AUSTIN, TX, November 7, 2013—In October, pavement engineering firm The Transtec Group’s Vice President and Chief Engineer Dr. Robert O. Rasmussen, PE, had the honor of delivering a keynote speech at the 2013 Dutch Concrete Road Symposium in the Netherlands. The symposium—in Dutch, Betonwegendag 2013—is a biennial meeting of industry leaders, agencies, builders, and owners committed to advancing concrete roadway safety, ride quality, and sustainability.
A discussion of concrete surfaces is fundamental to this commitment—the Netherlands is focusing on concrete surfaces in order to optimize their roads’ functional performance. Cement&BetonCentrum (The Dutch Cement and Concrete Centre) invited Dr. Rasmussen to the symposium as an expert in pavement surface characteristics’ effect on roadways.
At the symposium, Dr. Rasmussen shared his findings on the vast amount of variability in pavement surface texture. Texture measurements collected from around the world indicate that changes in construction operations and mix composition can significantly affect the final texture of a pavement—which contributes to pavement noise, safety, smoothness, and rolling resistance.
Dr. Rasmussen advocates for a collective understanding of how pavement texture can be manipulated during design and construction. Along with tightly controlled construction operations, this knowledge can help agencies, owners, and contractors build pavements that retain their desired texture and functional performance.
The Dutch Cement and Concrete Centre, CROW, and Bouwend Nederland (Building Netherlands) organized the Dutch Concrete Road Symposium. The event was held in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands on 10 October 2013, two years after returning from a 13-year break in 2011. After a well-received symposium in 2011, the organizers decided to continue it as a biennial event. For more information, please visit the official website at http://www.betonwegendag.nl.
About The Transtec Group: The Transtec Group is a pavement engineering firm that delivers exceptional engineering in pavement design, design/build, P3, research, pavement surfaces testing, pavement software development, and technology implementation. Transtec engineers pavements that reduce cost, accelerate schedules, and protect clients from risk. The firm has completed over 600 projects worth more than $20 billion on five continents and is a minority-owned small business based in Austin, Texas. For more information, please visit www.TheTranstecGroup.com.