By John Hood
Product Manager, Milling & Paving
BOMAG Americas, Inc.

Given America's progressively aging infrastructure, cold milling machines are being utilized more and more on today's paving projects.

Whether it's a city street that's been overlayed once too often, under-road utilities that are well beyond their 30-year life spans or pavements that have simply failed, the cold milling machine has become a vital tool for removing asphalt layers, performing utility maintenance cuts and tearing out roadways to repair weak foundations. In fact, it's this combination of multiple capabilities and an infrastructure that isn't getting any younger that have contributed to a major boom for mill sales in the past five years.

Yet, despite the growing demand for milling on today's jobs, only 20-percent of paving contractors in the U.S. currently own and operate their own cold milling machines. That leaves 80-percent that choose to subcontract this work to others.

Why the milling gap? Though few successful paving contractors would question the importance of these services in the industry today, there seems to be wide concern as to whether the investment, effort and worry associated with venturing into this facet of the business is really worth it. Therefore, most choose to pay someone else to do the work rather than incur the expense of purchasing, operating, transporting and maintaining their own equipment.

But while most of these contractors think they're saving money and hassle by subcontracting instead of owning, in reality many are actually leaving money on the table. Though their concerns are understandable, when looked at more closely and objectively, it's clear that purchasing a cold milling machine presents more "opportunities" than "obstacles."