103rd annual T. H. E. Conference

The 103rd annual Illinois Transportation and Highway Engineering (THE) Conference was held at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign February 28–March 1, 2017, at the Illini Union. With more than a thousand industry professionals in attendance, the two-day conference covered a wide variety of topics, including preparing roadways for autonomous vehicles, expansive cements for bridge construction, work zone safety and traffic management, and speed harmonization of local roads and streets.

Directing this year’s conference was Jeffery Roesler of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at UIUC. The conference featured a diverse array of technical presentations, agency and industry updates, interactive exhibits, and multiple pre-conference activities, including workshops on pavement markings, pavement type selection, project delivery methods, and low-temperature asphalt performance test specification.

The general sessions took place in the morning, followed by afternoon breakout sessions on topics of particular interest, such as bridges and structures; design, construction, and environment; traffic, operations, and safety; and local roads and streets.

ICT and IDOT presented several awards during this year’s conference, including Technical Review Panel (TRP) Chair of the Year to Tom Winkelman. In addition, ICT and IDOT awarded the High-Impact Research of the year to the project “Evaluation of Flashing Yellow Arrows (FYA) for Protected/Permissive Left Turn (PPLT) Control” (R27-097). Receiving awards for the project were TRP Chair Randy Laninga (IDOT) and Principal Investigator Kerrie Schattler (Bradley University). Students and TRP members working on the project also received an award. Students included Eric Anderson and Trevor Hanson, and TRP members included Maureen Addis, Kyle Armstrong, Sean Coyle, Tom Hufnagel, and Juan Pava of IDOT, along with Dean Mentjes of FHWA.

The 103rd annual THE Conference will take place February 28–March 1, 2018, with pre-conference activities on the 27th. For more information, visit the THE Conference website.