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CP Tech Center Supports Road Map Startup

Logo for CP Road Map showing puzzle pieces coming together

 

What’s in the CP Road Map?

The CP Road Map consists of about 250 problem statements organized into 12 research tracks:

  1. Performance-Based Mix Design System
  2. Performance-Based Design Guide for New and Rehabilitated Concrete Pavements
  3. High-Speed NDT and Intelligent Construction Systems
  4. Optimized Surface Characteristics for Safe, Quiet, and Smooth Pavements
  5. Equipment Automation and Advancements
  6. Innovative Joint Design, Materials, and Construction
  7. High-Speed Pavement Rehabilitation and Construction
  8. Long-Life Concrete Pavements
  9. Accelerated and Long-Term Pavement Data Collection
  10. Concrete Pavement Performance
  11. Concrete Pavement Business Systems and Economics
  12. Advanced Concrete Pavement Materials

An executive committee of stakeholders will oversee conduct of the CP Road Map. Track teams composed of volunteer stakeholders will lead each track. Various sponsors of research will collaborate to fund the most critical research priorities.

See links to volumes I and II of the CP Road Map, an executive summary, and an FHWA tech brief about the program.

The Concrete Pavement Road Map (the CP Road Map) is a 10-year, national plan of research priorities. It was completed in December 2005 by a National CP Tech Center–led team.

The Road Map

Realizing the goals of this program ultimately depends on stakeholders collaborating to fund accomplish the research. Such a level of collaboration may be unprecedented, but it is possible.

What is not possible is for volunteer stakeholders to administer a $250 million program of collaborative research over a period of 10 years. That kind of effort requires professional support.

The FHWA has stepped up to help. In fall 2006, FHWA selected the National CP Tech Center to provide initial administrative support services for the CP Road Map program. Funded by short-term task orders, the National CP Tech Center team will jump-start implementation of the Road Map.

So far, the National CP Tech Center has conducted the following activities:

  1. Organized the executive committee and coordinated its first meeting in March 2007. (The second meeting will be held September 2007 in Chicago.)
  2. With the executive committee, identified the first four research tracks as top priorities.
  3. Helped organize the mix design and analysis track (track 1).
  4. Initiated efforts to get the pavement design track underway (track 2).
  5. Updated the CP Road Map by identifying relevant research underway or completed since 2005.
  6. Initiated a communications program (website, listservs, etc.).
  7. Is coordinating existing research projects for improving pavement surface characteristics into a more formal track (track 4).
  8. Is planning a roundtable meeting to discuss initiation of high-speed, nondestructive, intelligent construction systems and, perhaps jointly, equipment advancements (respectively, tracks 3 and 5).
  9. At the request of the executive committee, is identifying a possible 13th track related to environmental issues.
  10. Perhaps most important, is collecting information about, and developing plans and strategies for addressing, institutional barriers to inter-agency collaboration.

After three years developing the CP Road Map, the FHWA and National CP Tech Center’s team are excited to see champions stepping forward for various tracks or specific tasks.

If you would like more information or want to play a role in the CP Road Map, contact Dale Harrington, P.E., Snyder & Associates, 515-964-2020, or the CP Tech Center, 515-294-8103.