Auburn Magazine Feature Story

SPORTS The man behindPat Dye Field pg 24

RESEARCH AU scientistshone their street smartspg 38

TRADITION How youralma mater got its colorspg 42

FALL 2010

Teaching Them to FishOne man’s plan to save Haiti

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38 Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g P H OTO G R A P H S B Y P H I L I P S M I T H

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39a u a l u m . o r g Auburn MagazineP h oto g r a P h S b y J E f f E t h E r i d g E

Auburn University’s asphalt scientists hit

the pavement each day with the aid of a

five-man convoy rolling on a two-mile

test track southeast of Opelika. Ain’t she

a beautiful sight? b y a n d r e w s i m s

Hunched behind the wheel of his big rig, Blake Lockhart sports a red shirt emblazoned with the initials “USA” spelled out in stars and stripes (what else?), blue jeans dingy from the day’s work (of course) and a camouflage Harley Davidson cap (naturally). We’re encapsulated in a two-seater cab hitched to four flatbed trailers, each loaded with stacks of solid-steel plates, weighing 80 tons—the equivalent of a half-dozen full-sized school buses. Lockhart eyes my notebook and ballpoint pen with bemusement, pegging me instantly as just another college student green with naivety and dreams of a future Time byline. He cranks up and prepares to hit the road.

Lockhart is a trucker, plain and simple. At 52, he’s been driving eighteen-wheelers most of his life. My own trucking experience is limited to the last 10 minutes, and it shows. I grip the door in panic as we begin to round a curve at 45 mph while Lockhart points to some wreckage off to the right. “Accident,” he notes. I laugh nervously; surely he’s joking. He isn’t. Thus begins an afternoon tour of nine states’ highways—all of which are sampled on a 1.8-mile oval track that serves as a laboratory for the National Center for Asphalt Technology at Auburn University, the country’s only research center dedi-cated to real-world study of the care and feeding of the iconic American roadway.

Road HardHours are steady and rest stops a non-issue for Auburn University trucker Blake Lockhart, who works with sci-entists to test various types of asphalt for durability. The loads he and four others haul around the National Center for Asphalt Technology’s Opelika test track weigh twice the legal limit, all the better to decipher how blacktop reacts under difficult conditions.


40 Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

here’s a lot of blacktop in our world—more than 2 million miles of roadways crisscross the U.S., enough to stretch around the Earth 80 times. Nearly all of it has been laid in the last century, connecting harvesters to processing plants, warehouses to Walmarts, and us to our jobs, families and vacations. Not long after Henry Ford fathered the

mass production of cars, Americans began inventing road trips to go with them. But the road less traveled is getting harder to find these days: U.S. highways are overused and underfunded, crumbling beneath our need to get from here to there. Policy-makers are now at a fork in the road—which is how I ended up racing around NCAT’s test track a few miles from the Auburn campus, talking asphalt and holding on for dear life.

Created in 1986 through a partnership between Auburn and industry advocates, NCAT’s goal is to help asphalt produc-ers and paving contractors build roads that are durable, envi-ronmentally friendly, quiet, safe and economical. The center works alongside state highway agencies, the Federal Highway Administration and others to develop and evaluate new prod-ucts, design technologies and construction methods.

Nestled in a wooded area off U.S. 280 near Opelika, the NCAT test track is divided into 200-foot sections made

up of various compositions of asphalt from several states, plus certain zones paved with other road mixes, including a naturally occurring asphalt from the Caribbean islands of Trinidad and To-bago. Lockhart and his colleagues drive around the track in three-hour shifts, testing the amount of damage caused by loads of different weights and helping researchers figure out how various types of paving materials withstand wear and tear. Researchers simulate up to two decades of roadway damage over just two years, after which track manager Buzz Powell and his crew tear down the road, rebuild it and start again.

The center’s work isn’t particularly glamorous or sexy, at least at street level, where Lockhart and other test-track work-ers drive in circles all day. But it’s the science beneath the sur-face that excites NCAT executive director Randy West. Imagine what happens, for instance, when a baker kneads dough. With every push of hands the dough spreads, thinning here, thickening there, its mass subtly shifting and redistributing. Over time and with regular use, blacktop reacts similarly. The life span of an asphalt road, in fact, is only about 10 years, which is why NCAT scientists study the durability and environmental impact of materials, among other research. As government of-ficials postpone road maintenance due to dwindling tax receipts

TR O A D H A R D

What we call “asphalt” is actually asphalt concrete, which is a mixture of liq-uid or semi-solid asphalt, a petroleum byproduct, binding different rock and mineral aggregates. Roads paved with asphalt concrete shift with the weight of our vehicles.


41a u a l u m . o r g Auburn Magazine

side the cab I white-knuckle the door handle. Some of the white lines have warped into unnerving shapes. “The road moves with us,” Lockhart explains. “Every time we run these big trucks across this road, loaded down with all this weight, we push it a little bit at a time.” Remember the bread dough analogy? NCAT carefully picks its drivers from a pool of applicants attracted by the daytime “on-road schedule” and steady pay. Like Lockhart, most of the other test-track drivers are lifelong truckers or heavy-machinery operators. They know their way around the road, and each brings his highway habits to the job, creating a living lab for scientists. The “real-world element” the drivers bring to bear is vital for producing valid research results, Lockhart says. “Anybody can apply a bunch of weight and run it across a stretch of road, but that’s only gonna tell you what’s there in the lab, not how it works out there on the road,” he adds, not-ing that NCAT is the only facility of its kind that emphasizes such applied testing. Lockhart must be used to me now, because he’s getting al-most chatty. “I have always worked around big trucks. It’s just what I love to do,” he says. In a surprisingly nimble maneuver, he veers around a crater-like pothole. We’re now on Oklahoma asphalt, and Lockhart says this particular section of track was actually designed to fail; it was created using the state’s own subgrade asphalt mix so scientists can assess where the road’s stability begins to break down.

“The liability for failures is huge out on the open road-way,” says Powell. “Instead, we offer states a way to test it here and minimize their potential risk.”

Much of NCAT’s work involves assessing various asphalt mixes, but West also envisions future studies focused on sus-tainability and energy conservation. Only 10 to 20 percent of used road material currently is recycled into new pavement, he says. West would like to see that proportion approach 50 percent.

In one NCAT study on behalf of client Shell Oil Co., re-searchers are looking for a way to use the copious amount of sulfur being removed from gasoline by applying it to the pro-cess of making asphalt. Scientists also have been experiment-ing with “warm-mix” asphalt, developed in Europe, which boasts the advantage of significantly lower energy costs.

And perhaps most important, NCAT scientists want to figure out how to help businesses and government officials re-duce the cost of building roads; otherwise, the nation’s high-way system could reach a dead end. The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials sent a warning flare in its most recent annual report, which estimated Amer-ica’s highways and bridges are in need of nearly $166 billion a year in repairs. The federal government has budgeted $40 billion for the job. In Alabama, the budget line covering infra-structure and highways has decreased by 82 percent in recent years, while the number of miles driven by motorists continues to escalate. Driving on poor highways costs Alabamians about $590 million a year in vehicle repairs and operating costs—about $162 per driver.

“The whole initiative is to find a way to improve our roads,” Powell says. “Everybody wins when we can make roads last longer.”

and available public funds, industry leaders and policymakers need new ways to build longer-lasting roads that are less likely to strain the environment and the budget.

e’ve all smelled its tarry odor as we creep past con-struction crews, bulldoz-ers and road rollers on our interstates, but what the heck is asphalt, anyway?

Asphalt itself is a tar-like substance refined from crude oil that acts

as a glue, binding sand, gravel, crushed stone or slag to form asphalt concrete. Hot-mix asphalt concrete, commonly used to pave roadways and airfields, is produced by heating and melt-ing asphalt, then mixing it with tiny rocks. It’s quick and rela-tively easy to make, but the process incurs high energy costs. Lockhart, who manages the crew of truckers, is something of an Aristotle of asphalt. Without our roads and the work NCAT is doing to improve them, we might starve, he says. Nearly everything we own has found its way into our posses-sion via the roadways: Eighty percent of the $128 billion worth of commodities delivered annually from locations in Alabama is transported by trucks along the state’s highways, and an ad-ditional 7 percent is moved by mail or courier routes. Traveling on fine Mississippi asphalt around lap four, I peer into the truck’s side-view mirror and nearly experience cardiac arrest at the sight of the heavy trailers as they bounce in an alarming, wavelike motion behind us. “Don’t do that,” Lockhart advises. “You don’t want to look back there.” He’s right. I don’t. Instead I glance out the small window at the bottom of the cab’s door and get a direct view of the flying roadway. White lines inch their way horizontally every 20 feet or so, while in-

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R O A D H A R D


56 Auburn Magazine a u a l u m . o r g

A L U M N I C E N T E R

Sometimes, sang the late John Denver, country roads take you home. Other times, they lead away and back again. Take Corne-lia Powell ’70, whose path led from rural Washington County to New York City and a job with Vogue magazine, then back South, where she has evolved as a sage on brides and weddings. Born and reared on a farm in tiny Carson, Ala., Powell knew she wouldn’t follow a traditional path. In the 1960s, most South-ern women enrolled in college with limited career expectations. Powell just trusted her instincts. After a successful career in fashion magazine publishing, Powell’s road led to an unexpected second career: as a wedding folklorist who chronicles the meaning behind the nuptial cere-mony. Her latest book, The Bride’s Ritual Guide: Look Inside to Find Yourself, came out in November. She also produces an on-line magazine, Weddings of Grace (www.weddingsofgrace.com). At Auburn, Powell majored in fashion merchandising and aimed for a job in New York. After graduating, she landed at Vogue, eventually becoming associate editor, and along the way developed an interest in the history and cultural trends associ-ated with brides and weddings. In the 1970s, she left Vogue and eventually opened a fashion-forward bridal store in Atlanta. Now single, Powell married once and learned from it. “It was as if my spirit guides said, ‘this girl needs some firsthand experience in this wedding planning and what it takes to prepare for marriage (or not), so she’ll be able to share with women that rite of passage.’” Powell hopes her words touch a tender spot in the reader and listener, prompting a moment of inner reflection. “What I hope to be teaching is the difference in thinking from your noisy mind and thinking from your wise heart,” she says. “My interest is not in weddings themselves. Some are bor-ing; some are beautiful. It’s not even that I think everyone should get married. My focus is helping the bride and others to recognize and respect this rite of passage in life. (The wedding) is a human-story moment.” That said, does Powell think her own life has been changed by helping others down the aisle? She has only one fitting answer: “I do.”—Andrew Sims

SNAPSHOT

’07Mary Coleman Bostick

of Selma works for Eli Lilly and Co. pharma-ceuticals. She and John Philip Dobbins were married June 19.

Jay Patrick Cowart is employed with TriMont Real Estate Advisors in Atlanta. He and Frances Leslie Mathis plan to marry Aug. 21.

Laura Allison Lucas is a child-life specialist with Children’s Health System of Birmingham. She and Paul Benjamin

Leaver, who is a certi-fied public accountant with Sellers, Richard-son, Holman & West of Birmingham, were married July 10.

MARRIED Dixon Lanier Davenport to Michelle Rose Samo-ray on Jan. 30. They live in Atlanta.

Justin Michael Drum-

mond to Barbara Claire Moses on April 10. They live in Birmingham.

Catherine Davis Hopkins to Matthew Bryant Scott on June 19. They live in Chicago.

Charles William McEwen

to Jennifer Michelle Jus-tice on May 29. They live in Birmingham.

Zac Mitchell to Leah Ledbetter on Aug. 1, 2009. They live in Birmingham.

BORN A son, Sam McCor-mack, to Whitman L.

Welch and Christie J.

McCormack of Birming-ham on April 5.

’08Maggie Johnson Saye

teaches at Dean Road Elementary School in Auburn. She and Wesley Layton Beason were married June 5.

Jessica Lynn Seagraves is a store manager at Painted Pink clothing boutique in Mont-gomery. She and fiancé Edward Christopher

Whatley, who works for Kowa Pharmaceu-ticals America Inc. in Montgomery, plan to marry Oct. 9.

Kevin Lawrence Taylor

is an electrical engineer with American Cast Iron Pipe Co. He and Holleigh Lauryn Pat-terson plan to marry Aug. 21.

MARRIED Emily Eddleman to James Saunders on April 24. They live in Birmingham.

William Hanes to Elisabeth Nesbitt on April 24. They live in Birmingham.

Anna Elizabeth

McLeane to David

Patrick Shelley ’09 on June 27. They live in Auburn.

’09 Virginia Hunter

Collins works for the Jefferson County School System in Birmingham. She and

Andrew David Conerly,

who is employed with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Ft. Benning, Ga., were married July 10.

Kiara Pesante was one of 17 students selected for a 2010 Google Policy Fellow-ship for graduate and law students inter-ested in Internet and technology policy. She is a graduate student at Howard University in Washington, D.C.

Karen Jones Sullivan joined Red Square Agency of Mobile as a production assistant.

MARRIED Justin Aldred to

Chelsea Marie Baker on March 13. They live in Birmingham.

Joseph Robert Bryant

to Kelli Jean Howell on Aug. 14. They live in Guntersville.

Lindsey Rebekah

Buchanan and Michael

Wayne Whisonant Jr. ’07

on July 10. They live in Alabaster.

Jena Leigh McCraney to Scott McEwen on Dec. 26. They live in Pittsburgh.

Katelin Nicole Tyra to Clayton Maxwell Evans

’10 on July 24. They live in Auburn.

’10 Rachel Elise Hines

is employed with CVS pharmacy in Mont-gomery.

The road to the aisle

Class Notes


11a u a l u m . o r g Auburn Magazine

C A M P U S N E W SHome away from homeAuburn University is exploring the possibility of establishing a campus in the city of Danyang, China, northwest of Shanghai. University officials hope to first establish an engineering campus in the country, with long-range plans to begin offering undergraduate and graduate degrees in other disciplines. Should the project gel, Auburn would be the first American university with a China campus.

Flashback

100 years ago Fall 1910

The Auburn community was shaken when Charles Allen Cary, founder of the College of Veterinary Medicine and one of the most well-known farmers in Alabama, fell from the third-story roof of his house on College Street. He broke his leg in two places and injured his left eye. Cary served as the founding dean of veterinary science from 1907 until his death in 1935.


Amid controversy, Ala-bama’s first Coopera-tive Extension Service director, Luther N. Duncan, was named Alabama Polytechnic Institute’s president, a position he held for more than a decade. Duncan’s presidency was opposed by board members who felt his extension management was too closely tied to the Farm Bureau. Ultimately, however, Duncan’s conservative fiscal style won out.


The opening of a small-channel catfish hatchery in Greensboro pro-pelled Alabama’s catfish industry, helping build a new economy for the western part of the state. Auburn fisheries scientists began exam-ining catfish health and production as early as 1933, when a team led by H.S. Swingle initiated a research pro-gram on the construc-tion and management of Alabama farm ponds for food production.


Most sports fans will remember the year Vincent “Bo” Jackson rushed for 1,786 yards during the 1985 foot-ball season, producing the second-best single-season performance in Southeast Confer-ence history (behind Herschel Walker’s 1,891 yards for Geor-gia in 1981). For his performance, Jackson was awarded the Heis-man Trophy, edging out Iowa quarterback Chuck Long.


Fall semester got off to an earlier start than usual on Aug. 22. After years of preparation and planning, Auburn University finally switched to a semes-ter-based academic calendar rather than a quarter-based system. The quarter system had been in place since the early 1940s, when it was adopted to accom-modate male students leaving for military service during World War II.

Above: In 1922, the number of female students at Alabama Polytechnic Institute doubled, leading to the chartering of the institution’s first sorority, Kappa Delta, whose seven members were installed at the President’s House. A chapter of Chi Omega sorority was founded at API shortly afterward.

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Auburn Magazine Feature Story