Highlights from the 59th annual Bituminous Paving Conference

More than 320 engineering professionals from all over the United States attended the 59th annual Illinois Bituminous Paving Conference.

The event was held Dec. 11-12, 2018, at the I Hotel and Conference Center in Champaign, Illinois. Every year this event joins highway engineers, government officials, contractors, consultants, and university researchers to discuss the latest asphalt concrete development, technology deployment, and field experiences.

This year the keynote address was, “Experiences in Performance Assessment of Engineering Low Energy Asphalt Mixes,” presented by Andreas Loizos. Loizos is the Director of the Laboratory of Pavement Engineering of the National Technical University of Athens. He is a founding member of the Academy of Pavement Science and Engineering and was the chair of the Bearing Capacity of Roads, Railways and Airfields Conference in 2017. He is also the co-chair of the International Airfield and Highway Pavements Conference of the Transportation & Development Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers to be held in Chicago in July 2019.

Thanks to our generous sponsor commitments, the Bituminous Achievement Award segment continues!

• Shan Zhao received the Marshall Thompson Student Research Award because of his exemplary knowledge and his contribution to the development of new and innovative approaches to predict asphalt concrete density using ground penetrating radar.
• David Lippert received the Illinois Asphalt Pavement Association Bituminous Innovative Research Award because of his commitment to flexible pavement engineering. His dedication and outstanding research effort provided the needed validation for the Illinois Center for Transportation and Illinois Department of Transportation's Illinois Flexibility Index Test, a cracking prediction test, now used industry wide.
• Timothy Murphy received the Barry Dempsey Bituminous Technical Contribution of the Year Award because of his considerable efforts in supporting the Hot-Mix Asphalt industry both in Illinois and nationally.
• Kevin Burke, III received the Imad L. Al-Qadi Leadership in Bituminous Engineering Award because of his exemplary leadership skills and high respect he enjoys from both the industry and IDOT.

This year’s conference featured presentations and discussions on various topics, including Illinois Perpetual Pavements: Design-Construction-Performance; Stone Matrix Asphalt: Impacts on Performance and Life Cycle Cost, SMA Innovations at the Illinois Tollway, and Development of Aging Protocol for I-FIT.

Several leaders from government, industry, and academia also took the podium to speak including:

• Brian Pfeifer, IDOT Bureau Chief, of the Central Bureau of Materials
• Glenn Fulkerson, Administrator Assistant Division, Federal Highway Administration
• Marshall Thompson, Professor Emeritus, UIUC
• Richard Willis, Director of Pavement Engineering & Innovation, National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA)
• Brian Diefenderfer, Associate Principal Research Scientist, Virginia Transportation Research Council
• Jim Trepanier, Engineer, HMA Aggregate and Chemical Tests at the Central Bureau of Materials at IDOT
• Tim Aschenbrener, Pavement Materials Team, FHWA
• Cindy Williams, Deputy Chief of Program Implementation, Illinois Tollway
• Ben Worel, Operations Engineer, Minnesota Department of Transportation
• Hasan Ozer, Research Assistant Professor, UIUC
• LaDonna Rowden, Bureau Chief of Research, IDOT
• Kelly Morse, Chief Chemist, IDOT Central Bureau of Materials

All conference presentations are available on the conference’s history page.

Congratulations to the award recipients and thank you to all attendees, organizers, presenters, moderators, and sponsors who continue to make this conference a great success!

The 60th annual Illinois Bituminous Paving Conference is scheduled for Dec. 11-12, 2019, at the I Hotel and Conference Center in Champaign, Illinois. Please save the date and sign up to receive email notifications about the next conference.