Regional pavement company buys Seaford terminal

Russell Standard acquired the Seaford asphalt terminal in early April to expand operations. | PHOTO COURTESY OF RUSSELL STANDARD

SEAFORD — Delaware’s lone asphalt terminal in Seaford was acquired by a regional pavement materials company earlier this spring.

Russell Standard acquired the plant on Nanticoke Avenue in early April in a bid to expand its reach in existing markets of Pennsylvania and Maryland. Formerly owned by the ICP Group, the terminal serves counties on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, local governments in Pennsylvania, the Delaware Department of Transportation and contractors across the state.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but it gives Russell Standard quick drive time to the two states in the tri-state region, as well as a new client: DelDOT.

“This really will provide us the storage for asphalt and with the rail access, we can bring in a large quantity of material to sell to our market that we’ve been operating for years,” Russell Johnson CEO Matt Johnson told the Delaware Business Times. “It was a good opportunity to expand in a market we weren’t really participating in before.”

Headquartered in Pittsburgh, Russell Standard has been in business close to a century and has plants throughout the state as well as two in North Carolina, Ohio and Baltimore. The company operates a lab that handles products that work to keep rainwater from getting under the pavement surface and accelerating its deterioration.

One of the major services Russell Standard provides is chip sealing, or using a thin film of headed asphalt sprayed on the road surface with chips placed inside to increase skid resistance.

“We also provide a liquid asphalt binder that is used in hot asphalt paving,” Johnson said. “We resell it to local contractors who make the pavements, but we also take the asphalt and turn it into an asset. Not many people know this, but asphalt pavement is about one of the most recycled products in the world.”

Rail access was a major decision factor for Russell Standard, as the company ships a large amount of materials all over the country. Only one refinery, PBS, is on the East Coast.

“The majority of the materials that come off the road during construction can get added back in the mix and reused. The hope is to make it last as long as you can so we don’t have to rip them up,” Johnson said.

In its Pennsylvania labs, Russell Stanard is working on a product aimed at premature cracking on pavement services as well as joint failures of transportation departments across the country.