Fred N. Finn has made key contributions in the field of asphalt pavement design. In the late 1970’s, Mr. Finn served as Chairman of the consulting group that developed the Asphalt Institute’s asphalt concrete design procedure which makes use of analytical design. Later, he was instrumental in developing a model for mechanistic design procedure for the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP). He shared responsibility for developing the current American Association of Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) pavement design procedures through NCHRP, which appears in the latest edition of the AASHTO Pavement Design Guide.
Mr. Finn was not only a pioneer in asphalt pavement design, but is also one of the world’s outstanding engineers in the field of pavement management. Through his effort, the state of Washington was the first highway department in the U.S. to develop a Pavement Management System (PMS) that included network optimization capability. Finn also developed PMS systems for the states of Arizona and Kansas as well as for the government of Saudi Arabia.
He was also a key contributor to the Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP). He was the principal investigator for the project that developed the $50 million dollar asphalt research portion of the SHRP program.
Mr. Finn obtained a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineer from the University of New Mexico and a Masters of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of California at Berkley. He is a registered Professional Engineer in Arizona, California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon and Washington. He is an honorary member of the Association of Asphalt Paving Technologists (AAPT) and a fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). He received the AAPT’s “Walter J. Emmons Best Paper Award” in 1970 and 1985. He received the ASCE State-of-the-Art award in 1978 and the James Laurie Prize in 1990.
Elected: 1990
