6/5/97 Contact: Gayle Mitchell or Shad Sargand, Ohio University Department of Civil Engineering, 614-593-1465

Attention Editors, News Directors: A dedication ceremony for the Accelerated Pavement Load Facility will be at 10 a.m. Wednesday, June 11 on the Lancaster campus.

ATHENS, Ohio -- Engineers at Ohio University are on a quest to build a better road, an effort they will find easier with the opening of a new pavement research facility on the university's Lancaster campus.

The Accelerated Pavement Load Facility is a joint project between engineers at Ohio University and Ohio State University. Officials from both universities, the Ohio Board of Regents, the Ohio Department of Transportation, the Federal Highway Administration and other government agencies will be on hand Wednesday, June 11 to dedicate the facility. Opening ceremonies begin at 10 a.m. and will be followed by an open house.

Construction of the $1.65 million facility -- the nation's largest indoor test facility for the study of roads designed for commercial travel -- began in May 1996.

"Since the Accelerated Pavement Load Facility is an indoor facility, we can determine pavement response for different moisture and temperature conditions, as well as vehicular loading," said Shad Sargand, director of the facility and Russ professor of civil engineering at Ohio University. "This will allow us to separate the impact of the effect of each variable, which you cannot do in the outdoor environment of a public road."

The 4,100-square-foot center -- which was funded by the Ohio Board of Regents, Ohio University and Ohio State University -- will allow researchers to do a variety of tests to measure road performance and durability.

The facility is the only pavement research center in the country that allows testing of both concrete and asphalt pavement under highly controlled environmental conditions. Environmental controls within the facility will enable scientists to mimic different weather conditions -- ranging temperatures from 10 degrees to 110 degrees Fahrenheit, and creating different moisture situations that imitate climatic conditions.

Special loading mechanisms will make it possible to apply up to 30,000 pounds of force on the pavement and monitor the impact on durability under different climate conditions. But more importantly, the indoor facility will allow researchers to collect in a matter of months information that can take years to gather from an actual road.

"With this facility, new design concepts and new and different pavement materials can be studied and verified in a short period of time," Sargand said. "If these types of studies were done on an actual road, results would take longer to occur and the studies would not be cost effective."

Students and faculty from both universities will be involved in research projects at the facility, and the data collected will be included in a database that is being designed by engineers at Ohio University. The information eventually will be included in a similar national database and made available to engineers and scientists around the country, Sargand said.

"Since climate conditions from different regions of the United States can be simulated at the facility, the research can benefit engineers in other states," Sargand added.

The pavement facility is part of the Ohio Research Institute for Transportation and the Environment, a new institute that brings together the different research centers and projects in the Department of Civil Engineering in Ohio University's Russ College of Engineering and Technology. Gayle Mitchell, professor and chair of civil engineering, is director of the institute, which was created in April, following approval by the university's Board of Trustees.

"This facility will provide students with a unique educational experience that also can be shared with others through using the facility as an electronic classroom'," Mitchell said. "It also will provide verification for models that are used for design and analysis of pavement, which would be very beneficial to engineers working in the pavement area."