The Grainger College of Engineering
Illinois Center for Transportation

Let's hear it for the first-ever virtual Bituminous Conference!

1/16/2021 Noelle Arbulu

The 61st annual Illinois Bituminous Paving Conference may have looked a little different this year, but attendees still showed up in a big way.

This year’s Dec. 8-9 conference, held virtually on Zoom, had more than 240 attendees.

Thanks to our generous sponsor commitments, the Awards Committee presented four recipients with the following awards:

  • Izak M. Said took home the Marshall Thompson Student Research Award.
  • John Senger was the recipient of the Illinois Asphalt Pavement Association Bituminous Innovative Research Award.
  • William Pine was awarded the Barry Dempsey Bituminous Technical Contribution of the Year Award.
  • Paul Yerkes received the Imad L. Al-Qadi Leadership in Bituminous Engineering Award.

Award recipients were equally surprised by the recognition, but they were excited to share what this acknowledgement means to them.

“I am so grateful and honored to be the recipient of this award,” said Said, a University of Illinois Urbana Champaign doctoral student. “This is simply one of the most important scenes of my professional career.”

For Senger, an engineer of pavement technology at Illinois Department of Transportation, the award represents “recognition and appreciation from my peers,” he said.

“I am honored that others feel like my work and the research that we are completing is important,” Senger added.

Pine found the award quite “humbling” because many people “contribute technically to our collective understanding,” the Heritage Construction & Materials quality control director of asphalt technology said.

“With that thought in mind,” Pine added, “I thank the awards committee because there are many others around Illinois that are just as deserving, or more, of this award.”

For Yerkes, the award reminded him of his love for working in the industry and all whom he’s enjoyed meeting over the years.

“I am humbled and honored to receive the award and especially one named after professor Al-Qadi,” the Chicago Testing Laboratory’s vice president of technology services said. “I believe it helps validate the hard work and effort put in by Lakeland College, (including) Lori Walk and staff, (as well as) IDOT’s Jim Trepanier, Brian Pfeifer, Brian Hill and all the CTL team.”

“I’m appreciative of those who nominated and selected me for this honor,” Yerkes added.

Congratulations to the award recipients!

This year’s speakers included the following leaders from IDOT, Federal Highway Administration, Illinois Tollway, industry and academia:

  • Omer Osman, IDOT
  • Arlene Kocher, FHWA
  • Paul Kovacs, Illinois Tollway
  • James Trepanier, IDOT
  • Amit Bhasin, University of Texas at Austin
  • Kelly Morse, IDOT
  • Tim Murphy, Murphy Pavement Technology, Inc.
  • Ryan Traficanto, TranSystems
  • Sonia Martinez, Gallagher Asphalt Companies
  • Joseph Shacat, National Asphalt Pavement Association
  • John Senger, IDOT
  • Imad Al-Qadi, UIUC and Illinois Center for Transportation
  • Brian Hill, IDOT
  • George Houston, Michael Baker International
  • Mike Schilke, IDOT

To see the conference presentations and recordings, visit the conference’s history page.

We would like to thank attendees, moderators, the conference committee, exhibitors and sponsors for continuing to make this conference a great success!

The 62nd Illinois Bituminous Paving Conference is set for Dec. 7-8, 2021, at the I Hotel and Conference Center in Champaign, Illinois.

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