ACPA—Chapter Committee Meeting-Indiana; Concrete Pavement Workshop-Florida; & Mid-Year Meeting-South Carolina

ACPA HIGHLIGHTS:
Chapter Committee Meeting;
3rd Annual Concrete Pavement Workshop;
& Innovative, Creative Midyear Meeting

MID-MAY 2019

The American Concrete Pavement Association (ACPA) Chapter Committee Meeting was held Mid-May in Indianapolis, Indiana to discuss timely issues and share best practices. The meeting attendees included ACPA Chapter Executives, Jim Mack, Chairman-ACPA and CEMEX, Staff Engineers, and ACPA National Staff Members.

Wednesday evening, participants had the opportunity to enjoy camaraderie and refreshments at the cosponsored IGGA and Chapter Committee evening reception. Thursday morning, the Mid-Year Meeting began with welcoming remarks by Mike Byers, 2019 Chapter Chairman-ACPA and Executive Director-ACPA. Presentations and discussions on the Thursday included:
• Optimized Mixtures in Wisconsin: Kevin McMullen
• State of Practice-Dowels & Tie Bars: John Becker
• ACPA/PCA Industry Promotion Plan: Jerry Voigt
• FHWA Stakeholders Meeting: Leif Wathne
• PavementDesigner.org update … including a Google analytics report showing usage of the popular concrete pavement thickness deign portal: Andy Gieraltowski
• Federal Affairs Update: Leif Wathne
• Upcoming Events … Midyear Meeting and Change Management  Seminar: Jerry Voigt
• CP Tech Center update: Peter Taylor and Gordon Smith

Friday the meeting continued with presentations and discussions covering:
• New FAA P-501 Specification Update—Improvements, Issues: Gary Mitchell
• Condition Rating & Evaluation of General Aviation Airports: Angela Folkestad
• FHWA HMA video review: Larry Scofield
• Pavement Determination & Program Balance Discussions: Greg Mulder

The workshop included guest presentations by 3 State DOT officials—Glenn Engstrom, Minnesota; Rick Miller, Kansas; and David Holtz, Indiana—who spoke about infrastructure investments in their states. The next Chapter Committee Meeting will take place during the 56th ACPA Annual Meeting, scheduled for December 3-6, 2019 in New Orleans, Louisiana.

LATE-MAY 2019

For the third consecutive year, ACPA conducted concrete pavement training workshops in late May for Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) representatives and Florida contractors. Working closely with Amy Wedel, Director of Concrete Pavements-Florida Chapter-ACPA and Roger Schmitt, Director Streets & Local Roads-Florida Chapter-ACPA, Eric Freebee, Technical Services-ACPA and Mark Snyder, Former President-ISCP and Honorary Member-ISCP, conducted training in the two Florida cities of Davie and Orlando. 

This year, training concentrated on pavement design—using AASHTOWare® Pavement ME—and construction practices. The 2017 and 2018 Workshops focused on concrete pavement jointing. 

Jim Mack, Chairman-ACPA and CEMEX, and John Eisenhower, Member-ACPA and Sales Manager-Guntert & Zimmerman, were also on hand to lend support. Chairman Mack also brought three industry professionals from Sweden.

The workshop also featured a panel discussion with Florida DOT officials and a company official from Ajax Paving Industries, Inc.-Davie, Member-ACPA. Centered on a project by Ajax, the panel discussion was titled “From the Office to the Field—Lessons Learned from US 17”. 

Pavement design topics included:
• A history and background of M-E pavement design
• Jointed plain concrete pavement design
• Sensitivity analyses for critical inputs and engineering solutions
• Hands-on Pavement M-E training
• Additional design considerations

Construction topics included:
• Best practices for constructing smooth
• Durable concrete pavements
• Troubleshooting field problems and constructability issues
• Traffic management

AASHTOWare® Pavement ME Design is the next generation of AASHTOWare® pavement design software, which builds upon the mechanistic-empirical pavement design guide, and expands and improves the features in the accompanying prototype computational software. ME Design is a production-ready software tool to support the day-to-day pavement design functions of public and private pavement engineers.

MID-JUNE 2019

With a record 118 registrants, ACPA’s Mid-Year Meeting was held June 11-13 and featured a high-energy, information-packed program that focused on both current and emerging trends, technologies, and new developments. The 2-1/2 day meeting began with an innovative change management seminar led by Scott Mueller, Vice President of Marketing-ACPA, followed by an informative social media and communications seminar. The two events provided insights into changes occurring in the world around us and within the cement and concrete industry. Equally important, the seminars featured a team-building exercise, robust discussions, and breakout sessions where participants had lively discussions about challenges and opportunities we’re all facing in the industry.

A VISION2040 Workshop Action-Plan Forum followed the seminars and began with an overview and update on ACPA’s long-term vision regarding emerging megatrends, technological changes, and pavement technology advancements. The forum was an important next step in this ongoing initiative, which continues to evolve and set the pace for industry advancements and other changes the concrete pavement industry and the transportation-construction community will need to address.

MEETINGS of the TASK FORCES:
• Roller Compacted Concrete (RCC)
• Airports
• Pavement Design
• Jointing
• Legislative Issues Committee (LIC)—Dave Bauer, President and CEO-ARTBA, presented remarks about the Federal-aid highway program, including hopeful signs of a bill being introduced this summer, funding challenges and other details. This meeting included a spirited “heads or tails” game that served as an innovative and fun-filled fundraising activity.
• Strategic Advisory Committee (SAC)—one of the highlights was a discussion about aligning standing committees with markets, and better aligning the committees with staff focus. Several options were discussed and suggestions and comments were shared. Further discussion will continue over the next few months…Jerry Voigt, President & CEO-ACPA stated, “No specific decision was made. A general direction was provided, along with the goal that SAC will have a firm proposal for ACPA board at the annual meeting.”

For the ISCP ARTICLES and VIDEO on VISION2040, please go to:
“VIDEO: Constructech TV: 
Leif Wathne, ISCP Director, Discusses “VISION2040” & Future of Concrete Industry”: https://www.concretepavements.org/2019/03/26/video-constructech-tv-%E2%80%A8leif-wathne-iscp-director-discusses-vision-2040-future-of-concrete-industry/
“VISION2040 is a Must-Read & Captures the Future of Concrete Paving”: https://www.concretepavements.org/2019/03/11/vision2040-is-a-must-read-captures-the-future-of-concrete-paving/
“2018 ACPA Annual Report—Significant Milestones: Concrete Pavement Platform, VISION2040, Interns for the Future, VIDEO, & More…”: https://www.concretepavements.org/2019/01/10/2018-acpa-annual-report-significant-milestones-concrete-pavement-platform-vision2040-interns-for-the-future-video-more/
“Highlights of ACPA “Shape the Future Workshop” & “Vision2040″—Future Challenges, Solutions”: https://www.concretepavements.org/?s=Vision+2040