Massachusetts Concrete & Aggregate Producers Association Executive Director Craig Dauphinais recently teamed up with NRMCA Senior Director, Local Paving, Doug O’Neill to help foster a new relationship with MassDOT and other players in the marketplace. For the last 10 years or so, there really was no contact between the state DOT and the concrete industry’s promotion effort in Massachusetts for a variety of reasons, O'Neill said. "As the new executive director, one of Craig’s goals was to make contacts within MassDOT and make some headway at bringing it up to speed on what concrete paving has to offer a state that is almost 100% asphalt." O’Neill stated.

The promotion team had meetings last week with not only MassDOT, where the interest was such that they were invited back to present to a committee on "innovations," but also with Baystate Roads, which is a cooperative effort among the Federal Highway Administration, Massachusetts Department of Transportation and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. The program provides technology transfer assistance to all communities in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as it relates to pavements. Up until now, they did not provide any education related to concrete pavements. Now that the lines of communication have been opened, Baystate Roads will be looking to MaCAPA/NRMCA to provide support for its educational offerings which will now include a concrete paving component.