Message from the Director: Come Join CAPRI

If you are like me, you may have asked yourself, What are the most important things we can do to achieve more sustainable asphalt pavements? Sustainability considers the intersection of economic, environmental and social concerns. Although it is definitely a big picture concept, it is an achievable goal. Many practices and technologies can be adopted to improve sustainability, and it’s important to think about the big picture as we make decisions to help us move toward these priorities.

The Consortium for Asphalt Pavement Research and Implementation (CAPRI) is a new forum that will engage all stakeholders to discuss and develop priorities for research and implementation activities that advance asphalt pavement technologies. Whether you think more attention should be focused on sustainability, improving construction quality, advancing automated testing, better utilization of pavement preservation treatment options or something else, CAPRI will be the place where you can be part of the debate and influence decisions through open discussions among all stakeholder groups.

The foundation for CAPRI is just getting established. Currently, 15 state DOTs and 11 other stakeholder organizations including contractors, associations, materials suppliers and academia have officially joined with others to come. Each member organization is required to put skin in the game by contributing a small annual fee.

NCAT will provide management for the consortium. An initial executive committee has been formed and is meeting to establish bylaws, policies and plans for the first meeting, we hope this fall. Once the pandemic is behind us, plans are to have two meetings per year at locations facilitated by member organizations. It is expected there will be four subcommittees within CAPRI that align with the AASHTO COMP technical subcommittees related to asphalt pavements.

Another one of CAPRI’s goals is to provide technical guidance on current and evolving issues. Again, through open discussion of technical issues and working towards a consensus, we hope to be able to develop guidance on how to deal with those issues if they can be addressed with clarifying text or recommendations for small studies that address gaps in the existing body of knowledge.

If your organization is interested in having a seat at the CAPRI table, please check out ncat.us/research/capri or send an email to capri@auburn.edu and we will follow up with whatever information you need. We’re all in this together, so let’s get to work.

Be safe,

Randy

Randy C. West, Ph.D., P.E. | Director and Research Professor