EcoLanes was a
three year FP6 STREP project (completed in September 2009), funded under the priority thematic
area of Sustainable Surface Transport, FP6-2005-Transport-4
call 3B. The project consortium engaged Universities, Industrial
Partners, End-users and the European Tyre Recycling Association, with
five EU member states and one EU candidate country.
The key area and
activity code associated with EcoLanes was SUSTDEV 2.6: design and
manufacture of new construction concepts for road, rail, waterborne and
inter-modal infrastructures.
The
project main aims were to develop infrastructure for surface transport using slip
forming and roller compaction techniques based on existing asphalt
laying equipment and steel fibre reinforced concrete. The benefits of
the new construction concept will be manifold, such as to reduce
construction costs by 10-20%, reduce construction time by 15%, reduce
the energy consumption in road construction by 40%, minimise
maintenance, use waste materials in road construction and make tyre
recycling more economically attractive.
To
achieve its objectives, the project drew expertise from six countries
and had to overcome serious scientific and technological barriers
in fibre processing, concrete manufacture and road design. The project
delivered new processes, design guidelines and full-scale
demonstration projects in four diverse European climates and economies.
Figure 1. Problems with asphalt pavements
|
