Last week, our LEAP class had the opportunity to visit the BASF plant in Chattanooga, TN. We engaged with leaders and toured the facility.
Brittany Davis, Operations Manager, gave us a tour of the plant. This plant is unique because it is BASF's only continuous operation plant in the world, running seven days a week, 365 days a year, except for multi-week shutdowns in the spring and fall for maintenance. Impressively, the plant operates on 100% green energy sourced from wind, water, and solar power.
As we walked through the plant, she explained the step-by-step process of latex production, from storage of raw materials to monomer recovery, through the continuous process, and finally to the batching process where the products are completed. The finished products are loaded using one of the plant's three truck loading docks or its one railcar loading station. The finished materials are almost exclusively transported and stored using trailers and railcars.
During the tour, we visited the lab where they sample and test the product in the various stages of the process. In the lab, we spoke with members of the lab team and had the opportunity to ask questions to learn more about their testing methods. The lab at BASF tests its material every hour to ensure product quality. We also visited the control room where operators make sure the plant runs smoothly. The intricate system has alarm tones that are different in each section of the plant, so operators are aware if something needs attention in their specific working location.
Following the tour, Arlis Kadrmas gave us a technical overview of the various latex products used in asphalt and soda cans. He offered tips on storage and handling of the latex. We learned that latex manufacturing is more sustainable than an AI search. Thank you to BASF for hosting our group for the 4th year in a row.
LEAP Program Tour: Geneva Rock & Yellowstone National Park
Geneva Rock: On August 20, 2025, members of the 2025 LEAP Class visited Geneva Rock to tour their Draper, Utah and Pelican Point quarries. Geneva Rock is Utah’s leading supplier of construction products and services, and it produces all grades of rock from sand to large landscaping boulders. The focus of our tour was to learn how they prepare chip and slurry aggregates for pavement preservation projects and aggregate for hot mix projects. In addition, they also have the capability to recycle concrete road base and asphalt pavements.
After an introduction to Geneva Rock and safety overview from Casey Hawkins, LEAP participants were given a driving tour of the Draper pit, one of the largest quarries in the region, followed by a tour of the laboratory there. Next, the LEAP group traveled to their Pelican Point site to observe their production of Type 2 and Type 3 aggregates that are used in the micro and slurry markets.
The tour leaders also pointed out several sustainability initiatives employed at the quarries. To reduce dust, they have implemented water distribution systems to maintain a wet environment and to wash the rock. They recycle about 90% of the water used in the quarry. They use the momentum of the rock moving down their conveyors to generate enough power to account for about a third of their energy requirements. Geneva Rock also focuses on reclamation of the land after their work is completed. They are proactively working with city leadership to mine the land in such a way that gravel pits can be repurposed into housing and commercial developments for the rapidly growing population in the greater Salt Lake area in the future.
The LEAP Class thanks Geneva Rock for such an interesting and informative tour of their facilities!
Yellowstone National Park: The LEAP class then traveled to Yellowstone National Park to get a tour from Marty Powell, Transportation Management Branch Chief for the National Park Service at Yellowstone and member of the 2025 LEAP Class, to see his pavement preservation program. The 350 miles of roads in the park have some unique needs, and Marty shared his maintenance strategies with the group. For the main thoroughfares through the park, Marty primarily uses a chip seal because it is a quick application (short paving season and lots of tourist traffic) and because the chip seal provides a good layer of protection over the road to handle the abuse from snowplows and scrapers. The lighter color from the exposed aggregate also helps with nighttime visibility – a major benefit considering the size of the wildlife (elk, bear and bison) that roam the area in the evenings and early morning. This year, Marty was also able to use cold in-place recycling for a section of road in the park. This experiment could bring major savings to his road network by using the existing road instead of having to bring in new aggregate and dispose of the old pavement in these remote locations. After completion of the CIR, an asphalt overlay was applied, and work is ongoing to cover this with a chip seal. On some of the secondary, low traffic roads in the park, Marty uses a “heavy” fog seal (mixed with small rock instead of sand) as a preservation strategy to improve friction (small winding roads with some significant slopes!). Talking with Marty and seeing the work he does at Yellowstone really helped to reinforce the lessons taught in the LEAP Program. Even in just one network, the advantages of having a variety of different pavement preservation options were easily apparent. Our tour highlighted how different asphalt emulsion treatments can be tailored to the needs of unique and special road conditions.
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