Terra E-News, November 2011
Researchers shared results of several TERRA-initiated pooled-fund and other research studies from MnROAD’s Phase Two Initiative during a daylong research conference October 4 in Minneapolis. Many of the research findings on pavement materials, design, construction, and rehabilitation are ready to be implemented in Minnesota and around the country.
The event was part of a larger organizational undertaking over three days that included a quarterly TERRA board meeting and technical advisory panel (TAP) meetings for seven MnROAD pooled-fund projects. Combining meetings with the conference afforded unprecedented regional, national, and international opportunities for networking and collaboration among TERRA members and friends.
The research conference—a TERRA Innovations Series event—featured 22 research presentations and bus tours of MnROAD. TERRA hosted the conference in cooperation with the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) and the Minnesota Local Road Research Board, both TERRA members.
More than 160 attendees from at least 13 states and Norway included state DOT engineers and technicians, city and county engineers, Federal Highway Administration officials, Norwegian Public Roads Administration representatives, consulting engineers, contractors, and others interested in pavement research and implementation.
The conference emphasized how lessons learned from research at MnROAD have been and can be implemented to build better, more cost-effective pavements. Sessions focused on recycled materials, pavement rehabilitation, preventive maintenance, long-life pavements, surface characteristics, and other pavement innovations.
TERRA co-chair André Clover, administrative engineer with the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT), and Ben Worel, MnROAD operations engineer, welcomed attendees to the research conference. Worel, along with fellow MnROAD engineers Tim Clyne and Tom Burnham, provided an overview of MnROAD research activities.
Worel and Clyne also led two bus tours to MnROAD. Each tour group visited test sections on the mainline, the low-volume road, and the farm loop to view projects studying full-depth reclamation, innovative diamond grinding of road surfaces, porous and pervious pavements, composite pavements, the effects of farm implements on low-volume roads, and other areas. In addition, unique and leading-edge non-destructive testing equipment was demonstrated as part of the tour.
MnROAD, originally constructed in 1994, began its Phase Two Initiative in 2007 and has since reconstructed nearly 40 test cells. During the past year, two new test cells were constructed and three were rehabilitated. Since its founding in 2004, TERRA has lead the transformation of MnROAD into a leading regional, national, and international outdoor pavement research facility.
The broad involvement in the MnROAD research conference and related meetings marks a milestone in the growth of the TERRA organization, with interest, participation, and partnering activity reaching a new high. Nearly 40 participants in the TAP meetings for the MnROAD pooled-fund projects held in conjunction with the conference came from outside Minnesota. Each of those research projects was initiated through TERRA. In addition, the TERRA board meeting drew 31 attendees in person—the most ever—with the remaining member representative joining via teleconference.
The event was the fifth in the TERRA Innovation Series, which began in 2007. Previous events featured the reconstruction of Highway 36 through North St. Paul, MnROAD research partnerships, transportation assets management (held in Grand Rapids, Michigan), and sustainability in transportation (held in Madison, Wisconsin). The events have a technical focus and address research results, trends that affect or improve productivity, innovative partnering and contracting models, and hot topics that may lead to new research related to TERRA priorities.
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