Officials from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)’s William J. Hughes Technical Center, American Concrete Pavement Association (ACPA), and the National Concrete Pavement Technology Center (CP Tech Center) met in Atlantic City, New Jersey this week to discuss ways the 3 organizations may work collaboratively on applied research for airfield concrete pavements. Gary Mitchell, VP of Airports and Pavement Technology-ACPA explained, “Our long-term goal is to partner with the CP Tech Center and work collaboratively on applied research projects with the FAA.”
Jerry Voigt, President & CEO-ACPA said, “We appreciate the warm reception, tour, and generous amount of time we spent with Dr. Michel Hovan, Airport Technology Manager-FAA and Jeff Gagnon, Airport Pavement R&D Section Manager-FAA. It gave us greater insights into some of the research the FAA is doing in the area of airside pavements. The meeting also afforded ACPA and the CP Tech Center the opportunity to discuss research efforts with the FHWA and ACPA’s ongoing advocacy efforts, which have included specific airport pavement and highway pavement research programs.”
The meeting included an overview and discussion of:
- Current FAA research projects
- CP Tech Center’s highway research & tech transfer efforts
- ACPA’s ongoing Federal advocacy efforts
“We discussed funding and how ACPA has worked with Federal agencies such as the FAA, FHWA, and Military Tri-Services, as well as elected officials in Washington, D.C.,” said Mitchell. “Our efforts include both highway and airport programmatic funding, but provisions that directly support funding for applied research.”
This includes the long-standing AID-PT program, as well as a similar research provision included in the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018 Sec. 744 (Research and deployment of certain airfield pavement technologies).
Mitchell serves on the FAA’s Research, Engineering, & Development Advisory Committee (REDAC), Subcommittee on Airports, which supports the development of the FAA‘s research and development portfolio through strategic planning, budget formulation, program execution, and program evaluation. Jim Mack, P.E., CEMEX and Chairman-ACPA, has recently been nominated to serve on the Subcommittee as well and is waiting conformation from the current Administration. Mitchell stated, “In the near term, we will continue the dialogue as we also continue to push for funding to support research for airfield concrete pavements.”
Top photo (above) and Home Page Photo: (L to R) Dr. Michel Hovan, Gary Mitchell, Jerry Voigt, Dr. Peter Taylor, Gordon Smith, Jim Mack, Leif Wathne, and Jeff Gagnon at the Hughes Technical Center.