Building better roads starts with training

During this week’s Pave It Black episode, we sit down with Todd Mansell from Caterpillar to discuss the evolving landscape of the asphalt pavement industry. With over 35 years’ experience, Todd shares how decades of hands-on experience evolved into a career dedicated to training crews, improving paving performance, and raising the standard of quality across projects.

Todd explains why success in asphalt paving goes beyond materials and technology. It comes down to people, communication, and a clear understanding of the fundamentals. From jobsite training to classroom instruction, he breaks down how explaining the why behind best practices helps crews perform at a higher level and deliver more consistent results.

Tune in to hear practical insights from someone who has spent a career helping others build better roads.

Here’s a sneak peek into this week’s conversation but be sure to tune in to the full episode for all the insights. You can listen wherever you get your podcasts.

B: Is there one thing about your career journey that would surprise people who do not work in the industry?

TM: It sounds cliché, but the people have kept me excited to be part of this industry. Initially, I came very close to pursuing mechanical engineering. I had a sponsorship with a bearing company that was going to support my education at the General Motors Institute. Instead of designing cars that drive on the roads, I ended up helping to build the roads themselves. If you had asked me when I was leaving high school, I thought I would be in civil engineering building skyscrapers.

R: Thirty-five years later, you are putting asphalt on the roads. You mentioned that you perform a lot of training in the lab, the field, and the classroom. You noted that quality is what ultimately matters. What does quality paving mean to you, and is there a job where everything came together perfectly?

TM: Quality paving is teamwork. I have learned over the years that you can have the best materials and the best asphalt mix design in the world, but if the people placing and compacting it are not doing their jobs, you will not get a quality project. Conversely, you can have borderline materials, but a solid crew doing things the right way can still produce a high-quality pavement. When everything aligns, we get the best results.

A significant eye-opener in my career occurred while I was a QC manager for a job on Highway 101 near King City in Southern California. I spent the first 15 years of my career doing mix designs and lab work. The field crew was on the verge of being shut down because they were not meeting density requirements; they were at a 0.98 pay factor.

I got frustrated in the lab hearing them claim the mix design was the problem, so I went to the field for three weeks to work with the roller operators. It was a people problem, not a materials problem. Once we got everyone on the same page and communicating, we ended the job with a 1.03 pay factor. That was a proud moment and a great learning experience.

Season 10 of Pave It Black is sponsored by FleetWatcher by AlignOps.