Last week, I had the pleasure of attending the AASHTO Comp meeting on materials and pavements. If you haven’t heard of AASHTO, it’s the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. AASHTO has a set of specifications and testing procedures for all materials that go into state DOT public works projects, including bridges, paint, aggregates, asphalt materials, and more. Representatives from every state attend to propose and vote on industry-wide changes to these specs and test procedures. These meetings help us stay up-to-date with specifications and testing procedures that potentially affect Polyco’s products.

In addition to staying up-to-date, attending AASHTO gives me a chance to meet with people in different levels of the DOT from across the country. It’s a great opportunity to exchange ideas with them, as well as with the many vendors who make products that Polyco uses.

If you aren’t part of a DOT, but are a professional in one of the fields AASHTO specifications/procedures represents, you can register to attend meetings. You won’t be able to vote, but you can offer input and stay on the frontline of proposed changes.

At last week’s meeting, only minor changes to testing procedures for materials and pavements came up at the committee meeting I attended. As always, it was an honor to be part of the committee meetings to ensure we’re on track and to offer input that shapes the future of our industry.