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March 2005
Pavement Conference attendees hear about tire/pavement noise
Wayne Fingalson (left) accepts the Gerald R. Rohrbach Pavement Conference Award from last year's winner, Art Bolland. Fingalson is Wright County's highway engineer and is active in many state and national organizations.
Tire/pavement noise is a growing issue around the country. Participants got an earful of the latest findings in this and many other pavement-related areas at the Ninth Annual Minnesota Pavement Conference, held February 17 in St. Paul.
In the opening plenary session, Larry Schofield of the Arizona Department of Transportation reported the results of an FHWA scanning tour of Europe that looked at the continent's innovations in reducing pavement noise. "Europeans take a holistic approach," he said, studying not just pavement designs but also aspects such as housing placement and other policies.
A 2002 law passed by the European Union requires members to have noise contour maps and mitigation plans in place by 2007. Permissible noise levels in Europe are less than half of what's allowed in the United States. "That's how serious they are about it," Schofield said.
Noise research is one of the many areas looked at by researchers during the first 10 years of the MnROAD facility, said Dave Johnson, manager of Mn/DOT's Road Research Section, the next plenary speaker. Johnson reviewed MnROAD's many accomplishments and touched on future plans for the facility. He also described TERRA's formation and next steps (related article).
The plenary, moderated by Gene Skok of the Department of Civil Engineering (CE), closed with an announcement by Jim Grothaus of CTS about a special hands-on computer workshop that allowed attendees to use hot-mix asphalt computer design tools. Ann Johnson (CE) led the session, which was offered several times throughout the day.
The nearly 250 audience members then heard concurrent session presentations on topics such as taconite aggregate, crack seals, and whitetopping. University presenters were:
- Erland Lukanen, director of the University's Pavement Research Institute, "Asphalt Current Practice Design and Evaluation"
- Paul Bloom, Department of Soil, Water, and Climate, "Fly Ash Screening Tool"
- Ann Johnson, "Use of Warranties in Highway Construction." (This recently published manual, 2004-40, is online from the Minnesota Local Road Research Board).
Skok, Lukanen, and Grothaus served with Lev Khazanovich and Mihai Marasteanu (CE) and Lori Graven and Teresa Washington (College of Continuing Education) on the conference planning committee.
CTS hosted the event, which was sponsored by Mn/DOT, Minnesota LTAP, and a number of other organizations, and facilitated by the University's College of Continuing Education.