Tom Hackett turned failed material into art.
Over one winter, the Midland Asphalt lab was trying to make a PG 82-22 binder for NYS DOT. Unfortunately, the material turned out to be unsuccessful at meeting all of the test criteria. The material couldn’t be used for anything but instead of throwing it out, Tom decided to repurpose the binder.
After talking with a co-worker, Tom tried to make something with it and got the asphalt flowing first. He had an office with a big empty space on the wall so he knew he could go big with the idea. The Midland logo artwork was first painted with acrylic paint and the letters were glued on. Asphalt emulsion was then poured on the top at an angle, cooled, turned upside down, poured on the bottom at an angle and cooled to finish.
