Welcome aboard sailors, and join us on a journey through a sea of pavement! This year, we welcomed new members to the crew and built a treasure trove of new memories we’re excited to share. So, come about, you landlubbers! Let’s set sail and follow the treasure map to this year’s loot.
We loved our old ship, but after several years of swelling ranks, it was time for a larger vessel as our mothership. In September, we weighed anchor and sailed from our old home port in downtown Urbana, moving our corporate office to the University of Illinois Research Park in Champaign.
While the crew is still settling into their new chambers, you can rest assured we are shipshape in our new quarters!
The larger the ship, the bigger the crew! This year, we brought on several new scallywags to protect our broadside and swab the decks.
Steve Karamihas earned his APTech sea legs in April, bringing over 35 years of vehicle dynamics and vehicle-road interaction experience. He also once fought the kraken and lived to tell the tale.
Ariel Rios climbed aboard APTech’s clipper in November as an Engineering Associate on our Local Municipalities and Private Agencies team. Ariel’s an old salt with more than 10 years of experience.
Ben Naghavi will soon join the APTech crew on our State Airport Agencies team. He brings 10 years of experience and is already licensed as a P.E., or Pirate Engineer, in Oklahoma and Texas.
Isaac Lange, Kiranmaayee Naidu, Kristen Canopy, and Robert Wiggins all came aboard as Engineering Associates. They find APTech’s quarters much more pleasant than those on Blackbeard’s ship.
Keaton Haege and Patrick Clavey recently boarded the ship as Engineering Technicians; they’ll have access to all of APTech’s best pillaging tools.
Jamie Frye, Jenny Lokshin, and Stephanie Venis joined the administration team this year to keep APTech’s booty shipshape.
Welcome aboard, mateys!
Members of our crew also welcomed some new pint-sized pirates of their own. They may be small, but they’re ready to terrorize both the seas and their parents, savvy?
The littlest additions to our crew include Aric Foster’s daughter Lillian, also known as the Wee Baby Bonnet and Jessica Snyder’s son Elliott, a.k.a. Captain Cuddlesworth.
These babes are the new captains of their parents’ hearties.
Captain Monty Wade needs a skilled crew to keep this ship afloat. And this year, four of our brightest seafarers were promoted to their new roles as Vice Presidents and Principals.
The combined expertise of Kyle Potvin, Gen Long, Todd Hoerner, and Stephanie Slife will ballast our vessel, ensuring continuous smooth sailing as we navigate the seven seas well into the future.
Read more about our new Vice Presidents.
Don’t think we’ve forgotten our grizzled sea dogs either, arr! Whether navigating from the crow’s nest or leading sea shanties, we also celebrated several employees for reaching milestone anniversaries at APTech.
Laura Raczkowski and Tracey Smith have been part of the APTech crew for 20 years. Kelly Smith is celebrating 15 years aboard the ship. Mariela Solis, Katie Gauthier, Jeremy Birkey, and Aric Foster for have been on deck for 10 years. And Mark Sherbeyn and Greg Kissel have been APTech buccaneers for 5 years.
While the bean-counting buccaneers in accounting keep track of the loot, here are some fun entries from the Captain’s log this year:
Exploits into resilience and pavement sustainability. The APTech team continued its investigations of the impacts of wildfires on pavements and initiated a study evaluating the effects of flooding on pavement structures and how to improve system resilience. We also contributed to the Federal Highway Administration’s Low Carbon Transportation Materials (LCTM) program and are working on an update to the FHWA LCA Pave tool that can be used to assess, benchmark, and communicate the environmental impacts of pavement design, materials, and construction activities.
Upgrades to our navigational tools. We continued our investment into IDEA, our interactive pavement management data visualization tool. We completed development of an Aircraft/Pavement Classification Rating (ACR/PCR) map feature to view structural capacity and assess potential restrictions and implemented it for several clients. Likewise, we integrated automated collection data and imagery in EDGE for both airports and roads, which clients across the seas used to calm their turbulent waters.
Sending out the dinghy. We sent our EDGE and FWD on many voyages into uncharted lands, collecting pavement condition data, asset data, and carrying out structural analyses for dozens of cities, counties, and airports. We would love to set sail to your location next year to assess your needs.
Plundering the lands. The APTech crew came ashore for adventures into the forest, working for the USDA National Forest Service to improve inventory information, collect pavement condition data, and provide maintenance and rehabilitation strategies for the pavement networks. We look forward to next year’s journeys in the wilderness at four more National Forests.
Hoisting the sails. APTech performed more than 400 airport pavement condition inspections, adding new destinations for discovery in the states of Maine and Utah, as well as Santa Barbara Municipal Airport, Memphis International Airport, and Presque Isle International Airport, in addition to our typical escapades across the nation.
Shiver me timbers, we’ve followed the map straight to where X marks the spot! And now we can reveal the secret of the APTech treasure: it’s not buried booty or piles of gold. No, it’s the appreciation and gratitude we have for you—our clients, colleagues, and hearties—for giving us the opportunity to set sail together. Thank you for joining us on another bountiful journey this year.
