Pit & Quarry, February 2013

RoundTable ConfeRenCe mean theres some gradual but I dont sense a whole lot of momentum Im a little disappointed HEINEMANN Theres no question two years is way too short of a planning horizon for anybody Its not a touchdown its not a field goal its not even Ciszczon an extra point Its just not acceptable HAWKRIDGE I would agree A two year bill at essentially the same funding levels is not anything the industry can rally behind We do need longer bills and we need to look at the whole way we fund transportation I dont know that were ever going to be able to get back to five or six year bills but thats really what the industry needs with new revenue sources YANIK If two year bills are the new reality how will you function PRATT Well I think we are starting to see significant development or interest in the P 3 method of funding How sustainable that is over the long term Im not so sure But were seeing a lot of interest abroad as well as in Illinois I think P 3 can find a place in the near future short to midterm Longer term Im not so sure Pratt HAWKRIDGE Im not so sure the public isnt behind highway funding Most people recognize that infrastructure spending is lagging I think its the politicians that are not doing their job I dont necessarily think the public is not behind it because everybody gets stuck in traffic Everybody is driving on deteriorated roads I think the public could support it if somebody would lead it HEINEMANN If I take a look at Georgia where I live there was a bill they tried to push through earlier last year to fund highway construction and it went down in flames It really didnt have anything to do with the producers it had everything to do with how the money was spent leading up to that This is more local but take a look at the money spent on basically doing nothing more than taking an HOV lane painting some stripes and putting some cameras up and charging people for mileage It was an absolute travesty It didnt improve the roads its the same road Its just got a white stripe and some cameras aimed at it now And it was several million dollars to do that So going back to the legislature I think theres no question they need to get their house in order I think from the public theres got to be some work education Because if you look at these roads is it going to take two bridges per state to fail for people to get the idea that we need to do something Because the roads arent getting any better YANIK Lets switch gears keep government in the conversation and talk about emission standards What impact are these new standards having on your businesses What pressures are regulations having on your ability to develop and manufacture products HAWKRIDGE With the introduction of Tier 4 we kind of said great idea someone else go first When youre spending half a million dollars on a piece of equipment we didnt want to be the guinea pigs on it In recent years we have been holding onto equipment longer doing rebuilds and things like that Just last summer we got our first Tier 4 loader We havent had any problems with it but we were certainly afraid of Tier 4 It did have significant impacts on our purchasing decisions in the last couple of years HEINEMANN For us this is a challenging area There is a significant increase in cost because the packages are larger You have to have more cooling capacity Obviously theres a significant amount of R D and design work that has to go into the new product to fit the engine in YANIK How does everybody feel about how these emission standards that are being sought Is there an end road to them COKER If you look at emission standards as a whole like some of the EPA regulations that are being pushed back on the implementation side theres a lot of issues that are facing cement producers and power plants not just aggregates Theres a lot of uncertainty about those and theres a law of unintended consequences that will come out of some of those regulations higher prices for energy as coal plants come offline or arent built cement plants that are going to be put out of service Heinemann Most people recognize that infrastructure spending is lagging I think its the politicians that are not doing their job Warren Hawkridge 42 PIT QUARRY February 2013 www pitandquarry com