The National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA) 52nd Annual Meeting, to be held Feb. 18-21, 2007 at the San Francisco Marriott, will have 12 educational programs as well as networking events. In addition, committee meetings will take place both prior to and during the Annual Meeting.

The Annual Meeting offers a range of educational sessions on issues from management, the environment, and hot-mix asphalt (HMA) construction to the outlook for funding.

A synopsis of the sessions is as follows:

"Warm-Mix Asphalt: Are YOU Ready?," with speakers Eric Harm, Illinois Department of Transportation; Roger Brown, Pace Construction; and Harry Bush, Jr., Vulcan Materials Co. Attendees will gain insight into how this technology will affect the market place, and will be given information on timelines for product acceptance by Departments of Transportation, and a gauge for acceptance of warm mix by customers.

"Funding the Interstates of the Future," as discussed by Gregory M. Cohen, American Highway Users Alliance and Dennis Faulkenberger, Ice Miller, LLC. The Highway User Trust Fund may be insolvent by 2009, and a new funding system is urgently needed. From this program, attendees will understand the challenges of federal highway construction, what the issues are, and what ideas are being proposed.

"Developing an Environmental Health & Safety Compliance Tool," puts together a game plan that can be used to smoothly run EHS compliance operations. Attendees will be able to identify federal EHS regulations that may affect operations, design a compliance calendar for keeping track of federal reporting requirements and identify state specific and local EHS compliance obligations, and integrate them into a compliance calendar or EHS Compliance Management Tool.

"An HMA Playbook for your Business," with speaker Dr. Vince Covello, Center for Risk Communication. Attendees will learn new tools to work with neighbors, develop positive messages for addressing negative concerns, and learn how to use the facts to support and communicate their message