MnDOT donated equipment to the Dakota County Technical College on Tuesday to the civil engineering technology program.

They had a celebration and reviewed the equipment and talked about the connection between the school and MnDOT's district 6 in southeastern Minnesota.

The program offers hands-on and classroom training for careers in construction and engineering. And the new equipment gives the students additional exposure to equipment that is actually used in the field. MnDOT donated the equipment after they upgraded their own equipment earlier at the materials lab in Rochester.

MnDOT donated:

  • A gyratory compactor, which creates blacktop(bituminous)specimens
  • Molds for making the specimens, hand tools and containers for preparing the bituminous to create the specimens.

Tests can be run from the specimens to check

FFA
Kelly Krage / Townsquare Media
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on the specific gravity of the mix, the air voids(which are used for winter durability).

The school also received a Gilson Sieving device with all the screens for running graduations and setting up aggregates for tests of other materials for road and other construction projects. A pickup truck was also donated.

Dakota County Technical provides collegiate-level education for employment.

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