Daily Herald (Feb. 11) -- For the last few years, Illinois Department of Transportation researchers with the U. of I.’s Center for Transportation have dissected asphalt mixes to find the most crack-resistant and weed out the weak links. By 2020, IDOT hopes to offer a recipe for a superior asphalt that “should improve cracking resistance of all of our mixes and in the process address some of the issues we get under really cold weather,” says District 1 Bureau Chief of Materials George Houston.