The National Research Road Alliance (NRRA) sends a warm thank you to attendees, speakers, and all those involved in bringing the 2019 Pavement Workshop together! The Workshop was 3 days of valuable presentations, exciting discussions, and engaging demonstrations.
Most of the Powerpoint Decks From 2019 Pavement Workshop are Now Available on the NRRA Webpage—Below the highlight of each day is a list of the available presentations … for the full list, please see link at the bottom of this article:
DAY ONE was added a few months ago and began with a continental breakfast, Welcome, and Information Modeling Overview. The entire day was dedicated to presentations and discussions of using Building Information Modeling (BIM) in road construction. Originally conceived as an overview, the idea to start using the tools provided by BIM by the pavement industry—including state DOTs—quickly evolved into a challenge. One of the highlights came when 3 vendors gave a presentation on BIM and how it is changing construction in Europe, and how it could potentially change the way we do work in the U.S.
This interactive presentation was very unusual compared to most conference presentations! It was very evident that the 3 presenters—Kelly Steeves, Leica; Jim Preston, Topcon; and Allistair Wells, Trimble—collaborated on the talk as they presented case studies, worked the crowd, and demonstrated deep knowledge about what really happens at a construction site. Even more exceptional was the fact that the 3 presenters all represented competing organizations. They discussed how much collaboration was required in BIM, and demonstrated that collaboration in their presentation. The remainder of the afternoon proceeded in the same vein, with a panel discussion that continued well into the Round Table Discussion! DAY ONE AVAILABLE PRESENTATIONS:
—Overview of Building Information Modeling, Overall Aspects of Program, State Implementation Plans: Dave Unkefer, FHWA
—AASHTO Perspective: Michael Kennerly, Iowa DOT
—BIM Delivery: Life Cycle from asset management to construction: Bill O’Brien, University of Texas
—3D Design Packages: George Lukes, Utah DOT
—3 Vendor Presentations • Leica: Kelly Steeves • Topcon: Jim Preston • Trimble: Allistair Wells
—Michigan DOT Experience – 3D Highway Design Model Cost Benefit Analysis: Jon Gustafson, WSP
DAY TWO was designed to be interactive, with presentations in the morning and then a trip up to MnROAD in the afternoon. The morning featured each NRRA team leader giving an update on their teams activities and highlighting the breakout sessions later in the day (and also on Day 3 of the workshop). When we got to MnROAD, attendees could get a tour of MnROAD or they could tour the two FHWA trailers that were on site. It’s pretty rare to get both trailers, the Mobile Asphalt Testing Trailer and the Mobile Concrete Technology Center, at the same location at the same time. Each trailer had formal tours and demonstrations. When you added in the MnROAD tour of our recent test sections, it was a very full afternoon. The day ended with a reception at the Caterpillar Paving Products Showroom. Attendees got to see the latest equipment and, more importantly, climb all over it. Caterpillar was a gracious and generous sponsor of the reception, and we can’t thank them enough. DAY TWO AVAILABLE PRESENTATIONS:
—National Road Research Alliance, State of the Alliance: Glenn Engstrom, Director
—Team Overviews: • Flexible Overview: Barry Paye, Chair-WisDOT • Rigid Overview: Brett Trautman, Chair-MoDOT
—Team Overviews: • Geotechnical Overview: Terry Beaudry, Chair-MnDOT • Preventive Maintenance Overview: Jerry Geib, Chair-MnDOT • Intelligent Construction Technologies Overview: Rebecca Embacher, Chair-MnDOT
—Flexible Workshop: • Developing Best Practices for Rehabilitation of Concrete with Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) Overlays related to Density and Reflective Cracking: Eshan Dave, Univ. of New Hampshire • Cold Central Plant Recycling (CCPR): Derek Tompkins, American Engineering Testing
—Rigid Workshop: Recent findings from fiber reinforced concrete pavement research: Manik Barman, Univ. of Minnesota Duluth
—Geotechnical Workshop: • Environmental/Economic Analysis of the use of CIR, FDR, and SFDR: Dan Wegman, Braun Intertec • Soil stabilization: Dave Rettner, American Engineering Testing
—Intelligent Construction Workshop: • NDDOT’s Experience with E-Ticketing: Korby Seward, NDDOT • MnDOT’s Experience using Automated Machine Guidance to Monitor Muck Excavation Activities: James Schneider, MnDOT
—MnROAD Tour and FHWA Trailer Demos: • FHWA Mobile Asphalt Testing Trailer Program • FHWA Mobile Concrete Trailer
DAY THREE was the more formal day of presentations with keynotes by Becky McDaniel and NRRA‘s Ben Worel. The day began with the Gene Skok Scholarship Awards. Some great testimonials about MnROAD and NRRA came from Amy Beise, NDDOT Materials & Research, and Zhanping You, Professor of Transportation Engineering and Materials-Michigan Technological University. Glenn Engstrom, NRRA Director presented on the future of our alliance toward the end of the day just before all attendees dispersed into concurrent research tracks. He showed a video from his recent visit the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and as he wondered aloud what kind of pavement they had constructed to handle those speeds, keynote Becky pointed over her shoulder and answered him, “Why don’t you ask Gerry? He wrote the spec for it!”
Gerry Huber, the Heritage Research Group was in the audience! He had designed the pavement for the Indianapolis raceway, so Gerry explained what was in the pavement at the legendary racetrack.
The NRRA and MnDOT spokespeople stated that among the 2019 workshop highlights, are the most important highlights that happened quietly and individually—an attendee who came away from a presentation or discussion with an idea for a solution that he or she could take home and implement right away. One attendee remarked, “You’ve raised the bar very high this year! How are you going to top it next year?” The NRRA requests that all check back for next year’s workshop and thanks everyone for their participation in NRRA. DAY THREE AVAILABLE PRESENTATIONS:
—Skok Distinguished Speaker—“Reflections on a Career in Asphalt Research”: Becky McDaniel, Purdue
—Rohrbach Distinguished Speaker—“Quarter Century of MnROAD Advancements”: Ben Worel, MnDOT
—FHWA Mobile Concrete Trailer: Jagan Gudimettla, FHWA
—FHWA Mobile Asphalt Testing Trailer: Dr. Amir Golalipour, FHWA
—Technical Talk-Intelligent Construction: George Chang, The Transtec Group
—Use of Rejuvenators in HMA: Amy Epps Martin, Texas A&M
—NRRA Future Goals and Direction: Glenn Engstrom, Director-NRRA
—Geotechnical Team: • Intelligent Compaction for Grading Materials: Soheil Nazarian, Univ. of Texas, El Paso • Determining Pavement Design Criteria for Recycled Aggregate Base and Large Stone Sublease: Bora Cetin, Iowa State Univ. • Phase 2 Geotechnical Research Project Previews: Mechanistic Load Restriction Decision Platform for Pavement Systems Prone to Moisture Variations • Environmental Impacts on the Performance of Pavement Foundation Layers • Improve material inputs into mechanistic design properties for reclaimed HMA Roadways: Bora Cetin, Iowa State Univ. and Eshan Dave, Univ. of NH
—Flexible Team: Superpave 5: Gerry Huber, Heritage Research Group • Ideal CT: Randy West, NCAT • Density Profiling System: Kyle Hoegh, MnDOT
—Rigid Team—Stringless Paving Panel: • First stringless project in Missouri: John Donahue, MoDOT • Merits and demerits of stringed paving and why stringless paving: Bernard Izevbekhai and Norma Farah, MnDOT • Industries’ perspective on stringless paving: Dan King, ICPA • Development of new unbonded concrete overlay design procedure: Dan King, ICPA • Performance of whitetoppings in Minnesota: Lev Khazanovich, Univ. of Pittsburgh; Tom Burnham, MnDOT
—Preventive Maintenance Team—Rejuvenator Spray-on: Jason Blomberg, MoDOT
—Intelligent Construction Team—Key to Successful Deployment of Intelligent Compaction and Paver Mounted Thermal Profiling Technologies: Curt Turgeon, MnDOT
To view the full list of the NRRA 2019 Workshop Presentations and to download the available Keynote presentations, please go to: http://www.dot.state.mn.us/mnroad/nrra/pavementconference/index.html.
Home page photo: Cell from presentation titled “North Dakota Testimonial-Why did North Dakota Join (NRRA)” by Amy Beise, P.E., NDDOT Materials & Research, May 23, 2019
Home page photo:
Cell from Amy Beise’s presentation