As owners and operators of the nation’s surface transportation infrastructure, state departments of transportation (DOTs) are striving to design and build longer lasting and more cost-effective asphalt pavements that meet a higher level of sustainability, safety and user satisfaction for the public. To achieve this goal, state DOTs continue to adopt innovative technologies and optimized practices for designing, constructing, and preserving asphalt pavements. The adopted innovative technologies and practices are often developed from the collaborative research efforts supported by the state DOTs, Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), and industry. To continue fostering the development of new technologies and practices, this pooled fund study will identify and address national priority research and implementation needs for asphalt pavements that state DOTs face today and in the future. CAPRI will operate as a voluntary consortium of flexible pavement stakeholders that is open to all state, local, and federal highway agencies, industry associations, individual companies, academic institutions and research organizations. The Alabama DOT will serve as the lead state and the National Center for Asphalt Technology (NCAT) at Auburn University will handle administrative duties for the project. Each participating entity may appoint one voting representative to CAPRI.

The goals of CAPRI are to: • Provide technical guidance on current and evolving specifications for asphalt materials. • Develop asphalt pavement research needs. • Conduct small-scale studies to address knowledge gaps or explore new topics. • Foster the implementation of practical research findings to help improve the performance, sustainability, value, and safety of asphalt pavements. As a consortium of all asphalt pavement stakeholders, CAPRI will be a key resource to the AASHTO Committee on Materials and Pavements, state DOTs, FHWA, and industry.

Activities related to the above goals will be developed through semi-annual meetings rotated among participating organizations. CAPRI meetings will serve as a forum to facilitate knowledge sharing among participants. Outcomes of CAPRI meetings will include technical guidance articles on high profile issues, and research need statements (RNSs) organized into a new National Asphalt Research Roadmap (NARR) that will be made public through a website managed and maintained by NCAT. Recognizing the existence of specialized topics within asphalt pavement engineering and the range of expertise that CAPRI participants will bring to the forum, CAPRI meetings will be organized into topics led by committees that focus on asphalt binders, asphalt mixtures, pavement design, construction, maintenance/rehabilitation, pavement-vehicle interaction, and other committees as the need arises in the future. More details about the CAPRI operation are provided in the full announcement. The activities and deliverables of CAPRI are as follows: • Organize semi-annual meetings that include presentations on research of national significance, discussions on implementation and technology transfer, and activities organized by the committees. • Identify issues with current asphalt-related standards and share potential solutions to help move standards forward to ultimately improve pavement performance. • Identify short-term and long-term research needs and strategically prioritize the needs so the most urgent and impactful opportunities are addressed first. • Develop research need statements (RNSs) and identify the appropriate source(s) of funding for each project. Organized RNS into the National Asphalt Research Roadmap and publish it on the website. • Select and prioritize small-scale, exploratory, kick-off studies that can be funded directly by CAPRI to address gaps in the path to implementation, gather additional information to assess the magnitude of perceived problems, and/or explore new technologies. • Assist in the deployment of research findings by selecting and prioritizing activities such as conducting workshops, refining and shepherding of standards, demonstration project assistance, which can be funded through CAPRI or from other sources. • Publish progress reports that document the results of the entire project

The proposed project funding is $300,000 per year (30 states x minimum $10,000 per state) with a total of 1,500,000 for five years. The participation levels for state DOTs are as follows: • $10,000 per year to support the pooled fund and one voting representative to attend semi-annual meetings. Agencies may have additional non-voting persons participate in the semi-annual meetings at an additional $4,000 per person per year. • Agencies may contribute additional funds, beyond the base contribution, for other specific research, training, and implementation activities that meet their needs. These activities may be funded and overseen by individual states or a group of states that have the same needs.