Technology Transfer for Better Roads

1

Third Quarter 1999

Caminos Caminos

Publication No. FHWA-PL-99-029/HPIP/9-99/(3.5M)EW

Newsletter of the Pan American Institute of Highways

NATIONAL HIGHWAY INSTITUTE 

Your Training Partner for Success

Since 1971, the National Highway Institute (NHI), the

training department of the Federal Highway Administration

(FHWA), has offered courses to transportation

professionals in the United States and throughout the world.

In 1998, more than 15,000 professionals participated in

nearly 550 classes on topics ranging from engineering to

time management. Through close cooperation with the NHI,

there has been a special emphasis on collaboration with the

Pan American Institute of Highways (PIH) to deliver

courses in Spanish and Portuguese and to explore

partnerships with other entities that share the common

technology transfer mission in Latin American countries.

The most innovative practices in

highway technology

For FHWA, training is the key to advancing the latest

technology and best practices in highways applied to the

transportation system. This has been possible through close

partnerships with university research centers, private

companies, and associations. According to Jorge Pagan,

FHWA hydraulics engineer and NHI instructor in Washington,

DC, “We respond to our customers’ needs because we stay

abreast of up-to-date technology and research.”

The NHI supported PIH headquarters training activities and

delivered more than 100 courses in 14 different fields.

These include diverse topics such as Structures and

Hydraulics; Materials, Pavements, and Base Design;

Geotechnical Engineering; Design and Traffic Operations;

Construction and Maintenance; Environment; Planning;

Urban Planning; Highway Safety; and Intelligent

Transportation Systems (ITS).

ITS courses are the most recent addition to the NHI

curriculum, and they are already in high demand among

NHI customers. These courses cover highway, transit, and

multimodal topics. Some of the new courses have been

taught in Latin America.

The National Highway Institute is

getting better to better serve you

NHI has emphasized not only the development of the

subject matter of the courses, but also the delivery methods.

For this, experts in training and education have joined NHI

staff, working closely with course designers and instructors

to put the courses in a more interactive format. All 300 NHI

instructors will go through a certification process to ensure

consistent instructional quality and to encourage the use of

“learner-centered” training methods, which are particularly

suited to adult learners. This includes the instructor’s ability

to create an interactive environment in which participants

share experiences, discuss issues related to their jobs, and

apply the knowledge obtained from the course.

“We get many positive comments on the training because it

applies directly to what our employees do,” observed

William Hulbert, a hydraulics engineer from the South

Carolina’s

Department of

Transportation

(DOT). A similar

comment was made

by Arno Grey,

manager of

technical training

with the Illinois

DOT, “The

employees enjoy

the theory

combined with the

practical

experience. And

what they learn in

the classroom can

be applied on the

job the next day.”

(continued on p.4)

Inside . . . Inside . . .

Message from the Acting

Executive Director of the PIH ....... 2

To All My Friends in the PIH

Community ................................... 3

PROVIAL Seminar ........................5

Anti-Icing Technology ...................6

Centers Corner ............................ 8

Corporate Sponsors Corner........8
Technology Transfer for Better Roads

2

Message from the Acting

Executive Director of the PIH

Dear PIH members:

In my capacity as Acting Executive

Director in charge of the activities of

the PIH, I am delighted to send you

this message. First, I send my warmest

regards to all of you; second, it is my

pleasure to inform you of our

immediate plans to update the services

that the PIH Headquarters provides to

the highway community in the

Americas and Spain. These activities

are in direct response to the

recommendations made at the PIH

Executive Committee meeting, which

took place in Miami, May 1998.

By the time that you read this, the

Institute’s web page will be in service.

This tool will be essential if our

organization is to modernize its

operations regarding information

systems, and it forms part of a broader

concept that is the globalization in the

transfer of technology matters through

this excellent mechanism. This service

was long overdue, and we are very

pleased and grateful for all the hard

work at Headquarters to achieve this

important objective.

In addition to the many informational

services that it already includes, the PIH

web site (www.pih-ipc.org) will allow

you direct access to the web pages of

the network’s centers, as well as those

events that have their own web sites.

Additionally, it will facilitate your

access to the different organizations

and entities tied to highways and

transportation. This will have a

multiplier effect in information because

there are also links with other sources

of information with similar objectives.

The PIH leadership has also

recommended reestablishing the

Professional Loaned Staff Program,

in which 25 professionals from 11

countries have participated to date.

We will soon announce the specific

available projects, and we will then

open the competition to select from

professionals who are directly involved

in highway matters. Once they

complete their assignments, they will

contribute to the dissemination of

traditional and innovative technologies

in their respective countries and

organizations.

The training program, which between

1993 to 1997 conducted 108 courses

on 14 different topics, will be

revitalized and coordinated directly by

the PIH Headquarters, in collaboration

with other FHWA offices.

We invite you to use the services

provided by our web page, and we

welcome any information that you

would like to include in the web page.

Our objective is to transfer technology.

With your help, we can achieve it.

TERE FRANCESCHI

Acting PIH Executive Director

Pan American Institute

of Highways

Federal Highway Administration

400 Seventh Street, SW

Room 3258

Washington, DC 20590

Caminos is intended to transmit

both innovative and traditional

technology. It is produced by the

Headquarters of the Pan American

Institute of Highways (PIH) and

located at the Office of

International Programs. Comments

and address changes should be

sent to PIH at the address above.

Caminos is distributed to PIH

centers, to FHWAs Washington

Headquarters and field offices, the

transportation community in the

Americas, and agencies having

direct involvement with highway

technology transfer.

King W. Gee

Director General, PIH

Tere Franceschi

Acting PIH Executive Director

Caminos Editors

Phone: (202)366-0220

Fax: (202)366-3619

e-mail: pih-ipc@fhwa.dot.gov

Web site: www.pih-ipc.org

U.S. Department of Transportation

Federal Highway Administration
Technology Transfer for Better Roads

3

To All My Friends in the PIH Community . . .

After more than 30 years of service

with the Federal Highway

Administration (FHWA), I have

decided to end my public service

career and begin a second career

working in the private sector. I say in

the most emphatic terms that I am

very proud to have served

as a member of the

FHWA team, and I

appreciate the trust and

freedom that FHWA

management has given

me, especially over these

past 12 years of work

with the highway

community of the

Americas. Together, we

assembled the PIH

network. My work with

the FHWA has been a

blessing, both in the work

I have done and those

with whom I have had the pleasure

and honor of working.

For the past 12 years, I have been

FHWA’s representative to the

Americas, and I have tried my best to

always convey my high regard for

FHWA and for the FHWA family.

During those years, I have also

worked to represent the highway

community of the Americas to the

FHWA and to our many partners in the

United States. To those in the FHWA

and in the U.S., I say thanks for all of

your support that made it possible for

me and my colleagues at the PIH

Headquarters to transfer your

technology, research results,

processes, dreams, and yes, some of

your failures. We may never know

how helpful we have been in improving

service, reducing costs, and enhancing

safety — just to mention a few of the

results that I have seen in the

Americas.

To my colleagues in the Americas,

thanks for your trust, for showing me

your needs, for sharing with me your

activities, your research, your

problems, and your failures. Visiting

with your highway departments,

universities, associations, and the

private sector has always been a joy

and a privilege that few people ever

have. I always felt honored to visit and

share with you.

What will the future hold for the PIH

now that Greg Speier has retired?

There will be change, not because

there is a new executive director, but

more because we are part of a world

that is changing faster every day. The

PIH, as an international entity, must

change to keep pace with the rest of

the world. This PIH that we have

created together is serving the needs

of the highway community of the

Americas. With your continued support

and cooperative efforts, it can do that

job even better in the future.

Finally, allow me to publicly thank a

few of the very many special people

who have worked with me over the

last few years. First, Enrique Ordoñez,

who has been with the PIH since it

was first formulated as a concept

during the Pan American Highway

Congress of Mexico, 1986. Without

Enrique’s organizational skills we

would never have progressed. Next, I

thank Director General King Gee and

also Bob Ford, my supervisors in the

FHWA. Their commitment to make

the PIH network a model for other

regions of the world made

my work so much easier.

Finally, I recognize the

efforts of my friend, and

the President of the PIH

Executive Committee, Julio

Caballero. His advice and

mentoring have been

essential to our success.

In my final weeks of work

with the PIH, many of you

sent me letters, e-mail

messages, and faxes

expressing your thoughts. I

thank Daphne Speaks for

taking the time to place all of these in a

special book, a book that I will treasure

and that will help me remember.

My final prayer is that we can all find

ways to better work together. That is

the central reason for having a PIH

network. I know that we will be able

to do a better job of building,

maintaining, and operating our

respective highway and transportation

systems — if we can see how our

neighbors find solutions, extend our

hands to offer our solutions, and find

ways to make it possible for others to

learn from what we and our neighbors

have accomplished together. It is a

labor of love and dedication, two

characteristics that I have seen in so

many of you.

I look forward to my continued

involvement in the PIH network as one

more member in one of the truly

unique highway organizations of the

world.

GREG SPEIER
Technology Transfer for Better Roads

4

Partnerships

in Latin America

NHI has delivered its courses to

international audiences, particularly in

Latin America. To support these

important partnerships with Latin

America transportation organizations,

NHI acts as a Technology Transfer

Center (T2) of the Pan American

Institute of Highways network. NHI

participates in the PIH Loaned Staff

Program by sponsoring professionals

from Latin America who have

transportation training expertise.

NHI also has a training program

specifically for Latin America. The

main purpose of the program is to

offer training courses in the region that

emphasize course quality, meet local

needs at affordable prices, and

increase local capacity to affect

transportation issues.

Two professionals currently work in

the Latin American Program — a

senior international program specialist

and a loaned staff

from Brazil. Their

role is to identify

customers’ needs

and develop new

ways to make

training available

to those

countries.

Latin American

audiences have

three alternatives

for training

delivery, including:

1. Courses in the

United States

open to Latin American audiences:

• NHI Courses held in U.S.

• NHI International Course on

Pavement Training.

2. Courses in Latin America taught by

NHI instructors, mostly in English.

3. Courses in Latin America taught by

local instructors (NHI-licensed

courses). Licensing authorizes a

public or private organization to

translate and deliver NHI courses

in Latin American countries,

retaining the NHI name for the

course.

Free Courses

in the United States

For each course delivered in the

United States, NHI reserves two

openings for international participants,

free of tuition charges. Organizations

interested in sending professionals to

the United States pay only for the

The Learning Center of the National Highway Institute has

12 spacious training rooms equipped with modern

technology to facilitate new instructional methods such

as video conferencing and distance learning.

National Highway Institute

(Continued from p.1)

Visit our Web site...

pih-ipc@fhwa.dot.gov

400 7th Street SW, Washington, DC 20590 • 202-366-0220

The Web page provides an interactive

communications channel for use by all members

of the Pan American Institute of Highways (PIH)

network, such as: • Highway and Transportation

organizations • Professionals in the highway field

from Latin America and the Caribbean • Organizations

interested in the advancement of highway and

transportation technology • PIH Members and

Sponsors.

The Web page offers to its customers information on:

• Transfer of technology and dissemination of

research results • Training among professionals,

technicians, and other personnel in the highway

sector • Forum for exchange of information and

Pan American

Institute of Highways

www.pih-ipc.org

experience • Periodic publications • Schedule of

events • Sponsorship and membership

activities • Special programs such as PROVIALEXPOVIAL events and the Loaned Staff Program

• Access to the World Interchange Network

(WIN) • Establishment and maintenance of links

with the network of PIH centers • PIH sponsors

and other relevant web sites from organizations

related to highway and transportation activities.

The Web page will be updated the first day of

the month. If you would like to have information

published on the Web page, it must be made

available to the PIH headquarters by the 15th of

the previous month. Please submit information

for publication via the e-mail listed below.
Technology Transfer for Better Roads

5

PROVIAL Seminar 

Nuevo Leon, Mexico

participant’s travel and per diem costs.

To take advantage of this offer,

participants should have a good

knowledge of English.

Regular Courses

in the United States

Latin American participants can also

attend NHI courses in the United

States by paying full tuition costs. For

example, professionals from

Venezuela, Costa Rica, Honduras,

Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Mexico

participated in an International

Pavement Training Course in Reno,

Nevada.

Instructors Teach NHI

Courses in Latin

American Countries

Last year, 120 professionals from

Chile, Bolivia, and Peru attended NHI

courses delivered in their countries that

were sponsored by national transport

associations as part of their technology

transfer programs.

First License to Deliver

NHI Courses in Latin

America

With this license, public or private

organization in Latin America are

authorized to translate and teach NHI

courses. The NHI Bridge

Maintenance course will be the first

license awarded. A Brazilian company

is working with the NHI to obtain the

license and teach the course in Brazil.

To learn more about NHI’s

international activities, please contact

Gisa Bougleux (703) 235-0551, or

Liana Montero at (703) 235-0550, or

e-mail gisa.bougleux@fhwa.dot.gov or

liana.montero@fhwa.dot.gov.

Website: www.nhi.fhwa.dot.gov

PROVIAL Nuevo Leon

1999 Focuses on System

Preservation and

Institutional needs

Under the auspices of the Border

Technology Exchange Program, the

PIH and a team representing Mexico’s

Secretaria de Comunicaciones y

Transporte (SCT), the six Mexican

border states, and the southwestern

U.S. State Highway Agencies,

completed the second in a series of

border PROVIAL

Seminars. As the

host State, Nuevo

Leon provided the

facilities of the

Autonomous

University of

Nuevo Leon in

Monterrey, the

venue for this

Seminar held May

11 to 15. More

than 180

participants

attended lectures

and presentations

on Road

Maintenance and

Institutional

Reform by local

and international

speakers. The program was strongly

supported by each of the members of

the Border Technology Exchange

Program, which includes the 10 U.S./

Mexico Border States and both federal

governments. The program included

representatives of government

agencies, academia, and industry from

Mexico and the United States.

The 1999 PROVIAL Nuevo Leon

built on the foundation of the first

border PROVIAL held in May 1998,

in Chihuahua City, Chihuahua.

Presentations and workshops produced

a list of program needs and

recommended actions. The results and

recommendations from Nuevo Leon

reinforce those developed by the

practitioners in the workshops a year

earlier. Key actions and

recommendations include:

1. Economics and Maintenance

Funding. A top priority for both the

Federal and local levels is the need

for a trust fund or other dedicated

funding source.

2. Maintenance Planning. Establish a

maintenance program that is not

affected by political changes.

3. Training. Provide training to

personnel in charge of highway

maintenance for both the public and

private sector.

4. Corruption. Establish means to

improve salaries and implement

programs focused on raising ethics

of highway personnel at all levels of

government.

(continued on p.7)

From left to right: King W. Gee, PIH General Director;

Cedric I. Escalante, Secretaria de Comunicaciones y

Transporte (SCT); Oscar Bulnes, Representing the Governor

of Nuevo Leon, and Reyes Tamez Guerra, Universidad

Autonoma de Nueva Leon.
Technology Transfer for Better Roads

6

Anti-Icing Technology, Field Evaluation Report

Technical Summary

Introduction

Highway anti-icing is the practice of

controlling snow and ice to prevent the

formation or development of a bond

between the pavement and snow and

ice by timely applications of a chemical

freezing-point depressant. Its

operations consist of chemical

applications and coordinated plowing.

The prefix anti- signifies the

preventive nature of anti-icing and

distinguishes it from deicing, which is

the traditional practice of

mechanically or chemically

removing compacted snow or

ice that has already bonded to

pavement.

Anti-icing practices have

been used for many years.

The term has evolved to

mean a modern and efficient

snow and ice control practice

that systematically uses an

array of new technologies,

including road weather

information systems, sitespecific weather and

pavement condition forecasts, portable

pavement temperature sensors, and

sophisticated spreader equipment, as

well as conventional and traditional

technologies and practices.

Anti-icing can provide two major

benefits — efficient use of labor and

materials, and increased traffic safety.

The project reported here is Federal

Highway Administration (FHWA) Test

and Evaluation Project N° 28, AntiIcing Technology (T&E 28), which is

part of the FHWA Strategic Highway

Research Program (SHRP)

implementation.

Purpose and Scope

The purpose of the study was to

implement and evaluate existing

technologies tested and reviewed

under SHRP Project H-208,

Development of Anti-Icing

Technology, T&E 28, including antiicing testing over the course of two

winters and analysis of the resulting

data. The testing comprised field

operations and experiments by

highway agency personnel; the data

analysis consisted of graphical and

statistical analyses. The report

describes the field evaluation

experimental program, experimental

details of the sites, the data analysis,

results and interpretations of the

experiments, a cost analysis,

recommendations for anti-icing

practices, and conclusions and

recommendations for further work.

The report is not a guide to anti-icing

practices, rather it is a companion to

the Manual of Practice for an

Effective Anti-Icing Program: A

Guide for Highway Winter

Maintenance Personnel (FHWARD-95-202), which provides such

guidance.

Findings and

Conclusions

Fifteen States participated in the

project, each implementing anti-icing

operations at a test site or sites,

according to each State’s design and

preferences. In combination, these

operations provided a wide range of

practices for evaluation. Friction

measurements, pavement condition

observations, and judgments of agency

personnel determined their

effectiveness. The report documents

tens of thousands of these

measurements. They originate from

119 storm experiments, each consisting

of anti-icing operations on a “test

section,” conventional

operations on a “control

section,” and documentation

of the operations and the road

and weather conditions, and

collection of the effectiveness

data. Analyses of the data

sets from the storms were

individually and in blocks to

represent a given season and

site. The data were

predominantly from

snowstorms.

Anti-icing operations, without

the application of abrasives,

can lead to a considerably

higher degree of operational success

throughout a storm, relative to

conventional practice. Well-timed

chemical applications can prevent or

mitigate a reduction in friction, as well

as support the anti-icing objective of

preventing a strong bond from

developing. In place, vigilant and

systematic anti-icing operations can

achieve overall seasonal success in

preventing sustained packed snow

conditions. Yet, when a dangerous

snowpack does develop, prior antiicing applications can lead to a weaker

bond between the pavement and snow

and an earlier breakup of the pack.

Analysis of the combined effects of

pavement temperature, precipitation

rate, and traffic rate on friction
Technology Transfer for Better Roads

7

showed that: (1) reduced friction with

decreasing pavement temperature,

increased precipitation rate, and

decreased traffic rate should generally

be expected during a storm, even

when successful anti-icing operations

are conducted; and (2) of the three

variables, traffic rate appears to have

the weakest effect on friction, while

pavement temperature has the

strongest effect. The precipitation rate

occupies the middle ground. Further

analysis of friction with precipitation

showed that, in the storms of this

project, friction was considerably

lower in heavier snow than in light

snow, reflecting consistent

deterioration of pavement conditions

with increased snowfall intensity. Data

histories from many of the individual

storms support this finding, showing

that packed snow conditions are most

likely to occur soon after increased

snowfall intensity. These data, taken

together, suggest that snowfall intensity

should be considered as important a

variable as pavement temperature in

the design of anti-icing operations, and

that attention to snowfall intensity will

result in the greatest improvements in

anti-icing effectiveness, particularly

during the storm.

One of the most important conclusions

of this evaluation is the significance,

for this purpose, of a storm within a

storm approach to anti-icing

operations, which focuses not only on

chemical application before or near the

beginning of the storm, but also on

well-timed preventive applications

during the storm. This applies primarily

to light snow storms that contain short

periods of moderate or heavy snow,

and involves practices combining the

basis strategy of anti-icing (preventing

a bonded snowpack) with a

complementary strategy of limiting

reductions in friction caused by

increasing rates of snowfall.

While the implementation of anti-icing

practices should be thought of as a

means to systematically maintain roads

during winter storms and using

resources optimally to do so, it should

not automatically be thought of as an

improvement that will always reduce

overall costs. Most importantly, antiicing techniques provide the potential

and capability for maintaining roads in

the best condition possible during

winter storms, consistent with the level

of effort expended.

The secondary issue of savings

depends on the current practice, for

example, the level of service it

supports, the materials it uses, whether

it is more deicing than anti-icing, and

what information sources it uses. In

this project, the experiments generally

compared different anti-icing

operations. In general, this is because

the conventional operations at the sites

made good use of informational

sources, were prompt, were not

wasteful, and were performed in many

respects according to an anti-icing

strategy. As such, the study generally

does not demonstrate cost savings as

much as it reveals optimal techniques

for improving road safety.

For more specific conclusions and

recommendations, including

implementation possibilities, the reader

is encouraged to refer to the full

report.

———————

Reference: R.R. Blackburn, E.J.

McGrane, C.C. Chappelow, D.W.

Harwood, and E.J. Fleege,

Development of Anti-Icing

Technology. Report SHRP-H-385,

National Research Council,

Washington, DC, 1994.

Note: This technical summary

announces the completion of an

FHWA study that is fully documented

in a separate report (FHWA-RD-97-

132) of the same title. FHWA Contact:

B.H. Chollar, HRN-20, (703) 285-

2342.

To address the recommendations

developed by the Border States’

PROVIALS, a Maintenance Action

Team (MAT) will be created and include

key representatives of the Mexican

SCT, the six northern Mexican States,

the FHWA, and several U.S. State

Highways Agencies. This team would

provide follow-up actions and activities

to assist in implementing the

recommended actions.

The venue for the PROVIAL Nuevo

Leon 1999 was also the occasion for

the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the

newest border area Technology

Transfer Center (T2). This center,

located at the Autonomous University of

Nuevo Leon, is the third of six centers

proposed as part of a network of

centers along the U.S.-Mexico border

region. The border states T2 Centers

will provide technology exchange,

training, and transportation information

to the Mexican states and local

governments, and will be similar to

those established in the U.S. and

internationally.

As a result of interest at this PROVIAL,

several U.S. industry representatives

indicated a willingness to assist by

conducting a hands-on technical training

workshop on Slurry, Micro Seal, and

Chip Seal Mix design and application.

The FHWA will work with the U.S.

industries and the border states to bring

this to fruition. Most discussions

focused on developing and presenting

this workshop, which is to be developed

and presented by early fall.

Building on the success and interest of

the two border PROVIAL Seminars in

the region, the third U.S.-Mexico Border

Region PROVIAL Seminar is being

planned for March 28 to 31, 2000. The

State of Baja California will host the

seminar. For additional information on

this upcoming meeting, contact Mr.

Sergio Pallares, California Department

of Transportation (CALTRANS), at

(619) 688-3136.

PROVIAL Seminar

(Continued from p.5)
Technology Transfer for Better Roads

8

Ecuadorian Society of

Transportation Engineering

The Ecuadorian Society of

Transportation Engineering (known by

its Spanish acronym, SEIT) was

created in 1983, as an agency of the

College of Civil Engineers of

Pichincha, Ecuador. SEIT provides a

forum for analyzing, studying, and

disseminating technological advances

in highway engineering matters and

provides an opportunity for executives

of the government’s transportation

policies and infrastructure entities to

collaborate on ways to improve the

highway system in Ecuador.

SEIT joined the technology transfer

network as a regular center in 1994,

and in 1996, it received Certification as

a PIH technology transfer center.

Currently, the society has more than

150 members who represent various

facets of the highway community,

including construction companies,

consultants, and civil engineers.

Gilson Company, Inc.

Gilson Company sells quality

instrumentation and know-how,

particularly in the areas of SHRP and

Superpave. When Gilson Company, Inc.

looked for a way to expand its reach into

Latin America, it saw the Pan American

Institute of Highways’ Corporate

Sponsorship program as an ideal way

to reach its direct market. Gilson joined

the PIH network in 1996.

After participating in several PIHsponsored activities, Gilson Company

donated several testing instruments to

the PIH mobile pavement-testing truck,

which was showcased at numerous

meetings. The contribution was one of

several made by Corporate Sponsors

that helped make the mobile PIH

center a reality.

As the Gilson Company’s Fawaz

Hamaoui says, “Working with PIH has

helped us reach many contacts and has

given the firm a better idea of the nature

of the different markets, needs, and

opportunities throughout Latin America.

At the same time, professional engineers

in the region are very interested in the

know-how and results that we offer.

We look forward to participating in

future trade shows and PROVIALS,

which are so valuable. Everyone

always learns something useful.”

P.O. Box 200

Lewis Center, Ohio 43035-0200

Phone: 1-740-548-7298

Fax: 1-740-548-5314

www.globalgilson.com

Editor’s note: Upcoming issues of Caminos

will feature articles about corporate sponsors

and their activities with PIH. To be featured, or

to join PIH as a corporate sponsor, please

contact or visit, www.pih-ipc.org

CENTERS CORNER CORPORATE SPONSORS

CORNER

SEIT Mission and

Activities

SEIT’s mission is to collaborate with

the highway community and with the

organizations that execute the national

highway plan. Currently, with the

support of the Economic Commission

for Latin America and the Caribbean

(CEPAL), SEIT advises the Ministry

of Public Works in preparing the

Program for the Financial and

Institutional Reform of Maintenance in

the country and city of Quito.

SEIT also maintains a wide

collaboration in the area of highway

engineering with the Catholic

University of Guayaquil and the

Military Polytechnic School in the city

of Quito. Recently, SEIT completed a

technical symposium with the

Ecuadorian Corporation for

reconstructing the Litoral Region,

which was affected by the El Niño

phenomenon. Participants represented

different sectors involved in this

problem.

Additionally, SEIT is in the preliminary

planning stages for the Second

National PROVIAL, which will take

place in the city of Guayaquil in 2000,

and it continues to program courses

and regular technology transfer

activities.

SEIT Board of Directors

Members of the SEIT Board of

Director are:

President,

Ing. Milton Torres Espinoza

Vice President,

Dr. Rafael Pezo Zuñiga

Secretary,

Ing. Gerardo Jimenez Cueva

Treasurer,

Ing. Jorge Tapia Carrion

Observer,

Ing. Trajano Ordoñez

Fax N° (59-32) 434-882