Overview
DIRECT-MAT was a Coordination and Support Action under the EC 7th Framework programme 'Sustainable Surface Transport'. The project ran through 2009-2011 and aimed to facilitate the sharing of national experiences on the dismantling and recycling of road materials into new roads at European level. This would be achieved through the building of a European Web database and the drafting of Best Practice guides.
The project addressed the dismantling and recycling or safe disposal of unbound, hydraulically bound and asphalt road materials. It also addressed other materials related to road use but not commonly recycled in road construction. These included tyre shreds, sediment from ditches, industrial by-products and reinforcement materials. The intention was that the project results should support the daily work of practitioners, researchers and standardisation bodies. In this way DIRECT-MAT would actively contribute to reducing the waste disposal associated with roads.
The DIRECT-MAT project objectives consisted of sharing and disseminating, on a European scale, of national knowledge and field practices regarding the dismantling and recycling of road and road-related materials for the purpose of maintaining existing roads and building new roads. In this aim, a web database was created to compile and display the extensive existing and already validated research and job site data: a set of Best Practice guides on the dismantling and recycling of different types of materials was to be issued from the benchmarking of national practices. In addition, guidelines would be proposed to ensure ongoing database updating and enrichment.
The benefits of the project were:
- To assist CEN technical committees in incorporating scientifically-based material requirements on recycled road materials into European standards;
- To increase the confidence of stakeholders and practitioners in the use of recycled road products;
- To set up a shared view of road material research needs to improve the coordination of national research programmes at European level and to provide researchers with a tool for testing and improving models.
The DIRECT-MAT web database provides on-line access to: validated guidelines, national document references, harmonised literature reviews and practical application case studies based on job site data sets.
Special care has been taken to reach end users at national level and generate closer cooperation between research and practice. This has been achieved through:
- Cooperation with a stakeholders panel consisting of potential end users in several countries;
- Articles in national journals;
- Presentations at national seminars and;
- Arrangement of a European workshop for end users in 2011.
Potential end users are:
- Road authorities;
- Regulators and specifiers;
- Standardisation bodies;
- Highway designers;
- Road engineers;
- Contractors;
- Material suppliers;
- Road researchers.
Funding
Results
The result of the DIRECT-MAT project is a web database. This database provides on-line access to:
- Validated guidelines;
- National documents;
- References;
- Literature reviews;
- and Practical application case studies based on jobsite data sets.
Strategy targets
2. Innovating for the future: technology and behaviour:
2.2. Promoting more sustainable development
Readiness
Already implemented.