Were you able to join us in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware for the Roadway Management Conference (RMC) a few weeks ago? If so, you were among the 240 or so attendees that enjoyed great technical training sessions, talked to highly relevant equipment and materials vendors, saw some excellent demonstrations, ate some sumptuous food, and met new colleagues! If not, you missed out on a wonderfully affordable event and weather that was remarkable (hence, us remarking on it). Worry not; another RMC is less than a year away.
The Mid-Atlantic Region (PA, WV, MD, VA, DE) was at the Atlantic Sands Hotel and Conference Center in Rehoboth Beach October 23-25 with this year’s RMC. In recent years, the annual conference, optimized to operations and maintenance personnel, was held in Gettysburg, PA, Ellicott City, MD, Wheeling, WV, and Seven Springs, PA. We heard from many attendees that we nailed it and they praised our collective efforts throughout the conference (of course, we haven’t yet analyzed the evaluations, so there’s surely a few things we flubbed).
Our three-day conference was attended this time by folks from each of the five region states and a handful from farther away. As usual, we had a diverse array of technical and other speakers dealing with pavement management, crazy roundabouts, winter maintenance, durable concrete, inspection, culvert lining, artsy crosswalks, community engagement, management and personnel topics, and a series of other safety elements. We also saw a great presentation on the Clankers, and yes for many Delawareans this was a familiar topic, but for the rest of the crowd, it was a big hit.
Another cornerstone of the RMC is our demonstrations and this year we got to see chainsaw safety, pothole patching, crack sealing, crack routing, mastic, and new equipment. The Federal Highway mobile concrete lab also returned. We were able to film some of the demonstrations and they are making their way onto the Delaware T2 Center’s YouTube channel. More will follow so feel free to subscribe to see more in the coming weeks.
For early registrants this year, we had a bonus. Two bonuses. The first was an accessibility walkabout, led by Dr. Ron Eck, an accessibility specialist from the WV LTAP. Wheelchairs, walking canes, blindfolds, and low vision goggles made for an immersive exercise to better understand some of the challenges for the physically disabled community. The second was a bike tour, led by Anthony Aglio (DelDOT). We rented twelve bikes and early registrants were able to join for free, as Anthony led a tour and the group was able to discuss good and challenging practices for the biking community. Both of these were well received by the lucky attendees. 
We owe a huge thanks to a host of folks that helped us deliver a great conference this year. Nearly thirty speakers attended from all over the region and brought thought-provoking ideas for our attendees. Our vendors answered endless tough questions from our attendees. Several of them provided demonstrations outside to further illustrate how their products work and how they could best be used. Event sponsors, Slurry Pavers, Pennoni, and the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of APWA, helped keep the registration low for attendees. Finally, some attendees drove a long way to be at the conference, immersed themselves in the technical issues, met new colleagues, and joked and carried on with us for three days. Our goal was a casual conference where we can all learn new things to take back home with us and all these stakeholders banded together to make it happen.
With Rehoboth Beach in the books, the Mid-Atlantic Region staff are exhausted, but it is time to start planning 2025, when we will be in…well that’s in development. So you’ll have to stay tuned.
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