VAA Virginia Asphalt Fall/Winter 2019

VAASPHALT.ORG 05 Fall/Winter 2019 INSIDE THIS ISSUE Visit www.vaasphalt.org and follow us on Facebook for up-to-date industry and association news. Subscribe to Asphalt News and get timely information delivered to your inbox monthly. COLUMNS 06 PRESIDENT’S PERSPECTIVE 07 EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE DEPARTMENTS 10 VDOT BREAKS STATUS QUO 25 AFFILIATE MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: BLUEGRASS TESTING 25 AFFILIATE MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: HI-TECH ASPHALT SOLUTIONS 28 RESEARCH UPDATE: A VIEW FROM THE LAB 30 VECAT CALENDAR 31 VAA 2019 PARTNERS ON THE COVER Tanner Wright’s “Asphalt: King of the Road” contest-winning photo taken in Augusta County, Virginia. See more details on page 16. FEATURED INTERVIEW WITH THE CHIEF 08 Meet Virginia Department of Transportation’s new Chief Engineer Barton A. Thrasher, P.E. ASPHALT RULES AS “KING OF THE ROAD” 16 S.L. Williamson’s Tanner Wright captured the two winning photographs for this year’s photo contest. Tanner works in the IT department of S.L. Williamson, based in Charlottesville. FINDING THE RIGHT BALANCE 18 Virginia continues to help lead the national effort towards Balanced Mix Design (BMD). As part of Virginia’s journey, the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT), the Virginia Transportation Research Council (VTRC), and the Virginia Asphalt Association (VAA) embarked on a pilot program in 2019. AIRPORT PAVING 22 The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) recently issued revised standard specifications for the construction of airports. This new standard, designated by the Advisory Circular (AC) 150/5370- 10H, contains significant changes from the previous version (-10G). AUTOMOTIVE INNOVATION 26 While automobile manufacturers continue to upgrade safety features in their cars, research think tanks and government agencies are also combining forces to design fast-acting, accurate data systems that will transfer information to new technologies designed to alleviate vehicle- related incidents before tragedy has the chance to become a reality. VIRGINIA ASPHALT A PUBLICATION OF THE V IRGINIA A SPHALT A SSOCIATION 6900 Patterson Avenue Richmond, VA 23226 Phone: (804) 288-3169 Email: cfahed@vaasphalt.com OFFICERS President Scott Claud Vice President David Horton Secretary Chris Blevins Treasurer David White 1st Ex-Officio Ed Dalrymple, Jr. 2nd Ex-Officio David G. Helmick Directors Dennis O’Connor; Brent Moore; C.R. Langhorne, III; Sheila Cramer; Blair Williamson; Jerry Short; F. Marshall Luck, Jr.; Tim Boone; Kevin Jones; Bobby Hedrick; Ken Arthur; David Branscome, Jr. STAFF Executive Vice President Trenton M. Clark, P.E. Vice President of Engineering David T. Lee, P.E. Director of Technical & Member Services Mike C. Dudley Office Manager Caroline R. Fahed DESIGN & ADVERTISING Advertising Sales: Ronnie Jacko Design & Layout: Jon Cannon For advertising opportunities and deadlines, contact LLM Publications at (800)647-1511 or ronniej@llmpubs.com . ©2019 V irginia A sphalt A ssociation All rights reserved. The contents of this publication may not be reproduced by any means, in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of the publisher. PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 2019