The ACPA Pennsylvania Chapter, along with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) District 12, PennDOT District 11, and the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission hosted the Annual “Concrete Pavement Tour & Meeting” on August 15 & 16 in Washington, Pennsylvania (PA), USA. This was the 16th tour held in Pennsylvania since 1996.
More than 110 individuals representing 40 organizations participated in the tour or meeting or both. The list of participating organizations included PennDOT and all 11 Districts, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, the local FHWA Division Office, and the West Virginia Division of Highways. Also participating were 11 construction companies (including Golden Triangle, Gulisek, Lane, Matcon Diamond, New Enterprise, and Swank) and 12 material & equipment companies (including Bryan Materials Group, Callahan Paving, Cemex, Diamond Products, The Fort Miller Group, Guntert & Zimmerman, and Lehigh Hanson Inc.). The group also included 8 consulting firms, 2 universities, and 3 associations.
Bill Kovach, Assistant District Executive for Construction-PennDOT District 12, opened the event with welcoming remarks.The tour included stops at three active construction projects and a visit to Golden Triangle’s concrete batch plant, where performance engineered mixture testing procedures were demonstrated, as well as completed projects. One stop included the first divergent diamond interchange (DDI) constructed in the Commonwealth. The final tour stop included a brief visit to the fourth concrete roundabout constructed in Pennsylvania.
On the second day, attendees had the opportunity to share observations about the previous day’s site visits at a followup meeting in Washington, PA. George McAuley, Deputy Secretary-PennDOT, presented details about initiatives focused on innovation, implementation, and deployment of new technologies. Kovach followed with a brief presentation with an overview of the previous day’s activities:
- New Standards and Specifications
- Performance Engineered Mixtures
- Just-in-time Training
- Joint Sealing/Filling Issues
The session concluded with McCauley, Deputy Secretary of Transportation-Highway Administration, presenting PennDOT’s Initiatives and Future Direction. He provided an overview of assets, and various collaboration and partnering within the Department/Industry committees. He explained the systems in place to manage PennDOT, details on related CPQI initiatives, SHRP2 research, efforts to improve traffic and construction safety, summary of material usage, and future paving projects throughout the state. For all details, please go to the minutes of the tour/meeting: http://www.longerlifepavement.com/tours/.
Expanded coverage of this event in the 4th quarter issue of ACPA’s CONCRETE PAVEMENT PROGRESS will be published in November.
For the 2018 Tour/Meeting minutes, handouts, presentations, and more, please go to: http://www.longerlifepavement.com/tours/