This month, more than 350 attendees gathered at two Pavement Preservation Partnership Annual Meetings in the Northeast (NEPPP), Groton, CT, May 8-10, and Southeast (SEPPP), Biloxi, MS, May 14-16. 

Both meetings featured presentations on ISSA disciplines and successes, with speakers from ISSA member companies presenting on ISSA award-winning pavement preservation programs, and providing education on micro surfacing, scrub, and fog seals.

NEPPP Annual Meeting Features Agency Pavement Preservation Success Story

The 129 individuals gathered for the NEPPP Annual Meeting reflected a good mix of government and industry attendees, with nearly a third representing state or county agencies including representatives from nine states: Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Vermont.

Scott Bartlett, recipient of the 2017 ISSA Excellence in Pavement Preservation Award, and Dan Patenaude, representing ISSA member company Sealcoating Inc., presented at the NEPPP Annual Meeting on their award-winning pavement preservation program in Fairfield, Connecticut.

With a population of just over 60,000, including many who commute daily to New York City, Fairfield owns and maintains a 288-centerline mile municipal roadway network.  Of the 62 miles of road work completed in 2016, 54 miles were done utilizing ISSA treatments including crack seal, chip seal, micro surfacing, and cape seal.

Bartlett shared the importance of his communications strategy in gaining program buy-in from numerous boards, committees, staff, residents and other community stakeholders. He further explained how he used the Network Life Extension concept (described in the FHWA publication A Quick Check of Your Highway Network Health, available at https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/pavement/preservation/if07006.pdf) to calculate that this 2016 work program injected 319 mile-years of new service life into the Fairfield road network which loses 288 mile-years of service life annually, thereby yielding a net gain of 31 mile-years. 

Bartlett explained how his pavement preservation program has grown and matured over the last 10 or 12 years, and how much he has enjoyed sharing his pavement management experiences with many agencies throughout the northeast, as well as across the country. He closed his comments by stating, “Micro surfacing saved my town’s road network”.

Of the 227 attendees at the SEPPP Annual Meeting, more than half represented state or county agencies, with attendees from 14 states including Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia. 

The first day featured an Executive Round Table with chief engineers from several state transportation departments including James Williams, Mississippi; Paul Degges, Tennessee; Paul Looney, Kentucky; and George Conner, Alabama.  These leaders in each of their respective DOTs spoke on the introduction of pavement preservation into state network management systems, highlighting the need to start at the top and create a culture that promotes preservation.

Several ISSA members provided key presentations during the meeting.  Larry Tomkins, Ergon Asphalts & Emulsions, Inc. presented on “Best Practices of Scrub Seals and Fog Seals” on the opening day of the meeting, highlighting three reasons why you would want to use the treatment and then the top three best practices for materials, equipment and construction for each treatment. 

Tomkins noted that scrub seals are best utilized as a mass crack sealer, to provide a new riding surface, and/or to see as a crack relief layer or interlayer. He explained that fog seals are best used to prevent raveling, seal the road or prevent further oxidation, and/or to provide a safety enhancement for striping.

Tim Harrawood, Vance Brothers, provided an overview of micro surfacing, sharing numerous pavement preservation success stories with the audience.  He also provided a preview of Wednesday’s field demonstrations during which Vance Brothers performed the micro surfacing layer on top of a scrub seal to demonstrate a cape seal.  ISSA member Crafco, Inc. also provided a demonstration of mastic and crack sealing techniques.

Harrawood noted that attitudes toward ISSA treatments have been improving and this year the participants at the SEPPP Annual Meeting were very positive toward treatments such as micro surfacing.

Following the close of the SEPPP meeting, approximately 30 agencies then met for an EDC4-How Peer Exchange meeting. Tomkins and Harrawood were two of the five presenters at this meeting. Tomkins provided a detailed look at the best practices or “how” to build a good scrub seal project.  He talked about proper site selection, materials, equipment, application/construction, and troubleshooting. Harrawood once again shared information on micro surfacing.

The remaining two regional partnership meetings are scheduled to take place later this fall with the Rocky Mountain West Pavement Preservation Partnership meeting scheduled for September 11-13, 2018, in Portland, OR, and the Midwest Pavement Preservation Partnership Annual Meeting scheduled November 6-8, 2018, in Madison, WI.