Asphalt trade association looking to fill 1,000 jobs over 5 years

Listen to this article

Just as demand continues to grow for workers in home and other construction trades, the highway construction industry in South Carolina expects to add 1,000 jobs in the next five years as work gets underway on the massive Carolina Crossroads project in 2021 and improvements to state roads funded by a gas tax increase ramp up.

The S.C. Asphalt Pavement Association has tried to address that growing demand with its Asphalt Works! media campaign. The association says that with the S.C. Department of Transportation increasing its amount of road projects because of revenue generated by the gas tax increase, there is a need for more asphalt workers.

S.C. residents began paying an extra 2 cents per gallon in July,  the third of six annual 2-cent increases approved by legislators in 2017. The increase is expected to generate an estimated $70 million a year to improve S.C. roads.

The SCAPA’s statewide workforce development campaign includes increasing partnerships with government agencies, community organizations, job placement groups and schools to reach and train potential employees. This is the first time the asphalt industry has organized to market itself in South Carolina, previously relying on grass-roots and word-of-mouth promotion.

“The goal of the campaign is to shed light on our industry, bring awareness to our industry and the job opportunities, and to educate the public about the opportunities in the industry,” said Ashley Batson, SCAPA executive director. “There’s a ton of work. We are very busy, and we, of course, need people to be able to do more.”

South Carolina has the fourth-largest highway system in the country, and the roads bill passed in 2017 also requires SCDOT to upgrade the conditions of more than half of the state’s roads within 10 years. In addition, businesses consider road conditions and road maintenance when considering where to locate, industry officials say.

Asphalt companies large and small, as well as independent contractors, also still need workers to replace those lost during the Great Recession from 2007-2009, when the industry lost about half of its workforce, Batson said.

“With the tight economy, unemployment’s really low, and we have this need,” Batson said. “Several years ago during the recession, we had to let a lot of our workforce go, and we have to rebuild now that we have funding.”

So far, South Carolina has been able to keep up with the workforce demand, thanks to anticipation of increased projects while legislators debated the gas tax increase, Batson said.

“We worked with them and they developed a phased-in approach, a ramp-up of work, to be able to give our industry time to do just that,” she said.

Part of the Asphalt Works! campaign’s goal is to let the public know that there are more opportunities beyond what people see on road crews.

“There’s a lot of things that happen behind the scenes before you see the guys out there paving the road,” said Trae Carson, recruitment coordinator with C.R. Jackson Inc. Contractors of Columbia.

Before the asphalt is spread on road surface, it has to be made at a plant and then transported to the job site. Each project requires a different blend of asphalt, so people familiar with chemistry are needed to develop the recipe for each job.

Plant operators, heavy equipment operators, equipment maintenance workers, plant maintenance workers, electrical workers, welders, quality control specialists, estimators, safety managers, and truck drivers are also needed.

Most of the asphalt jobs require training that can only be gotten through the job itself, Carson said.

“We can make quality control inspectors, plant operators,” he said.  “We’re training people every day on all different aspects within every company.”

Both Carson and Batson said good employees can advance quickly, with opportunities for advancement widespread. Carson said C.R. Jackson’s COO started his career on a paving crew.

“If someone comes in and they show that good work ethic and that willingness to do a good job, then these companies will start them, generally in that general labor-flagger position, and then quickly advance them to the next level, allowing them to do more on-the-job training and promoting them in a pretty tight timeline,” Batson said.

Employees in the industry range in education from those without a high school diploma to people with master’s degrees. People who work in asphalt have told the SCAPA they enjoy the team approach to building something.

“We are working hard to attract everyone and anyone,” Batson said. “There is a job for everyone and anyone in this industry.”