Byrne & Jones Construction, the largest commercial asphalt paving company in St. Louis, has launched a new division with a target of $1.5 million in first-year revenue.

The division, called Midwest Stabilization and led by Managing Director Mike Kappel, uses additives to improve the quality of soil before construction. The division also recycles asphalt for use in paved surfaces.

Kappel said the division is being launched to respond to demand from customers for less expensive ways to repair old pavement.

“The economic downturn forced many companies to put off necessary improvements to their properties,” Kappel said. As companies emerge from the recession, they are looking for cost-effective ways to improve their properties, he said.

“The cost to replace a typical parking lot using (Midwest’s) process can be up to 10 percent less than the conventional removal and replacement of the entire pavement structure,” he said.

Midwest uses machinery to pulverize old asphalt that is then relaid as new pavement.

Byrne & Jones, led by President Brian Goggins, produced nearly $21 million in revenue last year. The company employs 70 people.

The new division currently employs five workers originally employed by Byrne, and Kappel said that number is expected to double by the end of the year from new hires.

Joe Schroer, a field materials engineer for the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT), said the department considered asphalt recycling and reclamation as an alternative for road repairs.

“There are cost benefits of recycling,” he said. “We can treat a deeper section of roadway at the same cost of placing a thinner section of new material.”

MoDOT’s first asphalt reclamation project, a 7-mile stretch of Route 71 south of Maryville, Mo., saved the department more than $500,000.

“We see more recycling being done as we look at options to do more with less and come up with longer term solutions at the same cost,” Schroer said.