IDOT receives AASHTO award

The Illinois Department of Transportation recently received an award for “Best Innovation” for the Interstate 55 Reconstruction Project in Madison County from the Mid America Regional America’s Transportation Awards competition. This annual competition is sponsored by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), AAA, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

IDOT’s award-winning project consisted of rubblizing existing concrete pavement and placing an 11½-inch hot mix asphalt overlay. Rubblizing was pioneered by Marshall Thompson, Professor Emeritus, Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, in the mid-90’s. Thompson led the Illinois Cooperative Highway and Transportation Research Program (ICHTRP) from 1987 to 1997, a partnership between the University of Illinois and IDOT since 1946. In 2001, Thompson served as PI for the flexible pavement portion of ICHTRP Project #IHR-524: Mechanistic Design and Implementation and Monitoring, which established guidelines for Rubblization. He currently serves as a PI on the ICT/IDOT Flexible Pavement Mechanistic Design Project.