Lake Forest, CA -- (SBWire) -- 01/08/2010 -- Roklin Systems Inc. is pleased to announce the release of "Ask Ben," a column for Website visitors to ask our expert, Ben, asphalt or concrete engineering questions. Visitors to the site, http://www.roklinsystems.com can submit their questions related to concrete or asphalt repair or use. Ben's extensive experience makes him highly qualified to give advice in this area. Ben Ramirez is our asphalt and concrete repair advisor who is retired from Caltrans where he was previously the District Division Chief.

As District Division Chief (a position now called Deputy Director), Ben managed the largest district in California. While managing District 8 maintenance division, which covered Riverside and San Bernardino Counties, Ramirez had 600 employees working under him. In addition to his Caltrans experience, Ben took engineering classes in college. Ben particularly liked his civil engineering classes.

Ben is uniquely qualified to fill the role of our expert advisor because at Caltrans, he worked in three divisions. His 40-year Caltrans career began in the construction division, followed by the design division and finally the maintenance division. Ben also worked on highways while in the military. Ben began as an army reservist and then moved to the air force reserves where he worked on road maintenance with the base facility management department.

"My first seven years was in the construction division. I did small structure inspections, paving inspections, worked in the lab testing materials that were used in the building of freeways," Ramirez said. Ben learned a lot about materials in that position as he was involved in the testing of asphalt and concrete production, and the properties of those products. He made sure that all the materials met all the specifications, giving him tremendous exposure to products used on asphalt and concrete.

Ben's second seven years were spent working in the design division. "My primary focus was on designing freeways," Ramirez said. The freeway design process can be quite complicated and involves many levels to complete. According to Ben it can take up to 10 years on large projects.

Ben's next move was into maintenance engineering. After two years he became a region manager for Riverside. It was there that Ben was in charge of the maintenance for the Riverside County Freeways.

Working at Caltrans was a rewarding experience that eventually led to Ben's working at Roklin and now acting as the official "expert" on Roklin's Website. "A Roklin representative showed up and had a product. I was the type of person who was always looking for new ways of fixing the highways. I used Roklin's product and it worked. I kept in contact with the rep after I retired and eventually began working at Roklin," Ramirez said.

Visitors to Roklinsystems.com can type their questions directly into the Ask Ben box and submit their questions. The questions will be answered directly and if applicable to a broad range of users, posted directly on the site. The questions and answers will be catalogued on the site and can be found through a search on the site. This expert advice is unique because the responses will be Ben's opinion based on years of experience working with a variety of materials. The column will not be focusing primarily on Roklin's products, but on becoming the go-to site for accurate and effective expert advice.