NAPA 2024 Annual Report

2024 Annual Report

Lead the industry by advancing the national legislative, regulatory, and policy interests of the asphalt pavement industry, serving as trusted experts, and increasing participation in NAPA’s advocacy strategy.

leadership

2024 Annual Report

Grow the industry by delivering expertise and programs that advance the safe, sustainable, responsible, and resilient production and construction of asphalt pavements and promote excellence.

stewardship

2024 Annual Report

Connect the industry by engaging members in NAPA’s crucial role advancing the asphalt pavement industry and convening the industry to address top issues.

membership

Advancing the asphalt pavement industry through leadership, stewardship, and member engagement, while working toward a sustainable transportation infrastructure that paves the way for thriving communities and commerce.

It's what we do

Springboard for success

Audrey Copeland Ph.D., P.E. PRESIDENT & CEO

Leadership, stewardship, and engaging our members are the unwavering pillars for everything we do on behalf of the asphalt pavement industry in the United States of America. They’re the core of our strategy and our commitment to you, the women and men of the asphalt pavement industry who keep America moving.

Our member-led efforts are informed by seven decades of shared institutional knowledge dating back to the origins of the Eisenhower Interstate System. Unlocking that knowledge for a new generation sparked the digitization of NAPA’s vast document library, including the continued training of artificial intelligence tools, like Hey NAPA.

Learning at the speed of innovation empowers our members to predict the future of the industry by taking an active role in creating it—whether that’s through data collection to identify trends and benchmarks, or meeting with lawmakers in the halls of power.

Ushering in a new era of industry and workforce challenges and opportunities isn’t a task we take lightly. We are privileged to share that responsibility with our members—companies, crews, and leaders around the country who are eager to ensure the future of road construction.

In short, they expect nothing less from the nation’s voice for asphalt mix plants and contractors, and we take great pride in facilitating the industry’s success through advocacy, research, collaboration, and support.

It’s what we do. And you, our members, are the reason we do it.

As you peruse this Annual Report, take note of our shared impact and accomplishments. When we bind together, we achieve great things!

Let’s leverage our shared foundation and principles to prepare for the year ahead:

A year of unending advocacy to pass a solid, forward-looking highway bill.
A year of continued innovation, both as an association and as an industry rooted in excellence and quality.
And surely, a year of navigating the unknown.

With a strong membership, committed leadership, strategic focus, and unmatched expertise, NAPA remains steadfastly by your side as together we advance this industry, its people, and its unmatched significance to the American people.

After all, it’s what we do.

Brady Meldrem CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD

NAPA 2024 Means News & Resources that Meet You Where You Are

The launch of NAPA Now in January gave members asphalt pavement news from across the industry in a familiar, searchable style. When news on policy matters broke in Washington, D.C., NAPA Now functioned as a way for subject matter experts to offer guidance and clarity on matters key to the industry and the bottom line for members.

NAPA’s newly reimagined approach to news means bringing the most important information to your inbox every Tuesday via NAPA Weekly (replacing Action News), including stories from NAPA’s longform journalism magazine NAPA Quarterly (formerly Asphalt Pavement).

NAPA Harnesses the Benefits of Artificial Intelligence for Members

Following the introduction of new features for Hey NAPA, NAPA launched an new weekly newsletter powered by artificial intelligence (AI) pulling industry-specific topics from sources curated by humans at NAPA.

Hey NAPA gained custom instructions abilities, as well as a photo-analysis capability that can do everything from detecting blemishes in asphalt roadways to evaluating job site photos.

Launched in March, NAPA NewsBrief aggregates stories from across the road construction industry, connecting members to their topics of interest through an algorithm that allows readers to stay on top of all the latest trends from some of the most trusted sources in asphalt pavement production and infrastructure.

The Road to Retention

Road Scholars program raises $3 million for graduate students

The NAPA Research & Education Foundation’s decades-long partnership with Auburn University grew deeper in 2024 with the launch of the Road Scholars program, an endowment aimed at providing stipends for graduate students in asphalt pavement studies.

NAPAREF first partnered with Auburn in 1986 to launch the National Center for Asphalt Technology (NCAT). NCAT brings innovative research to Auburn’s Samuel Ginn College of Engineering through partnerships with federal, state, local, and international agencies to study pavement design and performance, attracting a world-class faculty. The creation of the Test Track in 2000 gave students and researchers a proving ground for the nation’s asphalt pavements, leading to eight, three-year cycles of research with a ninth ready to begin in 2025.

NAPA’s initiative to pay stipends in support of pavement engineering students helps to assure that they thrive along with NCAT’s unique, hands-on approach to research that has paced the industry for decades.

“Now is a great time to be a civil engineer and more specifically, a pavements engineer,” said NCAT Director Randy West. “There is a high demand for jobs and opportunities abound to make a difference in asphalt pavement sustainability, resiliency and cost-effectiveness. As we actively recruit new graduate students to our program, the NAPAREF Road Scholars program will make a huge difference to graduate students who are making an educational investment and contributing to the research at NCAT.”