In the American Concrete Pavement Association (ACPA)‘s continuing quest to inform and educate the engineering community about “PavementDesigner.org“, Eric Ferrebee, P.E., Director of Technical Services-ACPA provided further training to audiences at the 105th Purdue Road School Transportation Conference & Expo March 4-7, 2019. The Expo was held at Purdue 
University in West Lafayette, Indiana, where he followed the presentation on thin concrete overlays by Mike Byers, Executive Director-ACPA Indiana Chapter and David Holtz, Director of Pavement-Indiana Department of Transportation (InDOT). Eric presented on how to use the concrete industry’s pavement-thickness-design platform for parking lots, streets & roads, and overlays.
Codeveloped by ACPA, Portland Cement Association (PCA), the Ready Mixed Concrete (RMC) Research & Education Foundation (NRMCA), with support from the RCC Pavement Council, “PavementDesigner.org” is a free concrete pavement design portal/web-based pavement design tool for streets, local roads, parking lots, and intermodal/industrial facilities. It was created for city, county, and consultant engineers, academia, or anyone involved in design of roadway, industrial, and parking area pavements. A long list of ACPA members, industry allies, affiliates, and tech partners were involved in the development and rollout of
“PavementDesigner.org” in early January 2018. Ferrebee served as the primary technical and training contact, while Andy Gieraltowski, Operations and IT-ACPA worked as project manager. Both worked closely with the development team, from concept through project delivery, which formally began in January 2018.
“PavementDesigner.org represents a dramatic shift in solutions’ availability to designers of streets, roads, parking lots, and industrial facilities. By bringing multiple programs together in one package and eliminating the cost and time to download software, updates, and patches, we have removed barriers and enabled designers to select the best option for pavement designs,” said Ferrebee.
“PavementDesigner.org” improves upon traditional pavement design software programs, and provides the value-added features:
- No cost—Completely free of charge—eliminating the expense and burden of ordering software and updates, licenses, etc
- Immediate access—brings the industry’s best pavement-design programs together into a single website allowing professionals to design pavements immediately
- Cloud storage/retrieval—Users have the option of creating a user ID and password to save their design work, as well as to retrieve projects using any digital device
- Automatic updates and improvements—online system automatically updated when new content or details are added. Users will not have to download updated software or “patches”
Communication and promotion of PavementDesigner.org has been in full force since its January 2018 launch:
- March 2019: 21st Annual Pennsylvania Concrete Conference Presentations (held in February) includes Eric Ferrebee’s presentation on “PavementDesigner.org”: To view Ferrebee’s PRESENTATION, please click on image above, or go to: http://eztogreencast.com/2019-ferrebee/ … ALSO … View all 21 PRESENTATIONS
- February 2019: Wisconsin Concrete Pavement Association (WCPA) Annual Concrete Pavement Conference, Ferrebee co-presented with Kevin McMullen, President-WCPA, on the challenges and solutions to municipal concrete pavement design, which included example problems that worked through “PavementDesigner.org”.
- December 2018: “PavementDesigner.org” was the cement and concrete industries’ concrete-pavement-thickness design platform that was recognized in EQUIPMENT WORLD Magazine Editors’ list of Top Roadbuilding Products in 2018. It is the only software solution to make the list in 2018, as all other products on the list are machines and equipment used in highway construction. Please see details on page 44 of the December 2018 issue of EQUIPMENT WORLD: https://dmtmag.uberflip.com/i/1059128-december-2018/43?m4=
- October 23-25, 2018: Ferrebee attended the 17th Annual Nevada Infrastructure Concrete Conference (NICC 2018), delivering comprehensive presentations on “PavementDesigner.org” at both the ACI Committee Meetings and NICC 2018—reaching another 200+ potential users of the pavement design portal!
- October 2018: Eric Ferrebee represented ACPA at the American Concrete Institute (ACI)‘s: ACI 325 , ACI 327, and 330 Committee Meetings. ACI 300-Series Committees focus on Design and Construction of Concrete Pavements, and ACI 325 Committee on concrete pavements included the Pavement Design subcommittee (325-0A-Pavements-Design), and worked on a new design guide based on “PavementDesigner.org“. Other subcommittees included Overlays and Accelerated Paving
- June 2018, ACPA staff presented a paper explaining the ins and outs of the software was submitted to the 13th International Symposium on Concrete Roads, June 19 through 22. As primary author, Eric Ferrebee was honored with one of two “Best” Paper Honors. The paper was selected from over 80 submitted worldwide. “This award is an affirmation of the investment in industry time and resources toward the simple, user-friendly, web-based concrete pavement thickness design platform. I am proud to be getting the word out and to have been part of the team that worked so hard to launch the project and since to continue improving it,” said Eric Ferrebee. For the paper or more information, please contact:
Eric Ferrebee: E-mail: eferrebee@acpa.org - February 28, 2018: 90-minute webinar which described “PavementDesigner.org” for city, county, and consultant engineers, academia, or anyone involved in design of roadway, industrial, and parking area pavements. The learning objectives accomplished:
• Created/enhanced a basic understanding of the history of concrete pavement design
• Informed of the evolution and development of “PavementDesigner.org”
• Demonstrated the 3-step approach to “PavementDesigner.org”
• Demonstrated features and benefits
• Presented and discussed sample pavement designs for various applications/facilities
• Provided recap and question/answer opportunities - Jan 22, 2018: ACPA’s annual participation in the World of Concrete focused on education and outreach, with “PavementDesigner.org” taking center stage. Jerry Voigt, President and CEO-ACPA and Bill Davenport, Director of Communications-ACPA, presented a market overview and discussed PavementDesigner.org at a well-attended press conference. ACPA-booth visitors were treated to a “PavementDesigner.org”phone “kickstand” and a wide range of technical literature and support materials
- January 8, 2018: Chuck Niederriter, Chairman-ACPA and Jerry Voigt, President and CEO-ACPA announced the official launch of “PavementDesigner.org” during ACPA’s Annual reception at TRB
January 8, 2018: Formal media blitz was also launched followed by press releases and social media postings with the “PavementDesigner.org” infographics. Invited members, affiliates, and industry allies to join the discussion on:
Twitter: http://twitter.com/paveconcrete
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/paveconcrete63
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/concrete_pavement_association
For a list of ISCP article(s) on “PavementDesigner.org” from Jan 2018-Mar 2019, please go to: https://www.concretepavements.org/?s=PavementDesigner
For more information on “PavementDesigner.org” and many press releases since its launch in January 2018, please go to: ACPA website: http://www.acpa.org/tag/pavementdesigner-org/
Home page photo: Eric Ferrebee’s “PavementDesigner.org”
Powerpoint Presentation Video presented at the
21st Annual Pennsylvania Concrete Conference