Sept. 30, 2011
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CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Researcher Dr. Mohamed Shahin, with ERDC's Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (CERL), was named 2011 Central Illinois Section Government Civil Engineer of the Year by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). He was recognized for career contributions in advancing the state of the art in pavement asset management, which revolutionized the maintenance and rehabilitation (M&R) process for public works managers.
Shahin developed the PAVER& maintenance management system in the late 1970s to help the Department of Defense (DOD) manage the M&R of its vast inventory of pavements. PAVER& applies a Pavement Condition Index (PCI&)—a scale ranging from 0 (failed) to 100 (excellent)—to inspector-collected field data to produce a consistent description of pavement condition. This technology enables users to reliably predict and prioritize M&R needs and budget requirements. The PCI& for airports was accepted as an ASTM standard in 1993 (D5340), and the PCI& for roads and parking lots became an ASTM standard in 1999 (D6433).
Over the past five years, Shahin led development and integration of new methods and technologies to produce a fully updated version of PAVER&. Benefits of the newest PAVER& revision, version 6.5, include expanded data collection capabilities, networking capabilities, Web accessibility, powerful modeling tools to optimize M&R budgets, rating system improvements, new support for accurate pavement asset inventories and DOD Real Property Inventory Requirements, and integration with Pavement-Transportation Computer Assisted Structural Engineering. These improvements have transformed PAVER& into a complete pavement life-cycle management system that encompasses pavement M&R, structural evaluation, and pavement design.
The ASCE Illinois Central Section presented the award to Shahin at a ceremony in Champaign Sept. 22.