Two Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Specs R,esearch and Technology (R&T) Workshops were held October 15-17, 2019 at the Turner–Fairbank Highway Research Center in McLean, Virginia. The FHWA, state transportation officials, industry, and academia discussed timely issues and addressed strategic questions regarding performance-related specifications (PRS), as well as pavement and paving materials research and technology (R&T).
Brian Fouch, Director-Office of Preconstruction, Construction and Pavements-FHWA, opened the meeting and set the stage for both open and facilitated discussions. The workshop also included 4 plenary sessions focused on opportunities and barriers associated with both concrete and asphalt performance engineered pavements and PRS.
WORKSHOP 1—October 15:
Gordon Smith, Associate Director-Concrete Pavement Technology Center (CP Tech Center) and Leif Wathne, Vice-President-American Concrete Pavement Association (ACPA) represented the concrete pavement interests at the FHWA PRS Stakeholder Workshop.
Key questions presented to state transportation agencies centered on/pertaining to performance testing:
• Biggest issues performance testing can address
• Agencies’ experiences
• Types required
• Types agencies have tried or are using presently
WORKSHOP 2—October 16-17:
The purpose of this workshop was to gather program-level stakeholder input for issues to be addressed through the FHWA’s Pavement and Materials Program, all with an eye on current and future R&T programs. Jim Mack, Chairman-ACPA and CEMEX; David Howard, Koss Construction and 2nd Vice-Chairman-ACPA; Leif Wathne and Gordon Smith were also among the participants at the second workshop.
The workshop presented opportunities for state transportation officials and industry representatives to present:
• Their top 3 pavement & materials issues
• Key areas/products that should be promoted nationally
• Areas of support requested from the FHWA
Other discussion topics included concrete pavement topics:
• Design and analysis
• Management (PM2 rules)
• Design policy outreach
• Performance-engineered mix design (PEMD)
• PRS
• FHWA Mobile Technology Center program
• FHWA’s Materials Laboratory research
• Pavement research, safety, pavement preservation and quality assurance
Home page photo: Hari Kalla, Associate Administrator
for Infrastructure-FHWA makes opening remarks