63rd annual Illinois Bituminous Paving Conference

1/26/2023 Noelle Arbulu

This year’s Dec. 6-7 conference took place in a new spot, the I Hotel and Conference Center’s Heritage Hall. The larger, more open space allowed exhibitors and attendees to get more face time and housed close to 330 attendees.

The conference kicked off with the Asphalt Paving Workshop: Best Management Practices for Paver and Roller Use on Illinois Roadways and Runways and had more than 100 participants. Tim Murphy (Murphy Pavement Technology, Inc), Todd Mansell (Caterpillar), Terry Sullivan (Gallagher Asphalt) and Pat Koester (Howell Paving) presented at the workshop.

Conference awards were presented to three recipients:

Abdulgafar Sulaiman took home the Marshall Thompson Student Research Award.
Brian Gallagher received the Bituminous Technical Contribution of the Year Award.
Jim Trepanier was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award.
Award recipients pose with their trophies at the 63rd annual Illinois Bituminous Paving Conference on December 7 in Champaign, Illinois: Brian Gallagher (left), Abdulgafar Sulaiman (top right) and Jim Trepanier (bottom right).

Award recipients were excited to share what this acknowledgment means to them.

“It’s pivotal in my PhD journey as it motivates me to do more,” said Sulaiman, a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign doctoral student. “My lab is made up of intelligent and hardworking students and being selected for the award is a major accomplishment and recognition for me.”

Gallagher, operations engineer at Gallagher Asphalt, remarked, “It’s great to get the occasional compliment from your employer on an aspect of your work, but to be recognized by an industry organization at this level is just amazing.”

For Trepanier, recently retired engineer of hot-mix asphalt, aggregate and chemical tests at Illinois Department of Transportation, the award was a special way to end his time with the agency.

“I can’t think of a better way to end my 31-year career with IDOT than receiving this award,” Trepanier said.

IDOT Secretary Omer Osman presented Trepanier’s award, which made it “even more special” according to Trepanier.

Congratulations to the award recipients!

Bituminous Conference

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

Omer Osman, IDOT
David Synder, FHWA
Wynand Steyn, University of Pretoria
John Senger, IDOT
Bouzid Choubane, National Preservation Center
Javier García Mainieri, ICT/UIUC
Stephen Cross, Oklahoma State University
José Rivera-Perez, WSP USA
Imad Al-Qadi, ICT/UIUC
Greg Heckel, IDOT
Jim Trepanier, IDOT

To see the conference presentations, 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 64th Illinois Bituminous Paving Conference is set for Dec. 5-6, 2023, at the I Hotel and Conference Center in Champaign, Illinois.

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