Monday, February 27, 2012
Hunlock Creek, PA – Around this time of year in the Mid-Atlantic region, asphalt plants are usually shut down and workers are laid off due to the cold winter months, but not this year. The unseasonably warm weather has allowed paving crews to continue paving and maintaining roadways, which in turn has allowed asphalt plants to remain open, producing asphalt on a daily basis.
One asphalt plant in particular that has reaped the benefits of this warm winter weather is Pikes Creek Asphalt & Crushed Stone, located in Luzerne County, PA. Pikes Creek’s site contracting division has been able to continue to offer their paving projects, due to the warm temperatures, allowing Pikes Creek’s on-site asphalt plant to remain open and continue to work hard generating hot asphalt on a daily basis. Pikes Creek Site Contractors provides a wide range of paving services, from small patch work to large, heavy highway infrastructure construction and reconstruction projects and utilizes the asphalt plant regularly. Typically during the colder months of December through March, the asphalt plant workers and paving crews are laid off.
On February 7th, WNEP-TV’s Jim Murdoch interviewed several Pikes Creek employees to get their perspectives on the warm weather and ongoing plant and paving operations. Click here to see the full interview.
Pikes Creek’s plant manager, J.J. Mullin, responded to the warm weather by saying, “It’s very much helping. We are able to pave every day. Keep the roads maintained for the energy companies and keeping crews going. We are still working, no layoffs for the crew. We are still going strong.”
Employee, Mike Serafin, added, “It’s nice. Feels good. Guys are actually working they are not sitting at home. Everybody’s excited about working. It’s going to help them pay their bills and put food on the table, heat their homes. Good time for everybody.”
Pikes Creek Asphalt & Crushed Stone is also a major material supplier for PENNDOT. This mild winter has also allowed PENNDOT crews to continue working on several long-term projects, placing them ahead of schedule.