SPENS - Sustainable Pavements for EU New Member States
Overview
Background & policy context:
The standard of road infrastructure differs throughout the European Union Member States. In general, the means of transportation are of a lower standard in the new Member States, but the present volume of heavy road transport requires a sustainable road infrastructure immediately.
There is a constant need for new resistant pavement materials that should comply with EU regulations. Due to the priority of motorway construction, the standard of maintenance of other roads has fallen, resulting in an increased need for effective road maintenance and improvement over the years to come. The materials and technologies now used in the new Member States differ from those adopted in common practice in the EU-15.
SPENS focuses on developing procedures for producing and implementing improved materials for road construction, taking into account the local tradition, the availability of materials and construction techniques, as well as the specifics of roads that have already been constructed.
The research work will concentrate on the assessment of existing road conditions and maintenance planning, on pavement renewal and the upgrading of roads, and on the environmental impacts of roads.
Objectives:
The overall objective of the SPENS project was to generate knowledge to enable a more rapid rise in the standard of road infrastructure, by developing appropriate tools and procedures for long-lasting and more cost-effective improvement of roads.
Efficient and economic rehabilitation of the existing road network could be attained if reliable and scientifically based information is available on both present pavement conditions and current actions about pavements. A new systematic decision-making methodology about pavement rehabilitation and upgrading would contribute to sustainable surface transport.
The proper use of new techniques, such as reinforcing pavements, could bring economical and ecological benefits. Guidelines would indicate the best practice on how to use these methods and materials.
The development of new techniques, which allow for the incorporation of recycled waste materials of different origins into building materials for roads, would contribute to savings in natural raw material resources.
An uneven and rough road surface gives rise to higher fuel consumption, exhaust emissions, costs for vehicle wear and road traffic noise. The research would contribute towards the implementation of pavement types with high durability. Instructions for the selection of pavement types with low noise emissions can reduce the cost for noise abatement measures, which are a growing cost factor in the construction of new roads.
Methodology:
The research work was organised into four technical work packages, and addresses the specific problems of the new Member States.
Since financial resources for road maintenance and rehabilitation were very limited, sophisticated pavement management systems could provide results upon which long-term optimum decisions could be made. The research of one work package focused on techniques for gathering the proper input parameters and the development of a systematic methodology analysis of the deterioration caused by traffic.
The research work outlined in the work package 'Improvement of pavement structures' showed the potential of new techniques for the improvement of new and existing flexible road pavements. For example, the efficiency of different kinds of reinforcement for road widening and rehabilitation were established, and a practical model for the optimisation of an asphalt mixture design was tested. Within this work package the benefits and limits of waste and by-product materials, including recycled materials, for road construction were studied.
Evaluation of materials and pavement layers appropriate for road upgrading were analysed in a separate work package, which focused on modified bitumen as asphalt binders, high modulus asphalt mixtures, and their actual field performance. Laboratory work was concerned with a number of mixtures, the most promising of which were tested in the field, taking into account the specific climate and traffic loads.
The work package 'Assessment of the impact of roads on the environment' focused on the characterisation of different types of road pavements with regard to environmental features and traffic noise emission, taking into account the typical compositions and pavements used in the new Member States.
The research work gained from clustering with other on-going research projects, but was oriented towards implementation, and focused on the issues which were the most important for end-users such as road administrations and contractors.
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