December 2022
INDOT is a highly collaborative state agency, as indicated by its hosting of three multistate conferences organized and held in Indianapolis this fall.
The first was the North Central Asphalt User/Producer Group Conference, which brought together state DOTs, industry, and academia to improve asphalt pavement performance.
State DOT personnel and state Asphalt Pavement Association (APA) staffers from seven states attended. The conference included a state joint roundtable.
“We shared research, lessons learned, new methods, and specifications,” said INDOT Materials and Tests Director Matt Beeson, who organized the conference.
The second was the Clear Roads Technical Advisory Committee Fall Meeting. Clear Roads is a national research consortium focused on testing of winter maintenance materials, equipment, and methods for use by highway maintenance crews. The group consists of 36 state DOTs and meets twice a year. All 36 states were represented at the meeting, organized by INDOT Statewide Winter Operations Manager Jeremy McGuffey.
“Updates on ongoing Clear Roads-funded research projects were given,” said McGuffey. “Also, six states presented in-house winter operations solutions.”
The third was the No Boundaries Fall Technical Advisory Committee Meeting. This was a peer exchange of the No Boundaries Roadway Maintenance Practices Pooled Fund, which enables the sharing of information among 20 state DOTs for ready-to-deploy innovations and technologies.
Round-table topics included cost- and supply-chain issues, two rounds of an innovation show-and-tell, and information on how to engage maintenance supervisors in innovations, which was led by INDOT Process Improvements Director Todd May.
“The conference enabled the free-flow of information and best practices for a multitude of maintenance activities, processes, and innovations,” said May.
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