California Pavement Preservation Center

Pavement Preservation Academy

As part of the Senate Bill 1 (SB-1) funding through the California State University, CSU, Transportation Consortium headed up by Mineta Transportation Institute (MTI) in San Jose State University, the California Pavement Preservation Center (CP2C) is pleased to announce a certificate program in pavement preservation, via The Pavement Preservation Academy (PPA). The purpose of the program is to help state and local agencies improve the design and construction of pavement preservation treatments. The effort began in 2018 with the publication of technical manuals for chip seals, slurry surfacing, Cape seals, and thin hot mix overlays. The first PPA was held in March 2021; the second PPA was held in March 2022; the third PPA was held on April 3-7, 2023. The following is the fourth Academy registration site:

For more information, please contact Dr. Ding Cheng, director of the CP2 Center at dxcheng@csuchico.edu

Short Bios of Instructors

Roger Smith

Roger is a consultant specializing in asphalt pavement and materials. In addition to his pavement consulting services, he provides pavement training classes for the Institute of Transportation Studies (U.C. Berkeley) and the California Asphalt Pavement Association (CalAPA) and is a part-time Pavement Specialist with the California Pavement Preservation (CP2) Center at Chico State University. Roger began his career with Caltrans, ending up as the Senior Engineer in charge of the asphalt materials section of Caltrans’ Transportation Laboratory (Translab) in Sacramento. After leaving Caltrans, he worked for 10 years as a field engineer for the Asphalt Institute and later served as Executive Director of the Northern California Asphalt Producers Association (NCAPA). He is a graduate of Michigan Technological University with a degree in Civil Engineering.

R. Gary Hicks, Ph.D., P.E.

Dr. Hicks is currently the program manager for the CP2 Center at CSU Chico. Prior to joining the Center, he taught at Georgia Tech and Oregon State University for 30 years, rising to a Distinguished Professor of Civil Engineering and the Associate Dean for Research in the College of Engineering. He retired from OSU in 1997, and upon retirement embarked on a consulting career with MACTEC Engineering (now Wood LLC) providing on-call consulting services to the California Department of Transportation and other organizations in the area of asphalt pavements. As a part of the Caltrans project, he led the development of the MTAG and helped establish the CP2 Center in 2006. He is a registered Civil Engineer in the states of California, Oregon, and Alaska.

Lerose Lane, P.E.

Lerose Lane, P. E. is a Senior Pavement Preservation Engineer who has worked for the California Pavement Preservation Center (CP2C) since August 2010. Her work involves observing pilot project construction for a wide variety of preservation strategies, including Rubberized Chip Seals, Scrub Seals, Reconstruction with Rubberized Hot Mix Asphalt Concrete, and Double Chip Seals. She graduated from CSU, Chico, in 1970 with a B.S. degree in Civil Engineering. Since that time, she has worked for several agencies including Caltrans in various capacities including District Materials Engineer, Office Chief in Design, and Senior Construction Engineer, as well as being a Resident Engineer for a wide variety of projects. She is a Professional Engineer in the State of California

DingXin Cheng, Ph.D., P.E.

Dr. DingXin (Ding) Cheng is a Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at the California State University, Chico, Director of the California Pavement Preservation (CP2) Center, and Director of the Tire Derived Aggregate Technology Center. He has worked actively with the CP2 Center since he joined the Department of Civil Engineering at CSU, Chico, in 2006. He obtained his Ph.D. in the areas of pavement materials and transportation from Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas in 2002. He worked in private industry for Parsons Brinckerhoff in Houston, TX before joining Chico State. He has extensive experience in hot mix asphalt (HMA) materials and pavement preservation on both asphalt and concrete pavements. He has more than 55 peer-reviewed publications related to pavement materials and preservation presented at Transportation Research Board, AAPT, ASCE, and other conferences. Ding has co-managed or managed more than $10 million of research projects funded by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle), Metropolitan Transportation Commissions (MTC) of the San Francisco Bay Area, and other agencies and industry. He is a registered civil engineer in the State of Texas.

Erik Updyke, P.E.

Erlk Updyke, P.E. is a Senior Pavement Preservation Engineer who has worked for the California Pavement Preservation Center since April 2020. Erik is also a Specialist with the City and County Pavement Improvement Center at the University of California, Davis, and a consultant to local agencies on contract documents and pavement preservation. Erik retired from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works after 36 years in the Road Maintenance, Design, and Construction Divisions. From 2005 to 2019, Erik was the APWA Co-Chair of the Greenbook Committee of Public Works Standards, Inc. Erik has presented numerous seminars on the Greenbook throughout Southern California and has also spoken on pavement preservation at several conferences. Erik has a B.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of Maine and an MBA from Long Beach State University. He is a Registered Civil Engineer in California and a Professional Engineer in Maine.