Paving Florida’s Future

Pavewise Concrete Conference, bringing together industry, agency and academics to share best practice and new research. Creating an atmosphere for open discussion, learning and collaboration to grow and foster a healthy concrete paving industry in Florida.

PaveWise 2025 Florida’s Concrete Pavement Conference is your once-a-year opportunity to exchange information and technology with transportation industry professionals. No matter your role, planner, engineer, contractor, owner or academic there is something for you. Learn how to incorporate resiliency into the road planning process. Follow a panel discussion on best practices where industry and government experts will share their knowledge and experiences in their field of expertise. This year’s conference will be held at the ChampionsGate Orlando, on October 20-21.

Conference Schedule

Monday

October 20, 2025

Hot Topics | 1:30pm – 3:15pm
Matt Sitter
President
Florida Concrete & Products Association
Welcome

Florida Concrete and Products Association has a long history in the State of Florida and is the local chapter of the American Concrete Pavement Association with dedicated staff supporting local concrete paving projects. Join the conference to hear how we are working hard to help Florida transition to a more resilient state.

Leaf

Jamie Farny
Director, Environmental Measurement and Metrics

American Cement Association
Working with US Blended Cements in 2025 and Beyond

Since 2020, the use of blended cements in the US has increased steadily.  Understanding the properties and performance of blended cements helps to inform appropriate specifications, as well as when and how to tweak practices used with traditional portland cement concrete to achieve successful implementation of blended cements across all applications.

Matt Fonte
President
Fonte & Co.
Performance Engineered Mixtures and How they Impact Concrete Through the Paver

This session will define Performance Engineered Mixtures (PEM) for concrete. We will look at how using PEM can impact the concrete in front of, underneath, and behind the paver.

Kevin McMullen, P.E.
President
McMullen Pavement Consulting, LLC.

Benefits of Concrete Maturity Testing

This discussion focuses on the maturity method which relates time and heat of hydration to concrete strength. AASHTO T 413 focuses on concrete’s early age properties which offers benefits to agency and industry.

Coffee Break

3:15 PM – 3:30 PM

Resilience| 3:30pm – 5:10pm
Tyler
Leif Wathne, P.E.
Associate Director
CP Tech Center
Improving Pavement Resilience to Flooding

Traditional pavement engineering essentially assumes that the various soil and base layers under the pavement will remain at or near optimum moisture forever. This is no longer consistent with good engineering practice based on the circumstances that our pavements are subjected to in today’s environment. This presentation will discuss how we adjust and design our pavements to be resilient to inundation. In addition, the presentation will highlight options available to make our existing roadway inventory resilient and present an approach on how to get started given significant budget restraints.

Tyler
Matt Zeller, P.E.
Pavement Promoter
Concrete Paving Association of Minnesota (CPAM)
Concrete Overlays – The Minnesota Experience

Minnesota has been constructing concrete overlays for 35+ years with great success. This presentation will discuss the various applications and designs as well as how to develop a successful project with a focus on concrete overlays of existing asphalt pavements. Design attributes such as thickness, opening to traffic, jointing, traffic control will be touched on as well as some lesson learned.

Tuesday

October 21, 2025

Why Choose Concrete? | 8:30am – 10:00am
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Stacy Hill, BBA
FDOT Construction Senior Project Manager
Florida Department of Transportation, District 1
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Ben Harris
Construction Project Manager
Eisman & Russo, Inc.
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Dan Foss, P.E.
Senior Project Manager & Principal
Eisman & Russo, Inc.
Concrete Pavement Success in an Urban Setting

Discussion of key aspects for successful use of concrete pavement for reconstruction and widening of an urban roadway and interchange reconfiguration in District 1. The presentation uses the recently completed FDOT project, US 27 at SR 60 interchange, as an example of design, construction, and public interaction techniques that led to completing concrete pavement more efficiency with higher quality and reduced impact to traffic. The project included reconstructing and widening over 1 mile of US 27 to a 6-lane divided urban typical with 9” Plain Cement Concrete Pavement (46,481 SY) and two new interchange ramps with 8.5” Plain Cement Concrete Pavement (6,805 SY).

Leaf
Kris McKirdy, P.E.
Project Manager
Florida Department of Transportation, District 4
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Deborah Hernández-Cedeño, P.E.
Deputy Roadway Department Manager
KCA
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Carlos Rosero, P.E.
Roadway Department Manager
KCA
SR 710 Concrete Pavement Overlay — Overview and Methodology

FDOT District Four is advancing concrete pavement solution for SR 710/Beeline Highway, a high-speed, freight-critical corridor with heavy truck volumes to address pavement distress, improve durability, and reduce life-cycle maintenance. This presentation offers an overview of why concrete is being considered, interoffice coordination, the pavement design approach, temporary traffic control phasing to minimize community impacts, and drainage strategy.

Leaf
Bao-Ying Wang, P.E., CPM
Project Management Engineer Supervisor
Florida Department of Transportation, District 6
Leaf
Adebayo (Bayo) Coker, P.E.
President, CEO
HBC Engineering Company
Okeechobee Road Reconstruction Project: Concrete Pavement Selection and Implementation

This presentation provides an overview of the Okeechobee Road Reconstruction Project, focusing on the District Six’s process for selecting candidate corridors for concrete pavement. It covers the ongoing project lifecycle, including pavement selection methodology, planning, design, and construction phases. The presentation concludes with engineering lessons learned from reconstruction projects within the corridor to inform future applications.

Leaf
Daniel Lauricello, P.E.
Roadway Design Engineer
Florida Department of Transportation, District 7
SR 710 Concrete Pavement Overlay — Overview and Methodology

FDOT District Four is advancing concrete pavement solution for SR 710/Beeline Highway, a high-speed, freight-critical corridor with heavy truck volumes to address pavement distress, improve durability, and reduce life-cycle maintenance. This presentation offers an overview of why concrete is being considered, interoffice coordination, the pavement design approach, temporary traffic control phasing to minimize community impacts, and drainage strategy.

FDOT Panel Discussion

D1, D4, D6, and D7

Coffee Break

10:00 AM – 10:15 AM

Look to the Future | 10:15am – 12:00pm
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Dr. Bruno Fong-Martinez, PhD, P.E.
Concrete Engineer
Kiewet Engineering Group
Leaf
Mauricio Davila, P.E.
Superintendent
Kiewit Infrastructure South Co.
Concrete Paving at the Orlando International Airport (P-501 & P-306)
Since 2019, Kiewit has been leading concrete paving efforts at Orlando International Airport, delivering high-performance pavement solutions across multiple phases of the South Terminal C expansion and beyond. This presentation will explore the technical and logistical aspects of implementing Portland Cement Concrete (PCC) pavement under FAA Item P-501 and P-306 specifications, with a focus on durability, sustainability, and operational efficiency.
Attendees will gain insights into:
• The scope and evolution of concrete paving at MCO, including taxiways, aprons, and landside applications
• Mix design strategies and aggregate reactivity testing protocols used to meet stringent FAA and LEED v4 BD+C standards
• Equipment and construction sequencing tailored to airport operations and security constraints
• Real-world challenges such as material shortages, weather, batch plant maintenance and how the challenges were resolved collaboratively with GOAA and subcontractors
• Lessons learned and best practices that can be applied to future airport infrastructure projects.
Brian
Sarah Dalton, P.E.
Senior Director of Engineering and Construction
American Concrete Pavement Association
Concrete Pavement Smoothness: From Initial Construction to Lifetime Performance

This session offers a comprehensive exploration of concrete pavement smoothness, starting with a clear definition of the International Roughness Index (IRI) and an overview of modern measurement devices. We’ll then delve into best practices for achieving optimal smoothness during initial pavement construction. The presentation will also highlight the significant benefits of grinding older pavements to restore ride quality, and conclude with a discussion on various texture types and their impact on pavement noise.

Dr. Chaofeng Wang, PhD, P.E.
Assistant Professor of Artificial Intelligence in Built Environment
University of Florida
AI-enabled Scalable Road Distress Management

Artificial intelligence is transforming road distress management by enhancing the accuracy, efficiency, and scalability of pavement condition analyses. This presentation explores how AI-driven techniques process vast datasets of road surface images to detect and quantify various types of distress. By improving detection precision and automating large-scale assessments, AI enables faster data processing and better integration with maintenance planning. The presentation will introduce a framework that focuses on integrating AI with automated reporting and predictive maintenance tools to enhance operational efficiency, improve long-term infrastructure planning, and optimize budget allocation. By leveraging AI-driven insights, this approach aims to extend pavement lifespan, improve safety, and enable more proactive maintenance across diverse transportation networks.

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