Pub. 1 2018-2019 Issue 4

16 SOUTHERN UTAH REGIONAL LEADERSHIP COUNCIL W hen UAPA was founded in the spring of 2011, it soon became obvious that in order to do a good job of representing the state, the associa- tion needed to be diversified and it needed feedback from separate regions within the state. One of those regions, of course, was Southern Utah. Southern Utah has a couple of specific challenges: • The region is growing. St. George is cur- rently the third-fastest-growing in Utah; Cedar City is fourth. The rate of growth is three percent per year, which is considered to be strong but manageable. Although Utah’s entire economy is considered to be hot, Southern Utah’s economy is a big part of that. • Southern Utah is also hot geographically. It is one of the few places in the entire country where companies can lay pave- ment all year long, but the heat also affects the production and use of asphalt. How exactly does the asphalt used in Southern Utah differ from asphalt used along theWasatch Front? • Binder content, and its associatedoil grade, is driven by its geologic source, so the binder used in Southern Utah is not going to be the same binder used in the north. • High heat requires stiffer binders. That results in roads that aremore brittle. Brittle roads, in turn, are prone to cracking. • Using RAP is part of being environmen- tally responsible when building roads, but the correct percentage of RAP to be used in Southern Utah is something that has to be considered carefully. End-of-life roads already have stiffeners in them; as RAP is added to a new road, stiffeners are essentially being added to stiffeners. It can be easy to create roads that are too stiff. • UDOT has pushed hard for roads that won’t have problems with rutting. Superpave solved the rutting prob- lems on roads, but the opposite problem now is roads that are too brittle and that crack easily. Reed Ryan asked Jeremy Leonard to chair the Southern Utah Regional Leadership Council, which is part of UAPA. Jeremy was already well-acquainted with other leaders in the region and knew the people he thought should be involved. The council, which is still in its first year, has already held three meetings and has two more sched- uled for August and September. Jeremy is very happy with the work the council has already done. Much of UAPA’s focus since it was organized has been on uniting stakeholders through- out the state such as UDOT and the state’s many municipalities. This is a particularly important goal in SouthernUtah. Although UDOT has invested time and sweat in part- nering with producers and contractors in SouthernUtah, the region has a great diver- sity of designs. It hasn’t always been that way. Years ago, individual municipalities relied on speci- fications from the American Public Works Association for their asphalt. Later, though, those municipalities decided to tailor the specifications for their area. That decision has made it very hard logistically for the companies that build roads. There are only somany containers available to storemate- rials, and having so many different specifi- cations is not cost effective. By talking to different municipalities and finding common ground, the council is working to develop universal designs that can be used in multiple places, which in turn simplifies the logistics. The Southern Utah Regional Leadership Council is planning a conference in