ISCP honors CP Tech Center's founding director
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Back row: CP Tech Center Associate Directors Gordon Smith (left) and John Adam (right)
Front row: Former Director, Tom Cackler (left); Founding Director, Dale Harrington (center); and
Current Director, Peter Taylor (right)
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Join upcoming CP Tech Center webinars
on Tuesdays at 12 pm (CST)
November 9:
Understanding Penetrating Sealers for Concrete Pavements
December 14:
Next Generation Concrete Pavement
All webinars offer Professional Development Hours (PDHs)
and are available for signup here.
(Previous webinar recordings, slide handouts, and speakers' Q&A responses are available here.)
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New research engineer joins the CP Tech Center
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The CP Tech Center recently added a new staff member, Dan King, PE (Iowa), as research engineer. A BS and MS graduate in civil engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, King is now working on his PhD in civil engineering at Iowa State University. Previously, King served as concrete research and design director for the Iowa Concrete Paving Association (ICPA)/Iowa Ready Mixed Concrete Association (IRMCA).
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King's ICPA/IRMCA responsibilities of providing expertise in concrete pavements and materials to Iowa’s construction and engineering communities have prepared him well for his new role: assisting in the CP Tech Center mission of research and technology transfer toward the goal of moving leading edge concrete pavement science into practice on a national scale.
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Want bite-sized,
CP-Tech-Center-curated weekly updates on concrete resources, research, field applications, etc.?
 
Follow the CP Tech Center on
LinkedIn and/or Twitter |
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Attend the
2021 Iowa Better Concrete Conference
hosted by the CP Tech Center
to be held in Ames, Iowa,
on November 9–10, 2021
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Talking concrete pavements around the country
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After over a year of working either at home or close to home, CP Tech Center staff are relearning how to keep research and technology transfer projects moving from airport waiting areas, plane seats, and vehicle passenger seats. While challenging, the return to in-person events nevertheless enables a rapport between CP Tech Center staff and other participants that virtual formats cannot fully mirror.
COVID has provided all of us better understanding of which format works best when and increased our ease in moving back and forth as needed. For example, CP Tech Center Associate Director Gordon Smith talked concrete mix proportioning in person with around 30 Cemen Tech forum attendees on September 9th in Altoona, Iowa, where the face-to-face small group fostered good interaction and questions.
The next day, around ten American Concrete Pavement Association (ACPA) research, technology, and innovation (RT&I) committee members from around the country met virtually. The committee brainstormed potential advancements related to a webinar introduced by Smith and presented by CP Tech Center Director Peter Taylor on the “Properties of Concrete Mixtures for Long-Term Performance."
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Taylor flew to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to join an in-person September 17th meeting with the Pennsylvania DOT and industry representatives on another significant topic: pavement maintenance planning. CP Tech Center Associate Directors John Adam and Gordon Smith joined the face-to-face ACPA Chapter/State Executives Meeting held in New Paltz, New York, on September 21st and 22nd. Meanwhile, Taylor headlined the September 21st episode of the online ConcreteFiX series (Season 2) sponsored by Cement and Concrete South Africa (SA), presenting about PEM. Both Taylor and Smith participated in a Portland Cement Association (PCA) paving committee meeting held virtually on September 23rd.
Of course, the weeklong International Conference on Concrete Pavements (ICCP), organized by the International Society for Concrete Pavements (ISCP), was intense for all involved—though its game-like platform including an avatar for each attendee and a virtual campus on which it was possible to get lost (!) added interest to a week largely consisting otherwise of sitting alone in front of one's computer.
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CP Tech Center staff spoke not only during ICCP's plenary session, but also in eleven other presentations, including seven podium presentations on research projects and four workshops on tech transfer. Can you identify in the pic below Peter Taylor, Gordon Smith, and the CP Tech Center's new research engineer, Dan King, leading the ICCP's PEM workshop?
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Of course, one of the benefits (and challenges!) of online vs. in-person events is how the online format enables easy movement back and forth between events. On September 28th, Gordon Smith "stepped out" of the ICCP to introduce and facilitate a pavement design webinar cosponsored by the Aggregate & Ready Mix of Minnesota (ARM) association and the Concrete Pavement Association of Minnesota (CPAM).
CP Tech Center travel in person has increased, but we are remaining active online as well.
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For the CP Tech Center to succeed in advancing strategic improvements in how concrete pavements are specified, built, and maintained, our executive board must excel not only in visionary thinking outside the box but also in strategic problem-solving on the ground. The CP Tech Center board has recently added an at-large contractor representative who matches this description well.
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Rob Kish, a graduate of Ohio University in civil engineering, is general superintendent for the concrete division of Milestone Contractors. In 2018, Kish participated in INDOT's successful test of thin structural-fiber-reinforced concrete overlays and copresented to the Indiana chapter of the American Concrete Pavement Association (ACPA) on patching operation optimization and best practices to achieve smoothness. At ACPA's mid-year meeting, Kish additionally presented research by ACPA's Emerging Leaders' Group on concrete paving employee recruitment and development. In 2019, Kish chaired the Emerging Leaders' Group. In 2020, Milestone's culture that Kish—among many others—has fostered to ensure that every worker comes home safely won Milestone the Indiana Constructors' Gold Safety Award.
We are excited that Kish has joined the CP Tech Center executive board and look forward to what his contractor experience adds to our board discussions.
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Paving Association Execs
Please forward this newsletter to your members as appropriate.
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