Paving Equipment Rentals

Denver-area municipal road departments are turning to concrete for paving as the rising price of crude oil also raises the price of asphalt.

“Asphalt has really gone up with the price of oil,” said Sherry Patten, spokeswoman for the City of Centennial. “So now, concrete prices are certainly competitive and the lifecycle costs of concrete are certainly lower.”

Local governments nationwide have preferred asphalt because it’s cheaper than concrete to install, said Jay Bowman, director of the research services group for FMI Corp., a Raleigh, N.C., consulting and investment firm for the construction industry.

Concrete usually pays for itself in the long run, because a concrete road can hold up for about 30 years — about three times longer than an asphalt one, Bowman said.