CPATT: Lab Dedication

[Excerpt from University of Waterloo News Release: http://www.newsrelease.uwaterloo.ca/news.php?id=4624]

New UW centre researches Canada's physical infrastructure

WATERLOO, Ont. -- With Canada's federal, provincial and municipal governments facing massive spending needs on physical infrastructure, such as roads, bridges and airports, a newly established centre at the University of Waterloo seeks to provide the knowledge to make the best use of the strategic investment.

UW president David Johnston officially opened today the John J. Carrick Pavement Engineering Laboratory of the new Centre for Pavement & Transportation Technology (CPATT). CPATT brings together leading experts in transportation, consulting, construction and materials engineering.

Dedicated to the memory of John J. Carrick, founder and president of McAsphalt Industries Ltd., the pavement engineering lab builds on a research program that started in the mid-1960s in the Faculty of Engineering's Civil Engineering department. The new lab is located in the Engineering 3 Building, Room 2142, on the UW campus.

In studying the preservation and replacement of Canada's $3 trillion worth of public infrastructure, CPATT's work embraces structural design, construction and maintenance technology, materials and geotechnical engineering, field evaluation methods, equipment and data processing, intelligent transportation systems and safety, as well as risk and reliability methods.

"There is both an opportunity and a critical need to carry out the research and technology development which will advance the planning, design, construction and operation of our physical infrastructure to a new level over the coming decades," Johnston said. "The University of Waterloo's Centre for Pavement & Transportation Technology will accomplish this mission through an effective partnership between researchers, public sector agencies and private industry."

"The Government of Canada is committed to enhancing Canada's research capacity in the area of physical infrastructure, such as roads and bridges," said Andrew Telegdi, Member of Parliament for Kitchener-Waterloo. "In particular, I am pleased that the Centre for Pavement & Transportation Technology at the University of Waterloo will ensure the vital needs of this important sector as well as the training of qualified engineers and scientists."

CPATT is supported through major funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), Ontario Innovation Trust (OIT), Ontario Research and Development Challenge Fund (ORDCF), along with a number of private and public sector partners.

"This facility represents what the CFI is all about: providing the tools to institutions and researchers so that they can do the leading-edge research that will benefit all Canadians," said Dr. Eliot Phillipson, President and CEO of the Canada Foundation for Innovation.

"Our main objectives are to provide a research focus on emerging and innovative infrastructure technologies and a state-of-the-art research facility," said UW Distinguished Prof. Emeritus Ralph Haas, CPATT's founding director and senior adviser. "We also want to increase the pool of talented experts in this important field."

The CFI is an independent corporation created by the Government of Canada to fund research infrastructure. The CFI's mandate is to strengthen the capacity of Canadian universities, colleges, research hospitals and non-profit research institutions to carry out world-class research and technology development that benefits Canadians.