Chairman’s Invitation

I would like to invite all professionals engaged in the design, provision and preservation of flexible pavements to the 13^th Conference on Asphalt Pavements for southern Africa (CAPSA) to be held at Champagne Sports Resort in the Central Drakensberg region of KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa on 15 – 18 October 2023.

Since the first CAPSA, held in 1969 in Durban South Africa, this conference has continually strived to keep pace with the rapid evolution of the industry and practice to ensure that asphalt pavements can continue to provide road owners and, ultimately, road users with durable and safe road surfaces to grow the economy and support the social development needs of the region. Clearly, since its birth 53 years ago, the socio-political and environmental landscape has undergone significant transformation. By keeping abreast of and being sensitive to these changes in formulating its programmes and conference formats, CAPSA has ensured that they remain a key item in the calendar of professionals active in the domain of transport engineering.

This 13^th conference is no exception. The theme for CAPSA ‘23 is Leading-Edge Technology to Underpin Sustainable Road Provision. In striving to give substance to this theme, up-to-date global approaches and technology will be presented and discussed to entrench proficiency in the provision of roads through optimal performance of flexible pavements. An overarching thread will be the need to embrace and accelerate industry 4.0.

Once again, in developing the conference format, a concerted effort will be made to maximise delegate participation. This will range from intense technical debates among specialists to the sharing of knowledge and collaboration among experienced practitioners and new entrants to the roads sector. A key feature of the conference is to provide ample opportunity for personal contact among delegates to afford them a unique platform to interact socially and discuss matters of mutual interest. As in the past, CAPSA ‘23 will provide ample opportunities for networking at planned social events.

A concerted effort is currently underway by the executive and technical advisory committees to develop a conference programme to meet these aims, thereby ensuring that this, the 13^th conference in this prestigious series of world-class conferences, will again be a hugely successful and memorable event.

We look forward to welcoming you to CAPSA ‘23.

Mahendren Manicum
Chairman CAPSA 23.