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Third Quarter 2007, Vol. 3, No. 3ACPA’s Seminars, Online Training Keep the Industry Current

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New Programs Offer Valuable Design and Analysis Tools

Software Savvy

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SURFACE TRANSPORTATION ■ THIRD QUARTER 2007 ■ 5

Surface Transportation is published for: American Concrete Pavement Association 5420 Old Orchard Road, Suite A100 Skokie, IL 60077 Phone: (847) 966-2272 Fax: (847) 966-9970 www.pavement.com

Published by: Naylor, LLC 5950 NW 1st Place Gainesville, FL 32607 Phone: (352) 332-1252 (800) 369-6220 Fax: (352) 331-3525 www.naylor.com

Publisher: Tim McNichols Editor: Thea Galenes Project Manager: Tom Schell Marketing & Research Associate: Alex Scovil Publication Director: Rick Sauers Account Representatives: Krys D’Antonio, Doug Folkerth, Eric Henson, Paul Walley, Marcus Weston Layout & Design: Deb Churchill BassoAdvertising Art: Lesley Helash©2007 Naylor, LLC. All rights reserved. The contents of this publication may not be reproduced by any means, in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of the publisher.Published September 2007 / CPA-Q0307 / 5392

SURFACE Third Quarter 2007, Vol. 3, No. 3

FEATURES6 Software Savvy New Programs Offer Valuable Design and

Analysis Tools The ACPA offers and supports tools that can take the

guesswork out of pavement design to save time and money for transportation agencies, consultants and contractors. The association’s software packages — AirPave and StreetPave— and the nationally-developed Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide (M-E PDG) offer engineers an opportunity to analyze stress and predict performance of pavements with characteristics and loads that are determined by the engineer.

12 Learning Curve ACPA’s Seminars, Programs and Online Training Keep the Industry CurrentIt’s critical that those involved in the concrete industry stay up-to-speed on new practices, improved or innovative design and build strategies, and updated guidelines. This education can be provided through both tried-and-true techniques and some newer, technology-based platforms. The ACPA provides several ways its members can stay ahead of the game.

16 The IMCP Manual: An Overview “One-stop” Reference Helps Optimize Concrete Pavement PerformanceOptimizing the performance of a concrete pavement requires careful planning, thorough knowledge of techniques and an understanding of materials’ interactions. All of this information exists in a multitude of research materials and technical guidebooks, but the IMCP manual is the only one that serves as a “one-stop” reference book that explains the integrated nature of concrete pavement materials and construction practices.

DEPARTMENTS21 Government Spotlight: • Federal Officials Respond to Bridge Collapse • Pavement Design Guide Available Online • Conference Highlights Two-Lift Construction • Program to Focus on Concrete Mixtures,

Accelerated Construction

6 Software Savvy 12 Learning Curve

TRANSPORTATION

6 ■ SURFACE TRANSPORTATION ■ THIRD QUARTER 2007

By Sheryl S. Jackson

Software Savvy

New Programs Offer Valuable Design and

Analysis Tools

SHRINKING BUDGETS, overworked staff, increasing traffic and roads or airfields that need to be repaired, expanded, or built are part of a transportation department engineer’s everyday life.

Although the American Concrete Pavement Association (ACPA) can’t increase the agency’s budget, expand the staff size or reduce the demand for new roadways, the association does offer and support tools that can take the guesswork out of pavement design to save time and money for transportation agencies, consultants and contractors.

The association’s software packages — AirPave and StreetPave — as well as the nationally-developed Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide (M-E PDG) offer engineers an opportunity to analyze stress and predict performance of pavements with characteristics and loads that are determined by the engineer.


AirPave: Valuable to Engineers

At this time, AirPave is primar-ily an analysis tool, says Gary Mitchell, P.E., director of airports for ACPA: “It is not a replacement for the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) design procedure.”

The software does enable an airport engineer to ask “what if” and see how pavements will perform in different situ-ations. “For example,” Mitchell explains, “if an airport pavement had an inch or so ground off the top, the engineer could input the information to analyze how the pavement will perform with the traffic that is anticipated. Results of the analysis help the engineer decide if the pavement must be replaced or if it will hold up for a longer period of time.”

Airport engineers can also use AirPave to determine how a runway or taxiway will perform if the type of traf-fic changes, points out Mitchell. For example, if an airport wants to allow heavier airplanes to land in order to expand use of the airport, AirPave enables engineers to evaluate the effect of the heavier loads. The information gained through this analysis lets engi-neers and airport managers compare the costs of the potential new income to the costs of increased repairs or reconstruc-tion needed as a result of the heavier planes.

General aviation airports benefit from AirPave’s analysis because the FAA does accept AirPave analysis as a legitimate basis for a request for a vari-ance from the FAA design procedure, Mitchell continues. “The FAA design specifications for pavements that handle loads less than 100,000 pounds is ultra-conservative,” he says. AirPave provides excellent results for lighter aircraft.

This means general aviation air-ports that do not handle heavy airplane traffic often find themselves designing and paying for pavements that are over-designed for their use. “If you know that you will not need pavement to han-dle heavy loads,” Mitchell adds, “you can use AirPave to demonstrate that the design you are planning will perform well in your situation.”

Although AirPave is an analysis tool at this point, there are changes planned to make it more of a design tool, says Andy Gieraltowski, director of information technology at ACPA. Although a user can re-enter different pavement thicknesses to evaluate differences in performance with the current version of AirPave, the thick-ness must be adjusted manually, he points out. The new version of the software will enable a user to answer the question, “How thick do I need to build the pave-ment so I can design a specific stress ratio?” By inputting other data regarding vehicle traffic and material properties, the software program will calculate the necessary pavement thickness. This will save time for the user.

Gieraltowski says another positive change to AirPave will be the ability to input traffic use by multiple types of vehicles. “Currently, the user chooses one type of aircraft or other vehicle, such as maintenance trucks, to calculate the load,” he explains. Because most air-port runways or taxiways handle multiple types of vehicles, the ability to consider use by the entire fleet of vehicles will be built into AirPave.

Both of these AirPave changes enable engineers and airport managers to better make decisions about types of aircraft the facility can handle and how to design the pavement to get the most value for their money, adds Gieraltowski. “The plan is

to have AirPave’s updates and changes completed by fall of 2007,” he concludes.

StreetPave Offers Design Component

While AirPave is proving to be a valu-able tool for airport engineers, StreetPave provides valuable help to engineers designing streets and local roads, says Scott Haislip, director of streets and local roads for ACPA. Traffic engineers have had similar programs available since the early 1990s, but the first programs were DOS-based, he explains. It was necessary to develop a Windows-based program that made it easier to use and produced more beneficial reports.

The first version of StreetPave was released in early 2006, and user feed-back, as well as staff suggestions, has resulted in continued enhancements of the program. “Version 1.2, for which a free update patch is available on our Web site, has the capability of analyzing reli-ability and has a new fatigue analysis,” Haislip explains.

StreetPave is used as a design tool to determine pavement thickness that provides the performance specified by the engineer. “The user inputs traffic volume, the property of the pavement (such as edge supports, use of dowels or strength) and the thickness of the pave-ment, and the program will not only tell the engineer what year the pavement will

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fail, but [it] will also provide a table that shows erosion and fatigue factors over the years,” says Gieraltowski. This infor-mation helps an engineer set expectations for the performance of the road and for the budget that will be necessary to build and maintain the road.

One of StreetPave’s most valuable functions is the output of an equivalent design and life cycle projection for an asphalt pavement that meets the same performance expectations as the concrete pavement, says Haislip. In addition to identifying the initial construction needs, the program will also project mainte-nance needs for both materials over the life of the pavement. Once the user inputs cost information for the initial project and maintenance, a life cycle cost comparison for both types of pavement is generated.

The asphalt design specifications are based on asphalt industry standards, just as the concrete design is based on scien-tifically-based, proven concrete pavement techniques, Haislip points out, explaining that this ensures the comparison between the two different pavements is accu-

rate and useful to engineers and their agencies.

“We can’t influence the politics or the personal preferences of the people who make the final decision of concrete versus asphalt for a roadway, and that is not the purpose of StreetPave,” Haislip says. “We want StreetPave to be a useful tool that can help engineers avoid overbuilding a roadway and using more money upfront than is necessary and avoid building a roadway that will fail before it should, creating more maintenance expenditures in the agency’s budget.”

In addition to projecting life cycle costs for both concrete and asphalt designs, the program also produc-es a sensitivity analysis that graphi-cally shows what will happen if you change certain design parameters, says Gieraltowski. Inputs include design life, concrete strength, K value, reliability and percentage of slabs cracked. “If you change your design life from 30 years to another timeframe, the graph will show how the other factors will be affected,” he explains.

According to Gieraltowski, future changes to StreetPave include overlay design and the impacts of fiber reinforce-ment. The next version will be StreetPave 2.0, and it should be ready for distribu-tion at the end of 2007.

M + E = Excellent DesignThe M-E PDG is a document and

tool developed at the request of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) and originally slated for completion in 2002, says Michael Ayers, Ph.D., direc-tor of education and training for ACPA. The design guide currently used by the majority of highway engineers is the 1993 AASHTO Guide for Design of Pavement Structures, which was based on empirical equations derived from the road test con-ducted by the then American Association of State Highway Officials between 1958 and 1960. “The original road test evalu-ated pavement performance with lim-ited traffic and materials,” Ayers says. “There has been a need for many years

continued on page 11

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for a design guide that incorporates more parameters and reflects the increased traffic volume we have experienced, but we’ve not had all of the necessary data, nor have we had a way to configure the data in a way that is useful to pavement design engineers.”

Although the original task force envi-sioned integrating existing pavement performance models and software pro-grams, as well as recalibration using the Long-Term Pavement Performance stud-ies (LTPP) database, Ayers explains, it became obvious that to produce a tool that would be a true step ahead, it was necessary to develop an almost entire-ly new methodology, incorporating both mechanistic and empirical design elements.

The product was not ready for dis-tribution in 2000 for a number of rea-sons, says Danny Dawood, P.E., chief pavement engineer for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. “We did not have both the concrete and the asphalt pavement industries in agreement with the design guide, and if we hoped to get state departments of transportation to approve implementation within their agencies, we needed both industries to support the guide,” he explains.

While funding for the initial research and development of the guide was desig-nated as National Cooperative Highway Research Program project 1-37A, task force members decided to continue fund-ing the project with implementation funds under NCHRP 1-40 to ensure the guide was acceptable to the pavement industries and all of the states. “The M-E PDG has been approved as the ‘inter-im design guide’ by AASHTO, and I hope we’ll get the final approval by the AASHTO executive committee by the end of 2007,” Dawood says. The interim design guide designation, however, does make the guide available to state agen-cies for implementation.

Ayers thinks the M-E PDG is a more adaptable, more realistic method of design than the previous guide. “This is a scientifically-based method that relates design assumptions to field per-formance,” he says. Rather than basing design decisions on results of limited per-formance studies, the M-E PDG enables engineers to input a wide range of factors

that differ from road to road, yet greatly affect performance.

A primary benefit of the new guide is that it uses numerical models (transfer functions) to related input data for traffic, climate, materials and other factors to pavement performance, Ayers notes. The guide also includes pavement rehabilita-tion and overlay options for a variety of pavement configurations. Engineers can also use the guide to predict pavement distress as a function of time and traffic and thereby have realistic values for use in life-cycle cost analysis.

“Design engineers can make use of the default input values in the program or they can calibrate the performance mod-els according to local conditions,” Ayers explains. “ “Many states have begun efforts to collect the necessary data for local and regional calibration.”

“The M-E PDG also provides a way to control overall costs by defining spe-cific performance levels in certain years of the highway’s life,” Ayers continues. “You can say that in year 20, you are willing to accept cracking in 5 percent of the panels in a specific section of the

project.” This not only prevents over-engineering of the highway initially, but it also helps set funding for future repairs and maintenance.

While the Pennsylvania DOT has not yet begun implementation, Dawood does see the department switching from the 1993 guide to the M-E PDG. “We did conduct two research projects — one for asphalt and one for concrete — to begin collection of our state-specific data, and we’re gathering information to establish the state values that we will use in the program,” he says. “At this time, we are

using the 1993 guide on a day-to-day basis and checking our results against the M-E PDG designs.”

“Some states that are accustomed to closed form solutions will find the M-E PDG challenging,” admits Gary Sharpe, P.E., senior project manager for Palmer Engineering and former direc-tor of pavement design for the Kentucky Department of Transportation. “It does require more engineering creativity, but it allows you to integrate material char-acteristics and structural design into a cohesive structure,” he concludes. ST


AirPave, StreetPave and M-E PDG allow engineers to analyze stress and predict performance of pavements.

continued from page 8


Just as education is needed to ensure people know how to get the maximum ben-efi t from their cell phones, it’s important for those involved in the concrete industry to stay up-to-speed on new practices, improved or innovative design and build strate-gies, and updated guidelines. This education can be provided through both tried-and-true techniques and some newer, technology-based platforms.

M-E PDG & the Contractor/Agency ProgramDevelopers of the Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide (M-E PDG)

realized that a comprehensive education program was needed to ensure the guide’s adoption throughout all states.

Learning Curve

ACPA’s Seminars, Programs and

Online Training Keep the Industry

CurrentBy Sheryl S. Jackson

TODAY’S CELL PHONES come with amazing features that let you browse the Internet, send e-mail, keep track of your schedule, transmit text messages and, oh yes, call other people. While some people take the time to read their phone’s users’ manual, ask questions of the manufac-turer through help lines and online forums and play with the phones to learn about features, there are many more people who use less than 100 percent of their phone’s fea-tures because they don’t know about them.


“The M-E PDG requires a change in the way engineers approach pavement de-sign,” says Michael Ayers, Ph.D., director of education and training for the American Concrete Pavement Association (ACPA). “We recognized the need for focused training to familiarize engineers with the guide.”

“In addition to a series of work-shops offered by the Federal Highway Administration, ACPA offers a course that is intended for pavement design engineers, traffi c and materials engineers, contrac-tors, consultants and others who require in-depth knowledge of the M-E PDG. The course addresses the basic elements of the M-E PDG, development of realistic inputs and interpretation of the results.

“The M-E PDG training course is very engineer-driven and focuses on design, so we saw a need for another course that of-fered practical tips and explanations for people who were not necessarily develop-ing the pavement design,” says Ayers.

Ayers notes there is a National Highway Institute (NHI) course covering the M-E PDG, as well as the ACPA’s own “CP 201” course offering. He adds the NHI course is broad-based, while the ACPA course is specifi c to concrete pavements.

ACPA also includes some detailed cov-erage of the M-E PDG in its basic “CP 101” course, as well as in the form of a mod-ule in the association’s contractor/agency training program. The contractor/agency program was developed to address the training needs of others involved in the de-sign and construction aspect of a pavement project, he says. This program offers a de-sign module that is very straightforward and focuses on the relationship design assumptions and construction practices. “Other modules present information that provides solutions to everyday construc-tion problems,” Ayers adds.

The benefi t of the contractor/agency program is the fl exibility of the modules available for the course, Ayers continues. “The course sponsor can pick and choose whichever modules are most appropriate for the audience, or modules can be added or deleted depending on the amount of time available,” he explains.

Educating agency personnel, contrac-tors and consultants is important, but Ayers points out that ACPA takes educa-tion a step further by offering a “professor’s

seminar.” “The seminar introduces the M-E PDG as well as other concrete pave-ment technology updates,” he says. The university professors not only update their knowledge, but they are also able to take the information, along with handouts and teaching aides, back to their classrooms.

Seminars Reflect Audience Needs

Education is also important to the ac-ceptance and understanding of both the StreetPave and AirPave software pro-grams. “People won’t consider building concrete pavements if they don’t under-stand the design, construction or benefi ts of the material,” says Scott Haislip, director of streets and local roads for ACPA. “We will conduct between eight and 10 [seminars] related to StreetPave by the end of 2007,” he says. The seminars are presented at na-tional, regional and state-level meetings.

“Many times, our state chapters will invite us to present the seminar at a local meeting and invite contractors, agency representatives and consultants who work in the area,” explains Haislip. Educational meetings can be used in two different situ-ations to increase awareness of concrete pavements, he points out: “Sometimes we speak in an area in which there is a thriving concrete pavement market, so we address practical tips and suggestions as well as new techniques to enhance knowledge. In areas that have little or no concrete pavement construction, we focus on concrete design issues to demonstrate how StreetPave can make the design phase simpler for the engineer.”

Because AirPave focuses upon airport pavement design, AirPave seminars also cover Federal Aviation Administration de-sign guidelines, updates on airport funding sources and research fi ndings that apply specifi cally to airport engineers and man-agers, says Gary Mitchell, P.E., director of airports for ACPA. To make meetings more valuable to participants, Mitchell looks for a meeting location that will en-able a tour of a construction project. “Last fall, we toured the runway reconstruction at Hartsfi eld-Jackson in Atlanta,” he says. “The tour enables contractors and engi-neers to get a fi rst-hand look at what needs to be considered upfront in any airport construction project,” he says. “For ex-ample, in Atlanta, engineers saw how im-

portant the size and location of the staging area was to contractors who need a place to stockpile equipment.”

The Changing Needs of Customers

While the content of ACPA’s training courses have always contained the most up-to-date research and technological in-formation, Mitchell does see a need to of-fer more than national meetings. “Budgets are tight, travel is expensive and staff mem-bers don’t always have time to leave their offi ce for several days, so we are looking at more regional meetings that don’t require the same fi nancial or time commitment,” he says.

“We also customize the meetings,” Mitchell continues. For example, a group of airport designers may need to meet for only one day for a technology transfer rath-er than a detailed discussion of AirPave. “We also might conduct a meeting that is specifi c to one airport,” he adds. As im-portant as training is to the industry, it is just as important to respond to the chang-ing needs of customers.

Internet Offers New Way to Train

Training has become more important in the past few years within the pavement industry because there has been a shift of responsibilities from the agency to the contractor, points out Gerald F. Voigt, P.E., president and chief executive offi cer of ACPA. “Agencies are moving more toward specifying performance and out-comes rather than handing a contractor a specifi c design to follow,” he explains. “This has increased the contractors’ need to understand the implications of different construction techniques so they can make good decisions.”

Voigt acknowledges that this shift in responsibility has created a need for ACPA to add more training courses geared to-ward contractors. “We traditionally have focused on the people making the decision about the type of pavement used for road construction, and that means we’ve fo-cused on departments of transportation,” he says. “Now, although we’ll continue to educate consultants and departments of transportation, we will also offer more training that will help contractors with the decisions they’ll be making.”


Another training shift for ACPA is the addition of more Internet-based education, according to Voigt. “Our traditional train-ing that requires travel to a central location for classroom education doesn’t work for most contractors,” he says. For that reason, ACPA is planning two different types of Internet-based training.

“We recently held our fi rst pilot we-binar. The main purpose of…[it]…was to

make sure the technology works,” Voigt continues. Thirteen of 20 invited contrac-tors participated in the webinar. “It went great and we received positive feedback,” he says.

Because the results of the pilot webinar proved the format is viable, ACPA staff is discussing the development of a webinar schedule. “Our intention is to present webi-nars on topics that are related to construc-tion seasons. For example, we’ll discuss cold weather construction issues in the winter,” Voigt explains.

Of course, seminars and training cours-es require handouts, reference materials and books, so using the Internet for train-ing requires a different approach to deliv-erables, Voigt points out. “Once a person registers for an online course or a webinar, we confi rm with an e-mail message that contains a link to the material that will be used for the class,” he explains. “It is easy to download the PDF fi le and have every-thing needed for the seminar.”

While there is no charge for the webi-nar, ACPA is considering a nominal fee for an exam the participant will take at the end and for the certifi cate of completion

that is awarded for passing the exam. As Voigt explains, “Because many profes-sional engineer licenses require continu-ing education, the webinars will offer a convenient, cost-effective way to obtain the professional development hours need-ed to maintain the license.”

Although webinars will offer more contractors more opportunities for train-ing, they do not have all of the fl exibil-ity contractors need to educate many of their employees, Voigt notes. To address this need, ACPA is developing an online training-on-demand program that offers a variety of training modules to educate crew members. “If the crew can’t work for a few hours due to rain, they can go into the site trailer, go online, take the course, complete the exam and receive a certifi -cate stating their profi ciency on one aspect of concrete construction, he explains.

Not too many years ago, an online ed-ucation program for contractors’ employ-ees would not have been feasible, admits Voigt. “We know from talking with con-tractors that technology for this program is not an issue. Construction trailers now have computers with Internet access that wasn’t available several years ago,” he says.

Voigt does see online continuing educa-tion for contractors’ employees as valuable for both the contractors and for the agen-cies that hire them. “There is a great deal of turnover in the construction industry, so contractors are constantly training new people,” he explains. “Online programs offer a cost-effective, time-effi cient way to conduct the training, and the certifi ca-tion that the employee has taken a course or courses on specifi c topics can be used to demonstrate the competence of the con-tractors’ staff.”

Throughout all of the enhancements that are constantly made to ACPA educa-tional offerings, one thing remains true, says Voigt: “We cannot present a course as a ‘one-size-fi ts-all’ product. Each course is designed for a well-defi ned audience with specifi c needs. We will always have an open mind about the type of education that is needed, and we’ll offer what the au-dience wants.”

For more information about any of the ACPA education and training cours-es, contact Michael Ayers, Ph.D., at [email protected]. ST

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Topics of the contractor/agency program modules include:

• Pavement design fundamentals related to construction operations

• Fundamentals of concrete pavement materials

• Concrete mix design and optimization• Developing a quality control/quality

assurance program• Slipform paving operations• Fixed form paving operations• Curing and texturing concrete

pavements• Jointing and load transfer• Troubleshooting and problem-solving

materials and construction issues


“I look forward to digging in and actually reading and using this manual.”

“The manual will be my most useful tool.”

The IMCP Manual:An Overview

“One-stop” Reference Helps Optimize Concrete Pavement Performance

By Sheryl S. Jackson

THESE ARE JUST two of the comments received

from participants in the 10 Integrated Materials and

Construction Practices for Concrete Pavement (IMCP)

workshops conducted throughout the country in 2007.

Over 600 participants attended the workshops, which

walked participants through the different chapters of

the IMCP manual, explaining how to use it (and the

accompanying CD) to make decisions that result in a

high-quality, cost-effective concrete pavement.


Optimizing the performance of a con-crete pavement requires careful planning, thorough knowledge of techniques and an understanding of materials’ interactions. All of this information exists in a multi-tude of research materials and technical guidebooks, but the IMCP manual is the only one that serves as a “one-stop” ref-erence book that explains the integrated nature of concrete pavement materials and construction practices, says Michael Ayers, Ph.D., director of education and training for the American Concrete Pavement Association (ACPA).

“The IMCP manual is a practical re-source that can help a wide range of peo-ple learn more about optimizing concrete pavement,” Ayers explains. The manual is written in a straightforward, easy-to-

understand manner so that any person involved with concrete pavement design or construction can understand the in-formation. “In fact, if you knew nothing about concrete, you’d be able to pick up the manual, read it, and understand it,” he adds. (See box below for a description of the manual’s audience, purpose and spe-cifi c chapters.)

This is not just a “how-to” book, points out IMCP project manager Dale Harrington, P.E., a senior project engineer with Snyder and Associates in Ankeny, Iowa, and past director of the National Concrete Pavement Technology Center (CP Tech Center). “The manual describes concrete pavement construction as an integrated system,” he says. “Materials selection, mix design and construction

practices all affect each other in ways that affect the overall quality of the fi nal project.”

While the IMCP manual provides practical advice on selection of materials or construction techniques, it also pro-vides the reason and purpose of concrete tests, performance prediction methods and new practices that will enhance per-formance, says Harrington. “The manual describes the how, as well as the why, to implement new technologies so that the user can make well-informed decisions during construction,” he explains.

“The manual took four years to de-velop and was written by 17 different authors throughout the United States, in-cluding engineers on the staff of ACPA,” Harrington continues. Twenty-four

IMCP At a GlanceThe purpose of the IMCP manual is to bridge the gap between recent research and common practice related to producing concrete

for pavements. The intended audience is agency or industry personnel who are interested in optimizing concrete performance for every paving project.

Readers may include:• Engineers• Quality control personnel• Specifi ers• Contractors• Materials and equipment suppliers• Technicians• Construction supervisors• Tradespeople

Specifically, the IMCP manual will help readers do the following:

• Understand concrete pavements as complex, integrated systems.

• Appreciate that constructing a con-crete pave ment project is a complex process involving several discrete practices. These practices inter relate and affect one another in various ways.

• Implement technologies, tests and best prac tices to identify materials, concrete properties and construction practices that are known to optimize concrete performance.

• Recognize factors leading to prema-ture distress in concrete and learn how to avoid or reduce those factors.

• Quickly access how-to and trouble-shooting information.

Chapters included in the IMCP manual:

• Chapter 2. Basics of Concrete Pavement Design How concrete pavement design inter-acts with materials and construction requirements

• Chapter 3. Fundamentals of Materials Used for Concrete Pavements The ingredients we have to work with and how they infl uence concrete performance

• Chapter 4. Transformation of Concrete from Plastic to Solid How cement chemistry and the cement’s physical changes during hydration are central to good-quality concrete, and how supplementary ce-mentitious materials and chemical ad-mixtures affect the hydration process

• Chapter 5. Critical Properties of Concrete Fresh and hardened properties of concrete that correlate with concrete performance

• Chapter 6. Development of Concrete Mixtures How to achieve the required perfor-mance with the materials we have

• Chapter 7. Preparation for Concrete Placement How the subgrade and base infl uence the concrete

• Chapter 8. Construction How construction activities and work-manship infl uence the concrete, what tools are available and the current best practices to ensure high-quality pavement

• Chapter 9. Quality and Testing A brief discussion of quality systems and descriptions of some test methods that can be used to monitor concrete performance

• Chapter 10. Troubleshooting and Prevention Identifying the problem and the fi x when something goes wrong, and pre-venting recurrence

Reprinted from Integrated Materials and Construction Practices for Concrete Pavement Manual, American Concrete Pavement Association, Skokie, IL, 2007.


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technical advisors reviewed the chapters as they were developed. “Three technical editors and a managing editor combined the chapters into a fi nal cohesive draft document, which was reviewed by six individuals throughout the country who had considerable practical and technical experience,” he says.

“The Federal Highway Administration authorized the printing of 6,000 copies of the IMCP manual in January 2007,

and by the middle of February 2007, only a few hundred copies remained to be distributed,” Harrington notes, adding

that another 5,000 copies will be ordered this fall.

In addition to the printed information, an interactive CD with search capabili-ties accompanies the manual. The ability to search the CD for specifi c keywords can save a user time when a specifi c topic is needed.

More Workshops PlannedResponse to the manual has been

overwhelming, says Ayers; not only is the manual being reprinted, but more work-shops are being scheduled. Two-day, na-tional training workshops have been held at 11 sites in seven states already, with similar sessions scheduled later this year or early next year.

Harrington explains that while the previous workshops were traditional educational workshops that required people to travel to a central location, future training sessions will take advan-tage of the Internet. “We are developing a training-on-demand program that is Web-based,” he says. The PowerPoint presentation, accompanied by audio, is

followed by a certifi cate for successful completion of the program.

“The nine technical modules do take time to go through, so the Web-based program will allow someone to choose one module at a time,” Harrington con-tinues. This fl exibility will allow more people to receive the training without interfering with work demands.

Harrington also points out that “train the trainer” sessions will be offered. “This will expand training into many dif-ferent areas because there will be more trainers available,” he says. Agencies or ACPA chapters that want to offer train-ing sessions in their area can send people to be trained to teach the course. “They will be able to use their session manual and PowerPoint presentations that we provide in the classes that they teach,” Harrington concludes.

All of the training sessions or work-shops for the IMCP manual are free of charge. For more information about any of the ACPA education and training courses, contact Michael Ayers, Ph.D., at [email protected]. ST

The IMCP manual helps contractors make decisions that result in a high-quality, cost-effective concrete pavement.

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Federal Officials Respond to

Bridge CollapseGovernment Spotlight

At press time, two measures were moving forward in an attempt to provide federal aid following the bridge collapse on Interstate 35W in Minneapolis, Minn., on Aug. 1.

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary E. Peters announced on Aug. 2 that $5 million in federal relief will be available to the state to repair the I-35 bridge.

Also, U.S. House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee Chairman James L. Oberstar (D-Minn.) has proposed a comprehen-sive program to repair the nation’s structurally defi cient bridges.

The chairman pointed out that there are 73,784 bridges in the country rated “structurally defi cient” by the U.S. Department of Transportation.

He said a major reason why these bridges are not repaired, reha-bilitated or replaced can be attributed to a “tombstone mentality” in the Federal Government and in the United States.

Pavement Design Guide Available OnlineThe newly approved version of the Mechanistic-Empirical

Pavement Design Guide (M-E PDG) is now available online at the Transportation Research Board’s Web site (www.trb.org/mepdg/).

The M-E PDG was sponsored by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Offi cials’ Joint Task Force on Pavements and developed by the National Cooperative Highway Research Program. It uses mechanistic-empirical numerical mod-els to analyze input data for traffi c, climate, materials and proposed structure to estimate pavement performance over service life.

Questions about the guide? Contact ACPA’s Director of Pavement Technology, Michael Ayers, Ph.D., by e-mail ([email protected]) or phone (217-621-3438).

Conference Highlights Two-Lift ConstructionThe Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) Offi ce of

Pavement Technology and Highways for L.I.F.E. Offi ce recently sponsored a video conference to explore two-lift construction, as well as its advantages and challenges.

Topics presented during the video conference included the European Experience with Two-Lift Pavement Construction; a re-cap of the International Scan on Long-Life Concrete Pavements; History of Two-Lift Construction in the United States; and Two-Lift Construction and Noise Implications.

The video conference was held at the FHWA’s division offi ce in Ames but also was visible at other facilities with videoconferencing capabilities, notably other FHWA’s division offi ces.

Presenting an overview and moderating the session was Charlie Goodspeed, Ph.D., associate professor of civil engineering, College of Engineering and Physical Sciences, at the University of New Hampshire. Dr. Goodspeed also serves as the director of the University’s Transportation Technology Transfer Center

and is presently on a one-year rotational assignment with FHWA’s Highways for L.I.F.E. program.

As a follow-up to the videoconference, about 30 representatives of the public sector, industry and academia gathered in Salina, Kan., at the site of a pilot project expected to set the stage for a larger-scale project next year. The project visit included a number of FHWA of-fi cials, Kansas DOT and Washington DOT personnel, academia and industry representatives.

Two-lift construction has been identifi ed for implementation by the International Long Life Concrete Pavement Scan of 2006. Two-lift also is being explored by the FHWA’s Highways for L.I.F.E. offi ce, which is said to view the technology as a viable candidate for formal recogni-tion under the program’s innovative technologies and practices.

Pavement Technology Transfer to Focus on Concrete Mixtures, Accelerated Construction

As part of the Federal Highway Agency’s Offi ce of Pavement Technology Program’s technology activities, a conference this year will focus on optimizing concrete pavement mixtures and acceler-ated concrete pavement construction.

The International Conference on Optimizing Paving Concrete Mixtures and Accelerated Concrete Pavement Construction are fo-cusing on these topics due to their contributions to construction du-rable roadways that get crews in and out as fast as possible.

The conference this year will feature case studies that focus on best practices in that feature best practices in nighttime and weekend closures for accelerated construction; full closures for accelerated construction; and the DOT directions and contractors’ experiences with paving concrete optimization.

The conference will be held Nov. 7-9 in Atlanta, Ga.Visit www.fhwa.dot.gov/pavement/concrete/2007CPTPconf.cfm

to register online. For more information, contact Shiraz Tayabji, Ph.D., P.E., regional manager of CTLGroup, at [email protected] or 410-997-0400. ST

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Axim Italcementi Group .............................................................11

Buzzi Unicem USA .....................................................................14

Degussa Admixtures, Inc. ...........................................................22

Erie Strayer Company ................................................................10

EZ Drill ......................................................................................18

Gomaco Corp. ...........................................................................20

Holcim ................................................................Inside Back Cover

Lafarge North America, Inc ................................Inside Front Cover

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Metal Forms Corp. .....................................................................18

Miller Formless Co., Inc..............................................................21

Minnich Manufacturing .............................................................15

Sanders Saws Inc. ............................................Outside Back Cover

Soff-Cut International ..................................................................8

Stephens Manufacturing Co., Inc. ................................................3

Terex Roadbuilding ......................................................................4

The Lane Construction Corporation .............................................9

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