Civil engineering society, federal government
honor URI graduate students

Research probes effectiveness of maintenance
and rehab of asphalt

KINGSTON, R.I.-- January 19, 2000 -- The American Society of Civil Engineers and the Federal Highway Administration have honored two University of Rhode Island graduate students for their research probing the effectiveness of different maintenance and rehabilitation strategies for asphalt pavements.

Todd Brayton, originally of Tiverton and now a Newport resident, and George F. Monaghan Jr., of Cumberland, have been named the Society's Zone 1 winners of the 1999 International Contest on Long Term Pavement Performance (LTPP) for their paper, The Effects of Maintenance and Rehabilitation Alternatives for Asphalt Pavements in New England and New York.

Zone 1 for the competition covers all of the New England states, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and Puerto Rico.

Brayton and Monaghan examined the effectiveness of maintenance and rehabilitation activities on the Long Term Pavement Performance sections included in the DataPave software for New England and New York. The two found that maintenance activities such as crack sealing and patching do serve their intended purpose of slowing the negative effects of the environment on the pavement by stopping the intrusion of water.

"It is also shown that rehabilitation activities, hot-mix asphalt overlays, can effectively improve both the function (roughness and skid resistance) and structural performance of the pavements," the two said in their paper.

The pair's work will be available to transportation engineers, transportation administrators, consultants and contractors.

"Your paper clearly demonstrates the value of using the LTPP Database to support advances in engineering theory and practice related to pavements," the Society said in its congratulatory letter.

Brayton and Monaghan have been invited to publish the paper in a compendium of selected papers demonstrating uses of the LTPP Databases in engineering analysis.

"We congratulate you for your winning effort and thank you for your contribution toward advancing the effective use of the LTPP Database," the society said.

The duo was awarded plaques and a $1,500 cash prize.

Brayton and Monaghan each wrote half of the 22-page paper and the accompanying 30-page appendix. "Todd did a great job tying it all together," said Monaghan, a part-time graduate student in civil engineering and vice president and director of Rhode Island operations for Bryant Associates in Lincoln. Brayton will join Monaghan at Bryant once he completes his full-time studies for a master's degree in civil engineering.

"This is the first time URI has won an award of this magnitude," said K. Wayne Lee, URI professor of civil engineering and major professor of the two graduate students. "This puts URI on the national map."

Brayton's and Monaghan's research is part of a 20-year ongoing project run by the Federal Highway Administration called Long Term Pavement Performance (LTPP), which is the catalyst behind improving pavement and highway infrastructure performance. The database software containing LTPP data is DataPave, which is available to all students, engineers, and practitioners for the international contest.

In addition to co-authoring an award-winning paper, Brayton was also chosen by the URI Transportation Center as its Student of the Year. "This is an honor, both for you as well as for the Center in the light of your outstanding achievements for us," said Daniel W. Urish, URI professor of civil and environmental engineering and director of the center.

Brayton was also recognized by the U.S. Department of Transportation during a ceremony on Monday, Jan. 10 as part of the Transportation Research Board week. The URI Transportation center provided funding for transportation and lodging.

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For Further Information: Dave Lavallee 401-874-2116