Asphalt prices pave way for higher costs

The high price of crude oil has pushed up more than just the cost of filling up the family automobile with gasoline at the corner convenience store.

It also has forced up the cost of laying down pavement for new roads, filling in the potholes of aging parking lots or reconditioning a home’s leaky roof with a new layer of three-tab asphalt shingles.


“The price of asphalt these days is outrageous,” said Ron Case of Ron Case Roofing and Asphalt Paving in Salt Lake City. “Every month or so, it seems, we’re getting hit with another 7 percent to 10 percent increase in price. And like gasoline, there’s nothing we can really do about it. We have to have it.”

Asphalt is made by mixing crushed stone or gravel with bitumen, a heavy tar-like substance left over after gasoline, kerosene, jet fuel and diesel fuel are refined out of crude oil. Bitumen, which is sold by the ton, also is known as asphalt oil.

Salt Lake Tribune