Illinois Brings Paving Technology Forward

Each year, asphalt professionals gather to share the latest technical information and review field reports in the area of hot-mix asphalt (HMA) construction at the Illinois Bituminous Paving Conference. It’s a compact, one-day program that brings together highway and technical engineers, contractors, government officials, and consultants. The conference is designed specifically for people actively involved in asphalt construction.

The first conference was held in 1960 and organized by the National Asphalt Paving Association (NAPA). Moreland Herrin, who was a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), originally envisioned and implemented the conference, thus it has a long and technology-based history. It is now hosted and planned by the Illinois Center for Transportation at UIUC and this Dec. 11 through 12, celebrates its 59th event.

Each year going forward, the conference planners intend to recognize the significant contribution of individuals and/or organizations to the pavement engineering field after the success of the first four monetary Bituminous Achievement Awards were presented at the 58th conference.

Doctoral Student Punit Singhvi received the Marshall Thomson Student Research Award for his research on asphalt and pavement preservation techniques, as well as his contributions to the development of the I-FIT protocol, which you can read about in the October issue’s Mix It Up department.

At the 2017 conference, UIUC Ph.D. student Punit Singhvi received the Marshall Thomson Student Research Award. Retired Materials Engineer Robert Bailey received the Illinois Asphalt Pavement Association (IAPA) Bituminous Innovative Research Award. IDOT HMA Supervisor Allen Fox received the Barry Dempsey Bituminous Technical Contribution of the Year Award. And 2017 NAPA Chairman Dan Gallagher received the Imad Al-Qadi Leadership in Bituminous Engineering Award.

Nominations for the 2018 awards closed Sept. 18, but you can start thinking about industry members who should be nominated in 2019, and get your registration in to attend the conference with the Bituminous Achievement Awards luncheon.

A reception and the opening of the exhibit hall takes place Tuesday, Dec. 11, at the iHotel and Conference Center, Champaign, from 5:30 to 8 p.m., but the meat of the program takes place Wednesday, Dec. 12, with presentations from members of the Illinois Department of Transportation, the Federal Highway Administration and the Illinois Tollway. Check out the discussion of the use of stone matrix asphalt (SMA) on the Illinois Tollway on page xx in this issue, and then bring your questions for Cindy Williams of the Illinois Tollway to her presentation at the conference.

Get more information on speakers, activities and how to register here.