ACPA Invests in Research, Outreach & Partnerships to Support Gains In Concrete Sustainability

ROSEMONT, Ill. (Jan. 28, 2025) — Last week at World of Concrete, the American Concrete Pavement Association (ACPA) delivered an assessment of where paving and infrastructure investment currently stands, the challenges state highway agencies and the industry will face in the near future, and steps toward addressing those challenges.

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) offered an historic opportunity to build up U.S. infrastructure. However, factors including inflation, project backlog and DOT turnover caused IIJA and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) funding to not stretch as far as the industry anticipated. This leaves certain key needs and goals unmet. The American Society of Civil Engineers, which will release its 2025 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure on March 25, has reported recently on several individual states, and those states mostly received grades of “C” or “C-,” with some declining from previous years.

This means it is critical for state highway agencies to prioritize better utilization of resources as they continue to pursue their goals. Concrete pavement offers economic sustainability along with environmental sustainability, longevity and resilience. Therefore, in 2025, the ACPA will continue to advocate at all levels of government for continued funding, support state highway agencies in collaborative efforts to effectively use that funding, and leverage the association’s strong industry partnerships to build out the science of concrete pavement’s sustainability including the economic, environmental and social benefits.

“Nationwide, growth in the concrete paving highway market has been modest. With the exception of one high-performing state, growth has been about 2.7%,” said Laura O’Neill Kaumo, president and CEO, ACPA. “We anticipate 4% to 5% growth in 2025 — but that forecast is not certain, and with the IIJA expiring in 2026, along with hearings beginning in Congress now about reauthorization, ACPA is calling on Congress to continue to invest in highway infrastructure and for state highway agencies to have a plan to use their resources as effectively as possible. Collectively, we can rebuild our nation’s infrastructure, make safety and resilience a priority and grow the industry.”

Tying in with research that was reported in the 2023 ACPA white paper, “Concrete Pavement’s Role in a Sustainable, Resilient Future,” 2025 initiatives will include:

• Support for DOTs as they introduce greater levels of competition into the pavement bidding process, with a goal of achieving lower materials costs. Research to date shows that competition between material industries (inter-industry competition) has a larger impact than competition between multiple contractors (intra-industry competition). ACPA will also allocate funds in 2025 for further research on how inter- and intra-industry competition reduce unit costs.
• Demonstrating how concrete pavements, with their rigid construction, offer resilience that contributes to sustainability’s triple bottom line (social, environmental and economic). Research has shown that rigid concrete pavements maintain their structural integrity after flooding events better than asphalt and are well equipped to perform under nearly all disaster recovery efforts. This level of resilience is becoming critical as weather-related disasters cost increasing amounts of money.
• Continued investment in RC3, an industry consortium of experts that provides direct expertise to state highway agencies. The RC3 was formed in 2024 to disseminate federal funding information, facilitate agencies’ Low Carbon Transportation Materials grant applications, provide technical assistance, and enhance contractor preparedness. In 2025, RC3’s definition and support of sustainability will expand to meet the ever-evolving needs of the industry, with an emphasis on pursuing longevity, resilience, innovation and economic performance.
• Collaborating with the MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub (CSHub) on its simplified pavement life-cycle assessment (LCA) tool.

“This simplified pavement LCA tool reduces complexity, while maintaining scientific rigor, making it as easy to use as possible to assess environmental impacts of pavements. The tool will also expand to account for the economic sustainability conferred by pavements systems with the incorporation of life-cycle cost analysis (LCCA),” said Eric Ferrebee, senior director of technical services, ACPA.

“Weaver Bailey Contractors and all the ACPA members want to work — this is a message I’ve been trying to amplify. They want the opportunity to build projects that will last generations,” said Don Weaver, president of Weaver-Bailey Contractors, Inc.
The press conference also featured an update from ACPA affiliate International Grooving & Grinding Association (IGGA), highlighting research on the relationship between poor maintenance practices and the exponential deterioration of highway systems and announcing the recent release of its white paper “Dowel Bar Retrofits: The History of Repairing Faulted Pavements.” The new white paper offers a technical overview of DBR, a history of states’ research, and case studies of successful implementation over the years.

“The World Bank evaluated pavements in South Africa and determined that if minor pavement distresses are left unaddressed for three years, the repair cost will increase by six times. If left unaddressed for five years, the cost could increase to as much as 18 times. This shows the relationship between poor maintenance practices and the exponential deterioration of highway systems, which has a drastic impact on the economic opportunities of highway agencies,” said Nick Davis, the Director of Technical Services at the IGGA.

The IGGA presentation covered several critical concrete preservation methods, with special emphasis on dowel bar retrofit (DBR), a technique in which mechanical load transfer devices are added to joints in pavements.

The Oklahoma Turnpike Authority “has benefited by using DBR on our older concrete pavements,” according to Joe Echelle PE MBA, Executive Director, Oklahoma Turnpike Authority. “At less than $500K/mile of four-lane roadway, we have been able to achieve a smoother pavement which will no doubt extend the service life at a fraction of the cost for full replacement. By saving money utilizing DBR we have been able to focus more money on bridge rehabilitations and safety improvements.”

Visit acpa.org and igga.net.