The pavement technical assistance group, co-chaired by CEMEX’s Jim Mack and NRMCA’s Brian Killingsworth, recently met with the leadership and researchers of the MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub to refine the future topics of pavement research at the Hub. As the first five years of research is coming to a close, MIT and concrete industry leaders took time to reflect on the work accomplished, but more importantly evaluated what Phase I work needs to be completed, what future topics need to be addressed and how the work may be implemented in the coming years.

The continued communication between industry and MIT is critical so that the goals of improving both the economic and environmental aspects of concrete paving may be accomplished. Both the industry representatives and the MIT researchers understand the priority of getting the results of the research into the hands of promoters, practitioners and designers. With this in mind, development of a toolkit that contains education and training material, software and implementation strategies specifically for the research is underway. The intent of the toolkit is to support current promotion, technical and legislative activities aimed at assisting decision and policy makers with evaluating the economic and environmental benefits of concrete pavement at the local, state and national levels. Other research avenues for the future include developing a better understanding of the science and engineering of pavement distresses, improving concrete durability, assessing how various properties of concrete pavement may affect the environment and how costs may be affected in different bidding environments.

Click here for more information about the ongoing, as well as the upcoming, MIT work from the the MIT CSHub Web site or contact Brian Killingsworth.