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E-notes

October 12/00: The Foundation for Pavement Preservation in cooperation with the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), AASHTO and the Lead State team for Pavement Preservation, has released a CD-ROM entitle "Pavement Preservation: State of the Practice" as FHWA document FHWA-IF-00-012. The same information is also available online through the Foundation's website at http:/fp2.org/search.htm.

The CD-ROM contains necessary information to successfully initiate a pavement preservation program. Pavement preservation is a relatively new practice involving proactive maintenance treatments to prolong the life of the pavement.

October 12/00: The second PNS Snow conference will be held from May 29th to 31st 2001 in Kelowna, British Columbia at the Grand Okanagan Resort and Conference Centre.

Hosted by the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia, the Transportation Association of Canada and the British Columbia Ministry of Transportation and Highways, the Snow Conference has been designed to support winter maintenance professionals with information on current technologies, supplier contacts and networking opportunities. The first conference was held in June 2000 and received an overwhelming rate of response and support from its hosts, sponsors and exhibitors.

A call for speakers and panelists has been made for the May 2001 conference. Visit the conference website at www.pnsconference.com for more details.

September 20/00: "Research Pays Off" is a continuing series in the Transportation Research Board's (TRB) bimonthly periodical, TR News. These articles highlight research products, studies, demonstrations and improved methods or processes that provide innovative, cost effective solutions to important transportation related problems.

September 20/00: Based on the success of the Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP) in the US between 1987 and 1994, the US Congress has requested that the Transportation Research Board initiate a new process of setting priorities and designing a program for another focused R&D effort, currently referred to as Future SHRP (F-SHRP). The study was initiated in January 1999 and is scheduled to be completed by October 2001.

The most recent F-SHRP update includes candidate research topics. Visit the  F-SHRP website at http://www4.nationalacademies.org/trb/newshrp.nsf for more details.

September 20/00: The 2000 Annual Conference of the Transportation Association of Canada (TAC) will be held from October 1-4 in Edmonton, Alberta. The theme for the conference is "Transportation, Trade, Tourism and Technology". C-SHRP will be in full force, participating in the exhibition, as well as the technical sessions. Be sure to attend on Wednesday, Oct. 4 for "C-SHRP -- The Road from Research to Implementation: LTPP Results in Canada and the U.S.

June 30/00: The Truck Pavement Interaction (TPI) research program was initiated by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) in the mid 1980's to develop advanced methodologies and technologies that would allow a better understanding of the interactions between heavy vehicles, climate, and pavements. The research includes pavement response, damage, performance and vehicle dynamics. The primary goal of the research is to achieve increased productivity through optimization of infrastructure strengthening and the introduction of road-friendly truck fleets. 

Visit the Truck Pavement Interaction Microsite at http://www.tfhrc.gov/pavement/truck/tech.htm.

June 27/00: The Virginia Smart Road is a state of the art full scale test facility for the testing, evaluation and verification of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) concepts, technologies, and products. Research projects will include the analysis of:

The main objectives of the pavement research at the Smart Road are SuperPave mix evaluation, calibration of pavement response to FWD testing, GPR signal interpretation, and initial research on pavement performance prediction. 

June 21/00: The results of a survey conducted on behalf of the AASHTO Anti-Icing/RWIS Lead State Team are available through the Iowa Department of Transportation website at http://www.dot.state.ia.us/winter.htm. 

The 1999/2000 survey was completed to measure the success of the Lead State Team’s efforts to transfer anti-icing and road weather information system (RWIS) technologies into mainstream practice since its inception in 1996.  The resulting report is entitled “1999/2000 Technology and Usage Survey Results: Anti-Icing Techniques and Road Weather Information Systems Technologies.”  Since the 1997 baseline survey, the reported use of anti-icing strategies rose from 79% to 90% and the number of states with rate application guidelines rose from 43% to 60%, a clear testament to the dedication of the Lead State Team.

Through cooperation with C-SHRP, the 1999/2000 survey was also sent to each of the representatives of the TAC Chief Engineers Council to provide Canadian input to the survey.  A total of 32 Canadian responses representing each of the 10 provinces were collected and the report includes a separate section outlining the Canadian implementation of anti-icing and RWIS technologies.  Special thanks to Dena Gray-Fisher of the Iowa DOT for including the Canadian data in the survey.

J une 20/00: The National Center for Asphalt Technology (NCAT) has recently released a white paper concerning the tender zone phenomenon often experienced with Superpave mixes.  The paper describes the tender mix problem, discusses probable causes, and offers steps to prevent mix tenderness.  The white paper can be downloaded from the NCAT website at http://www.eng.auburn.edu/center/ncat/ .

June 20/00: The Spring/Summer 2000 issue of “Superpave Implementation Update” includes the TRB Superpave Committee Long Range Plan, NCHRP project information and State implementation status.  You will need Adobe Acrobat 3 or higher to read the update.

June 20/00: The first conference of the Pacific Northwest Snowfighters (PNS) was held in Kelowna, BC from June 12^th to 14^th.  The Snow Conference 2000 was the first conference organized by the PNS and was a smashing success on all fronts.  Over 500 delegates and 150 exhibitors descended on Kelowna to discuss the latest technologies in snow and ice control.  The conference was hosted by the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC), the Transportation Association of Canada (TAC) and the British Columbia Ministry of Transportation and Highways (BC MoTH).

Dr. Roberta Bondar, Canada’s first woman to travel into outer space, provided an excellent keynote address to officially open the conference.  In addition to technical sessions, delegates also put their skills (or lack there of) to the test at the Equipment Obstacle Course, driving anti-icing trucks around the trade show parking lot against the clock. 

More information on the PNS Snow Conference may be obtained through the PNS website link above.

June 20/00: The 3^rd Transportation Specialty Conference was held as part of the 2000 Canadian Society for Civil Engineering (CSCE) conference in London, Ontario from June 7^th to 10^th.  Approximately 600 delegates, primarily from academia, attended the conference to hear the latest news in Civil Engineering, obtain information from the 29 technical exhibitors, and network with their peers.       

As part of the Transportation Specialty Conference, C-SHRP hosted a technical session entitled “The Canadian Strategic Highway Research Program: Past, Present and Future” to review some of the program’s past achievements, current status, and future activities.  Also presented were the results of the recent C-LTPP Roughness Trends report and the soon-to-be-released C-LTPP Surface Distress Variability Analysis.  The session was well attended and generated healthy discussion. 

May 30/00: As part of its expanded technology transfer mandate, C-SHRP has launched an independent website at www.cshrp.org.  The new site contains many improvements including updated program activities, the online version of the C-SHRP Directory of Superpave Resources, and a much improved C-LTPP section featuring maps of the test site locations.  

May 30/00: Key Findings from LTPP Analysis: 1990-1999 highlights some of the key findings from LTPP analysis studies. Approximately 50 documents were reviewed to develop this summary to provide LTPP partners with information that can help them in their quest to design, build, and maintain cost-effective and long-lived roads. These findings have been organized into the following topical areas: Site Conditions, Structural Features, Materials, Initial Roughness, Pavement Maintenance, Pavement Rehabilitation, AASHTO Design Validation, and Performance Modeling.

In its first year of publication, E-Notes was a semi-regular PDF-based newsletter.  These issues are available for download below: