Transportation Research Board – a Breeding Ground for Innovation

Innovation begins with an idea. An idea often springs from a need to solve a problem or answer a new question.  Each January for nearly a 100 years, people converge on Washington, D.C., for the TRB Annual meeting. They come by different modes of transportation (planes, trains and automobiles) and numerous aspects of each mode like materials, construction, driver behavior and management. In 2018, more than 14,000 people registered for the meeting. 

 

If you are unfamiliar with TRB, the meeting involves a series of technical presentations, workshops and committee meetings that address current research projects, future research needs and pressing (you name the topic) problems. Directly related to the asphalt industry, TRB has committees that host sessions and workshops for asphalt binders, asphalt mixes, pavement design, construction and maintenance. Within these committees, the latest innovations are discussed and revealed. Some recognizable innovations are material transfer vehicles, mechanistic-empirical pavement design, and bio-based binders and rejuvenators. While TRB committees did not develop the innovation, they identified the issue/problem for others to solve.

 

In the next 11 newsletters, different innovations will be spotlighted. Some will be cutting edge innovations and others may seem like routine practices, but they were innovative at time of implementation. Enjoy these articles and contact us if you have an idea or suggestion for an article. And if you want to know what innovations are coming down the road, sign up and attend TRB in 2019.