The Concrete Overlay Summit has become an annual event, and this year was no exception as 34 participants gathered the third week of October to discuss both the technical and promotional aspects of overlays. Participants included staff of American Concrete Pavement Association (ACPA) National, chapters, and the National Concrete Pavement Technology Center (CP Tech Center), along with emeritus guest, Dale Harrington, Senior Engineer-Snyder & Associates.
Led by Gordon Smith and John Adam of the CP Tech Center, the event included discussions about the inclusion of concrete overlays in the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)’s Every Day Counts round 6 initiative, as well as overlay case histories. Jerry Voigt, Eric Ferrebee, and Scott Mueller represented ACPA.
Scott presented an update on local promotion and national marketing efforts, including updating ACPA‘s positions and perspectives library (new collateral), project profiles (20 so far), and case histories.
Eric reported on plans to update the concrete overlay explorer. A demonstration version is ready and features an interface similar to the historic project explorer. The new site is more user-friendly, includes more robust features, including search filters and ease of uploading projects.
The group also discussed:
• Challenges and opportunities—causes and solutions to thermal expansion/blow ups with thinner overlays (i.e., 4 in. to 5 in. thick)
• How to handle staging and constraints on pavement elevations—2 challenges associated with urban concrete overlays
• Applications for overlays—airport, parking lot, and trail
• Availability of a new nailing clip for dowel baskets placed on fabric/asphalt interlayers
The meeting concluded with a roundtable to discuss state specific hot topics.
Photo caption: Screen images from the virtual summit depict a few of the recent outreach and education initiatives led by ACPA.
LINKS:
ACPA article: https://www.acpa.org/?s=Concrete+Overlay+Summit+2020&limit=10&ordering=date&task=search
CP Tech Center website: www.cptechcenter.org
ACPA website: www.acpa.org
Concrete Overlay Explorer website: http://overlays.acpa.org/webapps/overlayexplorer/index.html