Infrastructure Insider Web Event Series - April 2021 - Plastic: The Future of Performance Roads & Colorado's Longest-Running Smart Highway Work Zone

April 28, 2021

Wednesday, April 28, 2021

Each session offers a professional development hour credit. You can REGISTER HERE for free.

Session 1: Plastic: The Future of Performance Roads

12 p.m. Eastern | 11 a.m. Central

The industry is buzzing with “plastic in roads.” But every pavement manager knows the importance of meeting sustainability goals without “turning our roads into landfills,” or negatively impacting the life of the road. See how the Neo binder - after 8 years of R&D - is helping pavement owners make roads last 2 - 3 times longer, while delivering huge wins for sustainability (think 150,000 plastic bottles/lane mile and 90% greenhouse gas emissions). Neo is used in a modified Cold In-place Recycling process and can also serve as a wearing course.

Neo has been in the lab since 2012 and in roads since 2015. LA City started in-ground demos in early 2020 - most recently using Neo to recycle the worst-rutted bus lane in LA in a high-profile, high-traffic location in front of Disney Hall.

Join Sean Weaver, the Founder of Neo, and Keith Mozee, Assistant Director of Streets LA, as they share about this groundbreaking technology, the results, and what it’s like to use Neo in the field.

Learning Objectives:

  • Understand the Neo polymer-based binder: what it is, how it works
  • Hear directly from Streets LA about their experience using this technology in their roads
  • Review key performance and sustainability data from the lab and field
  • Understand key considerations in using a polymer-based binder to achieve your performance, budget, or sustainability goals

Speakers:

Sean Weaver
Neo Founder and President, Neo

Keith Mozee
Assistant Director, Streets LA

Session 2: How Colorado's Longest-Running Smart Highway Work Zone is Saving Lives

3 p.m. Eastern | 2 p.m. Central

With over 80,000 vehicles per day, the stretch of I-25 located between Denver and Colorado Springs is one of Colorado’s busiest roads. In 2018 CDOT kicked off a $350M, three-year project to provide the first major improvements to this roadway since the 1950s. Project stakeholders identified early on that safety for motorists and workers would be the #1 priority on the project and that using Smart Work Zone technology and hardware would be a critical piece in accomplishing that goal.

This roundtable discussion will consist of representatives from Colorado DOT, Kraemer North America (prime contractor), and Street Smart (Smart Work Zone system integrator).  We’ll discuss why CDOT has placed such a strong emphasis on the use of Smart Work Zones, detailed review of the queue warning, trucks entering highway, travel time, alternate route, CCTV trailers, variable speed limit, radar speed feedback systems used.

Learning Objectives:

  • Receive an overview of Smart Work Zones and how they can be tailored to each project to optimize safety
  • Understand that these systems are not a futuristic idea but instead, something that has been around for over 17 years with a steady trend of increased adoption across the U.S./Canada
  • Understand the approximate cost of these systems and examples of how these systems are financed
  • Leave equipped with enough information to take back to their organization and be able to provide recommendations for economical Smart Work Zone solutions that they can incorporate into their next project

Panelists include:

  • Paul Neiman- Colorado DOT
  • Mike Blasi- Kraemer North America
  • Chad Palmer- Street Smart
  • Brady Markell- Street Smart