The Roman Road Project - A Visit to the DOTD

I'm fortunate to have a husband who studied classics in high school and college and who still takes an interest in it. When he heard about the Roman Road Project, he suggested I reach out to the Department of Transportation and Development for assistance. To be honest, I was skeptical - what would modern engineers know about ancient road building?

But then, my husband played soccer with a guy who worked for DOTD, and when he told him about our Roman Road Project, he said he knew "just the guy." He offered a name and contact info. Still skeptical, I said I'd get to it later.

My school held a parent open house night in late August. I put out sign-out sheets for parents to volunteer with upcoming projects. I had a parent stop me later that night and ask if he could help with the Roman Road Project. "I work for DOTD, and I know just the guy who could help y'all. He's my boss. He just loves stuff like this." And guess what? It was the same name. That's when I knew I should really email "that guy."

I emailed him the next day. Dr. Tyson Rupnow, Ph.D. and P.E. (professional engineer), is the associate director of research at Louisiana's DOTD, and he got back to me almost immediately. "I would love to help you with your project," he wrote. "I studied and wrote about Roman roads in my engineering Ph.D. program." (!!!) Now, I was really intrigued!

In November, Tyson invited me to the Louisiana Transportation Research Center, and I had a spectacular visit. I never knew all the research that goes into modern road materials science, and at this lab, I got a first-hand look at that. Engineers test materials in special climate-controlled rooms with different types of lighting to simulate outdoor conditions.

In this picture, I'm feeling the heat coming off this asphalt "cake." They regularly pull these out of the "oven" to test in different ways.

They also cut them up for different types of tests. You can see the gravel aggregate in this sample.

Most interesting to me was their concrete core testing room.

Besides all the cool lab stuff, I got to talk to Tyson about our project and how he could help us. I was amazed at all that he offered. He'll be doing lectures on ancient Roman roads, getting us supplies at cost, talking to the students about jobs and training in civil engineering, and guiding us in every aspect of the project. "Don't think I'm going to visit for one day and forget y'all. I'm going to be there every day. This kind of work is part of my job at DOTD."

And it turns out, modern civil engineers learn a lot about Roman roads in their training! For once, I was glad I listened to my husband. (Thanks, David.)

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