Hal is a Registered Professional Engineer in Illinois with over forty years’ experience in the design and construction of highways. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering and a Master’s in Business Administration. He had assignments with the US Department of Transportation in three states with the majority of time in the Midwest. He worked with the Illinois Department of Transportation, local public agencies, the hot mix asphalt industry, concrete pavement industry, academia and others to advance the state-of-the practice in pavement, materials engineering, and construction. His contributions have been recognized by industry and others in the highway community in Illinois, and by FHWA for national leadership in pavement and materials.
John is a Licensed Professional Engineer with 19 years of experience in construction materials, mostly with asphalt construction. He received his BS in Civil Engineering from Southern Illinois University. His first experience with materials began while he was in college. During his summers he worked for IDOT under the expert tutelage of first Mel Kirchler and later Jay Behnke. He saw opportunity and future growth in the materials field and decided to make it his career. John took a job with Curran Contracting when QC/QA was in its infancy, built a department and staff and eventually oversaw all quality operations for 5 HMA plants. He has worked extensively with both commercial and public owners on everything from parking lots to major expressways. He has gained a reputation within Illinois as someone who will do whatever it takes to ensure the quality within a project. He was presented with the IAPA QC Manager of the year in 2012. John believes that his knowledge and experience from his time as a contractor will greatly benefit his new position at S.T.A.T.E. Testing.
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Michelle Beecher - Quality Assurance Manager
Michelle joined S.T.A.T.E. Testing in 2000. Michelle has had many responsibilities, including Technical Director of our laboratories. She coordinates our O'Hare lab accreditation process with AASHTO Material Research Laboratory (AMRL) and the Cement and Concrete Reference Laboratory (CCRL), as well as the Illinois Department of Transportation. Since, 2006 Michelle has been our Project Manager for the O’Hare Modernization Project. She manages our on-site O'Hare laboratory, which is AMRL and CCRL accredited in HMA, PCC, soils, and aggregate testing.
Prior to joining S.T.A.T.E. Testing Michelle had over 15 years experience at various material testing laboratories in Chicago.
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Gordon Reed - Bituminous Laboratory Manager
Gordon joined S.T.A.T.E. Testing in 1999. He supervises our main HMA lab in East Dundee and also serves as our Radiation Safety Officer. He is a lead HMA mix designer for private clients and public projects, including FAA airport mix designs. Gordon is experienced in the design of Superpave and Marshall Mixes, as well as specialty mixes such as Stone Matrix Asphalt (SMA) and Sand Mix Layer (SML) Mixtures.
Prior to joining S.T.A.T.E. Testing Gordon had over ten years experience with various contractors and materials testing companies in Northern Illinois.
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Greg Rohlf - Lead Concrete Technician
Greg joined S.T.A.T.E. Testing in 1999. Greg’s major responsibilities include management of our three concrete labs, oversight of concrete field technicians, and IDOT/CCRL accreditation for our labs. Greg serves as Quality Control Manager for contractors requesting PCC Quality Control services, acting as their liaison with the Illinois Department of Transportation. He has worked in the field as a lead QA inspector on behalf of IDOT and ISTHA for major concrete placements. Greg's PCC mix design experience involves Latex-modified concrete (LMC), quick-setting cement, pervious concrete, and HPC. He has experience in obtaining IDOT approval for PCC designs. He has worked closely with CDOT in developing their Green Alleys program, as well as assisting with specialty concretes, HPC and LMC. Greg has assisted in the development and teaching of the Illinois Department of Transportation PCC Level III Course currently offered through Lake Land College, as well as the ACI Level 1 class.
Prior to joining S.T.A.T.E. Testing Greg spent over 10 years in the Quality Control Department of Allied Asphalt Paving Co.
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Ryan Sylla-Civil Engineer
Ryan recently joined the S.T.A.T.E. team in June of 2015. He recently graduated from University of Wisconsin- Madison with a master’s degree in Civil & Environmental Engineering with emphasis in Asphalt Engineering. Along with his degree, he was a Research Assistant and Lab Manager at the Modified Asphalt Research Center at UW-Madison. Ryan is a critical component of the Illinois Tollway Independent Assurance team. He manages performance testing and data analysis for the massive I-90 project. In addition, he is a major part of developing S.T.A.T.E. Testing’s new Asphalt Binder Testing Lab.
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Brandy Long - Lead Soils Technician
Brandy joined S.T.A.T.E. Testing in 2002. Brandy is our lead Quality Assurance Technician for the Cook County Highway Department. In this position, she coordinates QC/QA field HMA comparison testing, all HMA plant verification testing, and is the liaison between the CCHD and S.T.A.T.E. Testing.
As our Lead Soils Technician, Brandy performs various tests on sub-grade and soils. These tests include, but are not limited to, Standard Proctor, Modified Proctor, Soil Density by means of Nuclear Density Gauge, Gradation, Plasticity Index, Liquid Limit, Sand Equivalency, PH of soils, and Organic Content.
Prior to joining us, Brandy worked for IDOT as an Aggregate Supervisor. She inspected aggregate for over 20 various quarries, sand and gravel pits, and recycled concrete operations in Cook, DuPage, and Will counties, including Vulcan-McCook.
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Matt Galloy - Lead HMA Technician
Matt joined S.T.A.T.E. Testing in 2000 as our lead HMA technician. He has been involved in many bituminous projects ranging from airport runway resurfacing and interstate highways to local roads. His specialties include troubleshooting HMA plant and production issues, HMA mix design, and field density. Matt has served as lead technician on various major research demonstration projects including GTR, FRAP, Warm Mix, and Pervious HMA Pavements. During the winter, Matt is a lead designer for HMA mix designs for various Chicago contractors. Matt also served as the Project Engineer for the CDOT In-House Paving Program in 2006.
Prior to joining S.T.A.T.E. Testing, Matt had over eight years experience in materials Quality Control inspection and management.
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