This week more than 3,000 transportation professionals will gather in West Lafayette for the 111th annual Purdue Road School Transportation Conference and Expo.

The two-day event begins at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, March 18, in Stewart Center’s Loeb Playhouse with a fireside chat with Matthew Ubelhor, Indiana secretary of transportation and infrastructure; Kent Abernathy, Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) commissioner; and Kellie Streeter, Knox County commissioner. The session will be moderated by Richard Hedgecock, president of Indiana Constructors Inc. Participants will share their thoughts on opportunities and challenges facing state and local transportation systems in Indiana.

“I’m thrilled to attend and participate in this year’s Purdue Road School,” Ubelhor said. “This will be a great opportunity to network and make new connections across the industry.”

“As Commissioner, I’m looking forward to Tuesday morning’s fireside chat,” said Commissioner Abernathy. “I’m also excited to spend time with industry leaders and professionals from across the state.”

This year’s Road School, which runs through Wednesday, March 19, offers 230 sessions designed for federal, state and local agencies, as well as industry, consulting and academic colleagues. The sessions are organized into 18 tracks and will be presented in Stewart Center and several adjacent classroom buildings on Purdue’s campus.

Professional development hours and continuing education units are available for all technical sessions.

“Road School is an important activity that helps fulfill Purdue’s land-grant mission for practicing professionals who plan, design, build and operate our transportation infrastructure,” said Darcy Bullock, the Lyles Family Professor of Civil and Construction Engineering and director of the Joint Transportation Research Program at Purdue. “This year we are offering 230 technical sessions ranging from planning for Purdue Airport’s new tower to the engineering teamwork that has gone into the completion of I-69 over the past two decades.”

Information about the schedule and technical program is available at https://roadschool.purdue.edu/.

John Haddock, Purdue civil and construction engineering professor and director of the Indiana Local Technical Assistance Program, said, “Purdue Road School brings together professionals from local agencies, INDOT and industry partners for two full days of networking and learning. Building and fostering these relationships are crucial to improving transportation in Indiana.”

Fifty-nine exhibitors will be set up in the North and South ballrooms of the Purdue Memorial Union during the two-day event. Complimentary coffee, lunch and afternoon refreshments are supported in part by the exhibitors. Road School participants are encouraged to visit the exhibit hall between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. each day.

Purdue Road School is co-sponsored by the Joint Transportation Research Program and Indiana Local Technical Assistance Program. Purdue Road School traces its origin to 1913, when W.K. Hatt, head of Purdue’s School of Civil Engineering, initiated a conference to help county surveyors and city engineers develop and maintain Indiana’s roads and streets. At the 1914 conference, a resolution was passed calling for a yearly school, and the conference officially became known as Purdue Road School.

About Purdue University

Purdue University is a public research university leading with excellence at scale. Ranked among top 10 public universities in the United States, Purdue discovers, disseminates and deploys knowledge with a quality and at a scale second to none. More than 107,000 students study at Purdue across multiple campuses, locations and modalities, including more than 58,000 at our main campus in West Lafayette and Indianapolis. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue’s main campus has frozen tuition 13 years in a row. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap — including its comprehensive urban expansion, the Mitch Daniels School of Business, Purdue Computes and the One Health initiative — at https://www.purdue.edu/president/strategic-initiatives.

Media contact: Trevor Peters, peter237@purdue.edu