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| FHWA > Engineering > Pavements > Concrete > CPTP Status Report |
CPTP Status Report - Task 65 Engineering ETG Review CopyChapter 2 - CPTP Focus AreasCPTP Focus Area 6: Trained Work Force
Improvements to the design, construction/reconstruction, maintenance, rehabilitation, and asset management of concrete pavements will be made only when technological advances are put into use. State Departments of Transportation and the concrete paving industry are the primary agents for such advancement as they partner in constructing and maintaining the large majority of highways in the U.S. Therefore, it is essential for key state DOT and industry personnel to become familiar with new concrete pavement technologies as they become available. CPTP Focus Area 6 is directed at ensuring the appropriate training is made available in a timely manner. Much of the needed training for use and implementation of CPTP products will be provided at no cost to the participants other than travel and per diem. Training is effective only when it reaches the proper personnel, those empowered to initiate changes in procedures employed by their organizations or those in a position to pass the training on to others. With these personnel in mind, the CPTP training initiatives are directed at state DOT personnel at the technical level or at an administrative level needing overview knowledge of the technologies promoted. Others to be reached by CPTP training include industry personnel and college faculty engaged in teaching construction technology, materials, and pavement design or maintenance courses. The following training, implementation, and communications measures will be employed in this effort. WorkshopsWorkshops are an effective teaching approach as they allow students to interact with instructors and, often, to simulate field experiences in a classroom environment. Two 2-day workshops to promote CPTP products to that point in time were conducted in 2000 and 2001 while a 2-day professor's seminar was held in 2001. These workshops were entitled "Concrete Pavement Design - 2000 and Beyond." Training materials, including the "Handbook of Nondestructive and Innovative Testing Equipment for Concrete", have been developed and two pilot workshops presented on non-destructive and innovative testing procedures. Examples of the procedures or devices included were a maturity test, bond "pull off" test, air void analyzer, impact-echo, and a concrete thickness gauge. Other discussions concerned numerous emerging technologies in the respective areas. The pilot workshops were well received and delivery of additional workshops should begin in early 2004. Numerous workshops in other areas are anticipated over the next several years. The Alabama DOT has requested two, one each for executive and technical level personnel. Both will deal with the CPTP program in its entirety. Others will deal with surface properties - vehicle interaction and focus on profiles and texturing. Some are expected to deal with the use of the ISLAB 2000 program in the analysis of rigid pavements. Still others will address the design and construction of Ultra Thin Whitetopping (UTW) as well as its use in pavement rehabilitation. Another whole series are anticipated for issues such as "long life" portland cement concrete pavements (PCCP), materials and mix design, joint and dowel design and testing, sealed vs. unsealed joints, and curling and warping of pavement slabs. CPTP general workshop sessions and poster sessions are planned for the 9th Concrete Pavement Design Conference scheduled for August 2005 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Guides and Training Materials (software)Numerous CPTP and related projects have given rise to guides and training materials. Among the guidelines developed are those on ultra-thin whitetopping (UTW) that have evolved from experience gained through numerous demonstration projects and test sections. Others address fast-track paving and how to deal with the materials, construction, and traffic issues concerned. It is expected that others will be developed from ongoing studies of retrofitted and alternative dowels, HIPERPAV, performance-related specifications (PRS), pavement profiles and texturing, joint sealing, and nondestructive and innovative testing. Training materials exist or are under development for most of the workshops mentioned above as well as for mechanistic design of PCC pavements, including concrete overlays of CRCP. CPTP staff has on hand slide presentations on most of the CPTP projects mention above and for many of the related projects done by others. The "2002 Pavement Design Guide" under development by AASHTO will address further mechanistic design issues and provide in one place a full set of design guidelines for jointed pavements. Software available or under development includes that to address mechanistic design, optimizing selection of concrete pavement design features, performance-related specifications, HIPERPAV design, and much of the nondestructive testing in use. Finally, the mobile concrete laboratory (MCL) is an excellent training tool for personnel involved in concrete pavement materials testing as it is available to move from agency to agency to provide everything from equipment evaluations to classroom and field demonstration of new and emerging concrete technologies. Field Demonstration ProjectsCPTP products and related materials provide an abundance of opportunity and materials for field demonstration projects, some of the most effective training mechanisms available. Some of those already envisioned are those on monitoring concrete temperature with the TEMP system, precast pavement repairs, and profile and texture measurements. Among others that could evolve from the ongoing and completed studies are those on alternative load transfer, load transfer retrofitting, joint and dowel testing, concrete curing, and traffic management. Communications (CD, Website, newsletter, product alerts)A contact list is under development for the CPTP through the use of numerous existing databases as well as through the use of a program "flyer" that was distributed at the 2004 Transportation Research Board (TRB) annual meeting and will be distributed at other venues. The flyer briefly describes the program and solicits mailing and email addresses from persons having an interest in receiving program newsletters and other informational material. Some of the materials envisioned are described below. A compact disk (CD) or DVD briefly describing the CPTP to executive level personnel will be developed for broad distribution within the concrete pavement community. This instrument will tie into the program website that is being developed under the Task 65 contract. The site will provide a thorough overview of the CPTP as well as links to all participating and related entities. A draft of the first program newsletter is under development for distribution in early 2004. Articles will deal with ongoing and completed projects directly in the CPTP as well as those from other participants. It is expected that the newsletter will have both state DOT and industry recurring columns in addition to those written by CPTP staff and contractors. Using the contact list mentioned above, product alerts will be widely distributed, within the community for projects yielding clearly useable results. Each of these documents, consisting of one to three concisely written pages, will give a brief summary of the applicable research, the implementable products identified, sources of materials and information on those products, and implementation guidelines as appropriate. The first alerts have not yet been identified, but will begin to appear in early 2004. Use of Other Training TechnologiesDistance learning, interactive DVDs, and other new technologies are being investigated as potential training tools for the CPTP.
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This page last modified on 06/01/06 |
