The 12th ICPT 2021 was held from 14 to 15 July 2021 in Columbo, Sri Lanka. It was the first time the ICPT was held online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The conference is a longstanding event that brings together road and airport pavement researchers, engineers, and governmental officials to promote pavement technological advancement worldwide. The event was organised by the University of Moratuwa (Transportation Engineering Division) and supported by the Highway Engineering Society of Sri Lanka and the International ICPT Steering Committee.
There were over 250 participants from different countries including China, India, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, USA, Iraq, Iran, Nigeria, Libya, South Africa and Netherlands.
Day 1
On Day 1, the welcome addresses were delivered by Prof. Nalin Wickramarachchi (Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, University of Moratuwa), Prof. Wasantha Mampearachchi (Chair of the 12th ICPT 2021), Mr. R. W. Pemasiri (Secretary, Ministry of Highways of Sri Lanka) and Prof. Fwa Tien Fang (President of the Pavement Engineering Society (PES) and Chair of the ICPT International Steering Committee).
Welcome address by PES President, Prof. Fwa Tien Fang
There were two keynote lectures presented on the first day of the conference, namely,
- āAutomated 3D Pavement Condition Evaluation Using Machine Learning for Optimized Asset Managementā. By Prof. Yi-Chang James Tsai, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA.
- āHighway Pavement Healable Materials and Material Rejuvenationā. By Prof. Fengpeng Xiao, Tongji University, China.
PES delegates and participants at the conference
Day 2
On Day 2, the welcome addresses were delivered by Prof. Saman Bandara (Head of the Transportation Engineering Division, University of Moratuwa) and Prof. Chintha Jayasinghe (Head of Department of civil Engineering, University of Moratuwa). This was followed by two keynote lectures, namely,
- āPavement Design ā Past, Present and Futureā. By Prof. Animesh Das, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India.
- āUnbound Granular Pavements ā Key Challenges and Use of Recycled Materialsā. By Mr Jothi Ramanujam, Deputy Chief Engineer (Pavement, Materials and Geotechnical), Queensland Transport and Main Roads Department, Australia.
Broad Range of Pavement Topics
A total of 70 papers were presented at the 2-day conference. The topics include:
- Advances in Pavement Materials
- Airfield Pavement
- Sustainable Pavement Materials
- Pavement Friction
- Modelling of Pavement Materials
- Pavement Construction & Maintenance
- Pavement Management Systems
- Pavement Evaluation
- Pavement Condition Monitoring & Evaluation
- Pavement Design
- Porous Pavement
- Pavement Geotechnics
Announcement of next 13th ICPT 2023
The announcement of the next 13th ICPT 2023 was also presented by Prof. Zhang Jingxi from the Beijing University of Technology, China.
The 12th ICPT 2021 was successfully organized and we hope to meet again in 2023!
