Tarmageddon successfully prevented for another year

03 Oct 2019

More than 120 of New Zealand’s foremost bitumen specialists and technical experts flocked to Villa Maria Estate in Auckland with the goal of averting ‘Tarmageddon’- a national crisis of aging roading networks impacted by increasing wear and tear, climate change and increasing amounts of traffic.

Preventing Tarmageddon was a full-day technical road surfacing and pavement workshop organised by Civil Contractors New Zealand, the National Surfacing Technical group and the National Pavements Technical group, held on Thursday 26 September. Discussion topics ranged from new innovations and ensuring knowledge is transferred to the next generation of bitumen specialists to bitumen coating thickness and road surface noise measurement.

CCNZ Technical Manager Stacy Goldsworthy said the event had ‘hit the mark’, and a focus on encouraging people to share their views led to successful debate.

“It was a different kind of event to what people would normally be exposed to. The content was wide-ranging but focussed on working with the black stuff. Having a focussed workshop helps engage the audience. It is what they are passionate about. This made for a successful event.”

Among the event’s 16 speakers was Auckland Transport Principal Asset Engineer Angela Parsonage, who won the event’s Young Presenter Award for presentations on future-proofing the knowledge held by bitumen specialists, and also the perils of ‘imposter syndrome’ – the situation of being qualified and knowledgeable, but being made to feel like an imposter because of factors like ethnicity and gender.

Ms Parsonage said she had been raised to be an engineer by her father and grandfather, who were also engineers. When it came to education and starting her career, she kept coming up against people who questioned whether engineering was the right career for her because of who she was rather than her ability or the knowledge she had. She said this was a challenge the industry needed to overcome through mentoring, sponsorship and greater understanding of the challenges people face in finding success and satisfaction in their roles.

Higgins Group Technical Manager Daniel Ludemann spoke about what he had learned from travelling the world and seeing countries with ‘circular economies’ to design out waste and create ways to re-use landfill materials for other purposes in roading and construction – such as creating systems to produce asphalt from tyres or other plastic waste, while Higgins Bitumen Manager Sean Bearsley spoke about the impact of climate change on roads and how to mitigate it by using the right surfacing materials and bitumen blends.

Other speakers included David Alexander of Road Science, who explored the mysteries of whether it is better to apply two coats of bitumen or not and Clare Dring of Fulton Hogan investigated ‘the thin black line’ in a presentation which looked at what happens when we get bitumen thickness wrong, and how to get it right.

Preventing Tarmageddon was New Zealand’s first full-day road surfacing and pavement workshop in the five years since the last Auckland Asphalt Forum event.

Mr Goldsworthy said after the success of this year’s event, the organising committee has put the wheels in motion for another event next year, returning it to an annual event as it was in the past.

He thanked this year’s major sponsors, which included Wirtgen Group, Z Energy and Winstone Aggregates, Geotechnics and Hiway Group, which each sponsored session streams, and those involved in organising the event.

Tarmageddon successfully prevented for another year

CATEGORIES

RELATED

Safety Alert: Protecting vulnerable road users around work sites

Safety alert - safe trenching

Safety alert: leg entrapment in hoe rotor

Updated safety alert - TTM and level crossing interface

Safety alert: Air excavation

Safety alert: worker injured after ingesting fuel

Safety alert: TTM and level crossing interfaces

AON New Zealand

GHD Limited

Remarkable People Ltd

Hynds Pipe Systems

BNZ Partners

beforeUdig

Northpine Ltd

Infrastructure Sustainability Council

Kobelco New Zealand

TDX Ltd

UDC Finance

n3

New Zealand Transport Agency

Prime Fluid Management

Turners Group Ltd: Head Office/Auckland

ENZED

Holcim New Zealand Ltd

Manage Company

Mico New Zealand Ltd

RobLawMax Recruitment

Doug the Digger

Komatsu New Zealand Ltd

Youngman Richardson

Vertical Horizonz NZ Ltd

Bridon Cookes

Commercial Hire NZ Ltd

Wirtgen NZ Ltd

Porter Group Limited

Greenlight Insurance Brokers

CivilShare

Terra Infrastructure Pty Ltd

TR Group

Firth Certified Concrete

Connexis

MIMICO NZ Ltd

TRIG Instruments

RB Recruitment

Site App Pro

SITECH NZ

Global Survey - Auckland

Portacom New Zealand Limited

Trade Me Jobs

Liebherr New Zealand

Geofabrics New Zealand Ltd

AB Equipment Ltd

MATES In Construction

AECOM New Zealand Limited

Westpac NZ Ltd

SAMI Bitumen Technologies Pty Ltd

Brandt Tractor Limited

Rimkus

SG Fleet

The Drug Detection Agency

MBP (NZ) Ltd

Fluiconnecto Ryco New Zealand Ltd

Infrastructure New Zealand

Enviro NZ Services Ltd

First Gas

H.J. Asmuss & Co. Ltd

Terra Cat

OneStaff Limited

Teletrac Navman

Franklin Smith Group

AWF

Advice Financial

Crediflex New Zealand Limited

Central Group

Impac Services Limited

Reliance Reinforcing Limited

Norwood