction often determines success or failure. Under compaction means the mix never achieves the physical strength it was designed to achieve. Over compaction can break aggregate and degrade the surface before the first vehicle ever rolls on the new pavement. Either case can lead to pavement failure, costly repairs, or expensive rework.

JoB’s BW190AD-4 at Work
JoB Construction has used its BOMAG BW190AD-4 with Asphalt Manager on state highway work in Oklahoma, as well as on smaller jobs like parking lots. JoB likes the machine’s intelligent performance, as well as its agility and the breakdown capability of a machine in its size class.