ICT student spotlight: Alejandro Salinas

Alejandro Salinas graduated from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in May 2012, with an M.S. degree. His research interests encompass sustainable pavements—particularly the use of warm-mix asphalt, reclaimed asphalt pavement, and reclaimed asphalt shingles; interface bonding; and pavement preservation and maintenance, especially the application of slurry seal.

Salinas’s assistance on the project “Best Practices for Implementation of Tack Coat” (R27-100), funded by the Illinois Department of Transportation, was instrumental in the successful completion of the study. The objective of the project was to identify best methods for applying tack coat at a verified application rate to optimize tack coat material selection and application. It consisted of two parts: Part 1 focused on a lab study of the performance of various tack coats, and Part 2 validated the lab-determined optimum residual application rate and evaluated the field performance of tack coat materials. In addition to this project, Salinas performed extensive laboratory testing at the Advanced Transportation Research and Engineering Laboratory (ATREL) and helped with construction of several field projects.

After he graduated, Salinas was hired by Applied Research Associates (ARA). In his capacity as staff engineer at ARA, he had the opportunity to come back to ATREL to work on development of a pavement life-cycle assessment tool under a study ICT currently conducts in partnership with the Illinois Tollway, Applied Research Associates, and theRightenvironment.

“Being a student at ATREL granted me access to world-class facilities and provided me with the help and support of a great team of faculty and research engineers,” says Salinas. “It was such a great experience for me.”

Salinas recently accepted the position of general manager with Proyextra, a construction management company in Mexico.