ACPA 58th Annual Meeting:
November 30 – December 2, 2021
Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach Resort & Spa | 21500 Pacific Coast Highway | Huntington Beach, California
ACPA Mid-Year Meeting: ISCP article titled “Register Now!! ACPA Mid-Year Meeting … Discounted Rates thru June 7”: www.concretepavements.org/2021/04/23/register-now-acpa-mid-year-meeting-jun-22-24-in-milwaukee-wi-discounted-rates-thru-june-7/
END OF MARCH:
American Concrete Pavement Association (ACPA) Board reviewed ACPA’s 2021 Q1 progress and Strategic Advisory Committee (SAC)’s recommendations of 10 new projects. The proposal—created by members and chapters during the virtual 57th AM in December 2020, preliminary financial supporting resources, and staff time were approved, marking the completion of the first full annual cycle under ACPA new committee structure.
10 projects were approved from 20 evaluated ideas:
• Expanding awareness of benefits of healthy inter-industry competition
• First-cost initiative to create new educational materials on benefits of total ownership costs and first costs
• Case studies and short bulletins to promote effective life-cycle cost comparisons for streets and local roads
• Publishing maintenance of traffic case studies w/examples to show how concrete streets and roads can be built under traffic
• Improving and updating ACPA concrete overlay explorer database and website
• Report synthesizing concrete pavement technology and opportunities in the industrial pavement market
• Quality control manual/guideline for contractors in the airport market
• Preparing a redline revision of airport specifications—begin with military 32-13.13‐14 spec
• Delivering a Fall 2021 Airfield Pavement Workshop
• Preparing a report identifying technologies that can better characterize aggregate moisture levels for central-mix concrete plants—intended to be a catalyst, fostering equipment innovations to help improve uniformity and workability in the concrete batching process
Scott Mueller, VP, Marketing-ACPA, and Jerry Voigt, President and CEO-ACPA, presented an update on the progress of the ACPA Promotion Plan to the Portland CA Paving Committee. As part of strengthening and further aligning this program, the promotion team will be adding a sustainability component to its initiative. Making great progress in the first 21 months of the program, the promotion team has been:
• Focusing on building on project opportunities
• Working to change policies to benefit the paving community
• Directly impacting over 600,000 tons of newly let cement-based projects!
• Creating several policy initiatives
• Holding meetings with senior state government officials (including a governor), which will continue the momentum
APRIL:
House Chair DeFazio Pressing Forward with Surface Transportation Bill: Peter DeFazio, House T&I Committee Chair (D-OR-04) will move ahead with his plans for an ambitious surface transportation bill after the announcement that Biden administration is advancing its own big infrastructure proposal, according to an article in POLITICO. Defazio said his focus is on pressing forward with his Moving America Forward Act—a $500 billion surface transportation reauthorization which the House passed last year. In response to a question about how his bill will interplay with President Joe Biden’s proposal (intended to remain separate), DeFazio stated, “We have to do a reauthorization by October 1. My objective is to get an authorizing bill out of my committee, get it through the House as soon as possible (by the third week of May).”
ACPA Supports AASHTO’s Message to Congress: ACPA and 17 other major transportation advocacy groups signed a letter authored by AASHTO and sent to Majority and Minority Leaders, Chairs, and Ranking Members of of Congress and key committees of jurisdiction. The authors called attention to items in the letter:
• Expressed appreciation to elected leaders for their commitment to a robust transportation infrastructure package
• Attention to long-standing $756 billion backlog of highway and bridge projects
• Enormous backlog, and future needs can be addressed over the next 10 years, but requested Congress to authorize $200 billion in highway and bridge stimulus or “down payment” in the infrastructure package
• Funding would be obligated through 2026 at 100% federal share
The letter also asked Congress to:
• Provide $487 billion for the Federal-aid Highway Program as part of the 5-year surface transportation reauthorization
• If these robust investments are paired with $846 billion in the subsequent 5-year reauthorization from 2027 to 2031, “we as a nation can finally tackle the ever-looming highway and bridge backlog once and for all”
• Funds to be provided through existing highway and transit formulas as they provide economic recovery funding in the quickest and most efficient manner, for every part of the country
For the letter, please go to: www.acpa.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Transportation-Industry-Letter-FINAL.pdf
ACPA Network Join Broad Stakeholder Group in Letter to Congressional Leaders: ACPA, along with a group of nearly 80 stakeholder groups, more than a dozen affiliated chapters, and state and regional concrete promotion groups, sent a letter to House and Senate officials urging support for AASHTO’s request to authorize $200 billion in highway and bridge stimulus to drive down the enormous infrastructure backlog (see related story above). The letter:
• Endorses AASHTO’s policy and funding recommendations for infrastructure package and surface transportation reauthorization
• Emphasizes the important role highways and bridges have played during the pandemic
• Emphasizes the vital role highways and bridges have played during disasters—hurricanes and wildfires
• Expressed a goal of collaborating with Congress to build upon this roadway system—to ensure that all Americans, have the connectivity needed to flourish in their communities
• Emphasized that “states and local governments need flexibility to serve the varying transportation needs of those communities…”
• Stated that while they “recognize the need to reassess the federal infrastructure priorities and support continued investment in transit and other modes of transportation,” it is crucial to provide states and local communities with needed funding and flexibility
To see the complete letter, please go to: www.acpa.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/AHUA-AASHTO-Funding-and-Flexibility_Letter-of-Support_April-2021.pdf
Senate Republicans Release Infrastructure Investment Framework: This Senate plan calls for $568 billion over five years—including $299 billion in roads and bridges, and $44 billion airports. The proposal also includes funding for a large variety of other public services/infrastructures. Senate Republicans highlighted their concern about the American Jobs Plan’s proposed pay-fors; highlight preserving the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act; and broad principles that guide pay-fors; counter offer highlights shoring up any trust funds. For the “RepubliCAN Roadmap”, please go to: www.epw.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/f/b/fb56e9d2-5c5b-45c9-8491-9b82c81a2371/8ECCF625FDADCA9F4E365C1D355D9D42.full-document-gop-infrastructure-plan-6-.pdf
TRIP Membership-Making the Most of it: Since the 1980’s, ACPA‘s has held a Road Information Program (TRIP) membership and remains actively involved with TRIP through participation on the Board of Directors. Every year, TRIP releases a wealth of information through reports describing current highway and roadway conditions, and the critical needs of our urban and rural highway network. ACPA‘s goal is to gain the most from the reports as they enable ACPA, TRIP members, news outlets, agencies, and others utilize the information to support arguments on everything from infrastructure investment to safety programs.
Jerry Voigt said, “TRIP puts a tremendous effort into creating fact-based information that we should all be sharing with our national agency partners, state DOTs, and toll highway authorities. TRIP does a great job of disseminating this information and communicating the information through the press, but we can augment their efforts by conveying the details to agencies/owners throughout the country.”
Leif Wathne, Executive VP-ACPA said, “The reports are excellent resources to initiate or continue the narrative with senior DOT officials, policy makers, and those who control and influence funding at both the national and state levels.”
Concrete pavement industry groups are encouraged to to join the TRIP discussion on Twitter and Facebook, and to bookmark:
TRIP National Resource Web Page: https://tripnet.org/media-publications/ and the
TRIP Media Publication Web Page: https://tripnet.org/media-publications/
Click to go to ACPA staff page for Ferrebee’s bio
Eric Ferrebee Appointed to NC² Executive Committee:
Ferrebee was elected to serve on the Executive Committee-National Concrete Consortium (NC²)—16 professionals representing the FHWA, AASHTO, academia, industry (representing contractors and suppliers). He has been with ACPA since June 2014, and has actively sought and gained positions on technical committees and panels that provide an opportunity to offer fair and equitable consideration of concrete pavements from both a technical and broad industry perspectives:
• TRB-AKP20 – Standing Committee on Design and Rehabilitation of Concrete Pavements (member)
• ACI-325 – Concrete Pavements (voting member)
• NCHRP 15-80 – Design Guide and Standards for Infrastructure Resilience (panel member)
• ACPA committees and teams:
—Staff liaison, Design and Engineering Committee
—Staff liaison, Streets and Roads Market Forum
—Member and staff liaison, Emerging Leaders Group
—Member of the PavementDesigner Solution Team
• Attends meetings or participates in the informal role as a ‘friend’ on Committees: TRB; ASCE; and ACI
Ferrebee Guest Lectures at University of Alabama:
Eric Ferrebee was a guest lecturer at the University of Alabama, presenting PavementDesigner and its origins, as well as a broadened discussion which covered:
• Evolution of PavementDesigner to the PCA method
• Concrete pavement design brief history—back to the first pavement placed in Bellefontaine, Ohio
• PCA method—started shortly after the early AASHO road test—said pavement design took a mechanistic approach vs. the empirical approach used by the AASHO road test
• ACPA’s purchase of the design methodology in 2005
• Introduction of ACPA’s StreetPave and incorporation into PavementDesigner
• Evolution of jointing, the first major road tests (Bates and Pittsburg)
• Westergaard’s stress equations, and stated, “These set the foundation for the design and construction of modern highway concrete pavements”
• AASHO Road Test history
• AASHTO Design Guides that were based history (including AASHTO 72, 86, and 93, etc.), which he said inherently have limitations because of the limited inference space of the road test
• Pavement ME history, drawing attention to its applicability to Interstate and State highways
• Real-world demonstration runs with PavementDesigner, including an exercise that compared the “compared PavementDesigner runs with those of AASHTO 93 and Pavement ME“
• Career opportunities in the concrete pavement community
TRIVIA: Photo Couple: Amy M Dean, ISCP’s Editor-in-Chief & Art Director‘s
son, Harrison Dean and his girlfriend Brittni. Click to enlarge.
GreenRoads Events Reflect ACPA’s Commitment to the Environment:
ACPA is a partner in the Greenroads International’s 10th Annual Earth Day Meeting & Awards Presentation held April 22, 2021. The Greenroads® Rating System is an easy way to measure and manage sustainability on transportation projects, and is the core publication used in the Greenroads Project Rating Program. It challenges Project Teams to go above and beyond minimum environmental, social, and economic performance measures and evaluates projects through independent, expert, third-party review.
Through a social media campaign, ACPA encouraged members, staff, affiliates, and others in 48 states across the country to participate in “Celebrate Trails Day” Saturday, April 24, 2021. The “Celebrate Trails Day” event is an annual spring celebration of America’s trails that was begun by the “Rails-to-Trails Conservancy” in 2013—encourages people all across the country to get outside and enjoy the nation’s exceptional trails and trail systems! Biking, hiking, walking, running or just strolling along, enjoying nature, and joining in the fun. These two events gave us all in the industry the opportunity to show our year-round commitment to sustainability and sustainable construction solutions. LINKS:
“Rails to Trails” Website, with interactive North America map, photos, ideas, links, resources, sponsors: www.railstotrails.org/experience-trails/celebrate-trails/
Greenroads Earth Day Meeting: www.acpa.org/industry-news/28685/
Greenroads International: www.greenroads.org/2286/who-we-are.html
Greenroads Project Rating System: www.greenroads.org/307/projects.html
Post and tag ACPA on your photos from “trails on Saturday, April 24″—biking, walking, or running on a paved-in-concrete trails at: #PaveConcrete; on Twitter; Or @paveconcrete63 on Facebook!
Concrete Pavement Industry Well Represented at National Concrete Coalition (NC²)—The Annual NC² was held VIRTUALLY the week of April 12 and hosted an agenda that included leading experts from the state transportation agencies, toll authorities, and industry professionals.
Leif Wathne’s NC² presentation included:
• Pavement resilience in relation to inundation—increasingly gaining attention and interest with state and local agencies who are tasked with reacting to flooding/variety of effects of inundation, increased intensity and frequency of storms.
• Stiffer pavements are less vulnerable to moisture-related subgrade strength loss and therefore recover faster from an inundation (flooding) event
• Pavement resilience is fundamentally about good engineering
• Important to recognize that the service environment of pavements is changing
• Pavement structures must be designed to accommodate these changes (often result in subgrades and subbases losing most of their strength)
• Agencies should prioritize their needs by starting with the most critical pavement assets
Dr. Mark Snyder, Pavement Engineering and Research Consultants, LLC; and Special Consultant to ACPA’s NC² presentation included:
• Load transfer test results
• Preview of proposed dowel specification changes
• Overview of the existing AASHTO specs
• Limitations and challenges to manufacturers and agencies
• Need for a revised specification and associated suite of structural and corrosion tests
• Recent activities to revise existing specifications
• Results of structural testing of dowel systems
Elke Allen Retires: Elke Allen, one of ACPA’s longest tenured staff members as Comptroller and more recently as Vice President of Finance, officially retired at the end of April, 2021! Jerry Voigt reflected on Elke’s 1/4-of-a-century contribution to ACPA and its people, “During her remarkable 31-year career, Elke showed exceptional dedication and provided consistently high-quality service and results, always with a friendly, knowledgeable, and responsive attitude to everyone. We are grateful for her commitment and valued service to the association. We are excited for Elke as she begins a new chapter in her life and we extend our best wishes and greatest hopes for happiness as she begins this new chapter of her life!”
Jerry explained that although we will not be seeing Elke in a full-time role after April 30, she will continue assisting with the transition of her duties through the end of 2021! He continued by stating that Elke’s 6-year close working protégé, Ann Shlimon is well prepared for her promotion to Comptroller and Benefits Manager—as it reflects in her hard work, extra effort, and [whole-hearted] acceptance of her new duties.
Team Members Take on New Roles: Jerry also stated that Amber Davis, another valued member of the ACPA team, has been advanced full-time ACPA Administrative and Events Coordinator.