For over twenty years the BoDean Company has been one of the foremost suppliers of quality crushed rock and asphaltic concrete in the Napa County and Santa Rosa areas of Northern California. General Manager Bill Williams sees a bright future ahead for the company, with a strong commitment to the environment and a continued emphasis on customer satisfaction.

SOLAR PROJECT

The construction industry often receives a bad rap for being part of the problem when it comes to environmental issues. However the BoDean Company is aggressively pursuing several projects to make sure that it is doing its part to be one of the leaders in the quarry and asphalt industry when it comes to sustainable green practices.

“On May 11th we will be celebrating a solar ‘Flip the Switch’ event at our Mark West quarry. We believe we may be the first quarry in the world to operate fully off of purely photovoltaic solar power,” Williams points out.

“Moving forward we strive to continue to strengthen our efforts at sustainability. The solar project is a big undertaking; it’s a three million dollar project that is very important to us.”

The solar panels are being built on reclaimed slopes leftover from the company’s mining areas. Unlike other companies in their industry, the BoDean Company specializes in reclaiming and repurposing its quarry lands while they are still in use rather than waiting until after the quarry has been fully utilized.

“At most quarries, companies wait until after they are done utilizing the site. We reclaim it as we go so that by the time the full site has been utilized and you are ready to no longer be mining in the area, the whole area has already been reconstituted and is not a pit waiting for someone to come in to repair,” Williams explains.

RECYCLED MATERIALS

The BoDean Company’s green practices don’t end with its solar project. BoDean is also an industry leader in the use of recycled materials during the production process. This allows the company to simultaneously cut costs and reduce its carbon footprint.

Usually asphalt is produced from materials that have never been used before, typically a mixture of rock, sand and hot binder oil. Rather than using virgin materials that have been extracted from hillside mines or out of river beds, BoDean uses recycled road millings from roads that need to be rebuilt or resurfaced.

“An old road will already have asphalt binder on it so we do not have to import hot binder oil from refineries,” Williams says. This reduces the need for trucking and the dependence upon oil in the production process.

The implementation of these green practices is just part of the many changes the company is undergoing as it faces an evolving marketplace.

WARM MIX ASPHALT

Another new technology BoDean Company is leading the way with is the production of Warm Mix Asphalt (WMA). Typically asphalt must be produced at temperatures over 320 degrees Fahrenheit. These high temperatures create “blue smoke” which can be easily detected by the odor associated with asphalt paving projects. However, by injecting atomized water molecules into the hot oil binder during the production process, BoDean can reduce the temperatures down below 275 degrees thereby eliminating the harmful gases (blue smoke) and virtually eliminating the obnoxious odors associated with paving.

This process, called “mechanical foaming” creates Warm Mix Asphalt (WMA) and greatly reduces CO2 gases and the energy costs associated with producing asphalt.

These practices not only have a positive net effect upon BoDean’s bottom line, but also aid in its commitment to be a company dedicated to sustainable practices.

GOVERNMENT PROJECTS

The down economy has hit the construction industry especially hard, with the majority of private construction projects drying up. However, the BoDean Company has managed to find work on larger government projects.

This includes a highway revival and widening project being contracted out by the California Department of Transportation (CALTRAN) for which the BoDean Company has been one of the primary suppliers of asphalt.

“Our area has been active lately in road construction and renovation, especially in the highway 101 corridor from Windsor all the way down to Marin County. We’ve been significantly involved in that widening project,” Williams says.

VISION FOR THE FUTURE

The company has demonstrated an ability to adapt to a rapidly changing business world. BoDean has the foresight and imagination that will be needed in the years to come to put it ahead of the competition.

While the BoDean Company works primarily with large contractors and construction companies, it hopes to break into smaller markets as well and make its products more available to the general public in the near future.

“We also plan to expand into new market segments, to develop a retail emphasis, and sell to more mom and pop customers in addition to the larger projects and contractors that we currently work with,” Williams says.

These ambitious plans for the future combined with an established track record of great service and a quality product shows that the BoDean Company is ready for any challenges that lie ahead.