**Liang He**

Liang He is a professor at Chongqing Jiaotong University since 2020, and the director of China-Poland Joint Center for Sustainable Pavement Innovative Materials. His general research interests are in the areas of advanced road maintenance methods, sustainable pavement materials, and multiscale simulation of asphalt material behaviour. In the past 5 years, he has led 6 national scientific research projects, including 4 projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China. He has published more than 50 high-level journal papers at home and abroad, and authorized

5 national invention patents. He is a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of Archives of Civil Engineering, Youth Editorial Board of Journal of Traffic and Transportation Engineering, and Executive Editorial Board of Materials Reports. He is also a co-chair of the organization committee the 1st International Workshop on the Use of Biomaterials in Pavements. http://teacher.cqjtu.edu. cn/heliangf1/zh CN/index.htm.

### **Preface to "Advances in Asphalt Pavement Technologies and Practices"**

The MPDI Applied Sciences Special Issue, "Advances in Asphalt Pavement Technologies and Practices", aimed to compile and curate the latest state-of-the-art research in the field of asphalt pavement technology worldwide. The special issue is a joint effort between the MPDI Applied Sciences Editorial Office and three Guest Editors: Dr. Amir Tabakovic, Dr. Jan Valentin and Dr. Liang ´ He. The selected papers went through a rigorous MDPI Applied Sciences review process. All authors of the accepted papers have made special efforts to increase the quality of the technical content via a rigorous review process. The special issue comprises 19 papers describing a unique and innovative research work focusing on the current challenges facing road owners and the asphalt industry.

The published papers cover research on new materials and new technologies for asphalt pavement design, construction, and maintenance, such as the development of a unique self-healing asphalt technology, conductive alginate capsules that encapsulate rejuvenators, and an application of android sensors and Google Earth for pavement maintenance. Another paper uses a random forest model to predict the location of potential damage on asphalt pavements. A number of papers investigate specific distress problems in asphalt pavements, such as the correlation between pavement distress and the roughness measurement, the low-temperature performance of a porous asphalt mixture, and the influence of the crumb rubber asphalt mixture on a multiscale. There is also a paper that evaluates and corrects the method of the asphalt pavement rutting performance prediction model based on the RIOHTrack long-term observation data. This Special Issue also benefits from a review paper on the influential factors and evaluation methods of the performance of grouted semi-flexible pavement (GSP). In a special effort to tackle climate change and to introduce the sustainability of asphalt pavement, two papers investigate recycling aged asphalt using a hard bituminous binder for hot-mix recycling, whereas another paper discusses the use of shredded cigarette filters as stabilizing fibres in stone mastic asphalts. The Special Issue also includes an editorial where Guest Editor Dr. Tabakovic presents the current challenges facing the asphalt industry with the depletion of the ´ petroleum-based asphalt binder (bitumen), but he also discusses solutions to this challenge, including the utilisation of biomass for the production of bio-based rejuvenators and bitumen modifiers.

The Guest Editors of this Special Issue would like to give their appreciation to the authors of the papers for their efforts in contributing good quality research, and to the staff in the Editorial Office of MDPI Applied Sciences, especially Jim Wang, for their assistance during the course of organizing and publishing this issue.

Last, but not least, the Guest Editors would like to thank the dedicated reviewers who contributed their valuable time to review the papers.

> **Amir Tabakovic, Jan Valentin, and Liang He** *Editors*
