number 004. March 2014
ROADS
CONTENTS published CARTIF Research Centre Boecillo Technology Park. Valladolid, Spain www.cartif.com
staff Dunia Etura, Ana García, María Parcero
collaborations Construction and infrastructures Area. Environment Area
CARTIF news
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Keywords
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The project
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One of us
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CARTIF selection
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design oopscooperative@gmail.com
photography Inside pictures: CARTIF, CE, J.M. Lostau Back cover picture: Aníbal Reñones
SAFER AND M
EDITOR’S NOTE Taking advantage of the good weather, the change of season or the holidays, the roads are converted back in an obligatory pass point for everybody who wants travel. Fortunately, the accident figures in Spain are going down every year. The causes of this reduction are the improvement of the roads and the vehicles. In CARTIF, we are working since ten years in projects related with the improvement of the roadway infrastructures. Improved pavements, improved construction and maintenance technologies, improved road safety controls... all of this contribute to make the driving a good and safe experience. This number will review the main projects which our team has been worked in the last years for improving quality of life of citizens. Pavements capable of reduce pollution and self heated breaking ice. New types of flux that replace salt and its environmentally harmful effects. New systems that call automatically to emergency service when there is an accident. Systems of construction management of roads, tunnels and overpasses that reduce costs and improve the safety. All these innovations are the focus in the main pages of this number.
MORE SUSTAINABLES
cartif news
cartif news This news selection is just a small sample of the Center activities in the last month. You can follow us through our web and social networks. RESCATAME PROJECT, SELECTED AS ONE OF THE BEST LIFE 2013 RESCATAME, led by CARTIF, has been selected as one of the 21 Best LIFE Environment projects out of the 85 that finished and were evaluated in 2013. The results should be announced in April. The award will be made in the context of Green Week, the biggest annual conference on European environment policy, will take place from 3 to 5 June, in Brussels. The main objective of the RESCATAME project was to accomplish sustainable urban traffic management by using two key elements: a pervasive air-quality sensors network and prediction models.
GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF COMMONENERGY PROJECT IN VALLADOLID The 26 partners of FP7 Commonenergy Project met in Valladolid to celebrate the G.A. of the first six months. CARTIF is the technical responsible of the Spanish demo site. It will undertake different actions over the Mercado del Val of Valladolid. Thanks to these actions, energy demands of buildings could be met with a less energy consumption while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
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cartif news
PERIODIC MEETING OF LIFE REVAWASTE PROJECT HELD BY CARTIF
Partners of REVAWASTE Project, led by CARTIF, met in CARTIF facilities to track project actions. The main goal of this Project is the sustainable management of a broad spectrum of wastes (nonrecyclable fraction proceeding from waste treatment plants and industrial, together with biomass, livestock and agro-food wastes) in an integrated plant.
IST SHBUILDINGS SIMPOSIUM This event, celebrated within the SHBuildings Project, met in Spain more than 250 experts in Cultural Heritage. This INTERREG SUDOE Project is developing a new integral management of cultural buildings system. This system will be proved in three different study cases: the cathedral of Palencia (Spain), the History Museum in Bayone (France) and a little church in Roriz (Portugal). CARTIF coordinates the technical activities in the Spanish demo case.
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keywords auscultation of roads safety road roadway infrastructures maintenance
intelligent transport new pavements
Road sector moves 91% of internal passenger traffic and 85% of internal freight traffic in Spain and represents about 10% of taxes collected by the state. According to data obtained of the R&D Strategic Agenda in the sector (2011-2025) of Spanish Road Technology Platform (PTC). Spain is a world leader in construction and exploitation of roads according to the same source. Spanish road technology is one of the most advanced in the world in the field of smart mobility, road safety, energy and sustainability, environment, effective management of infrastructures and transport and new materials. These fields are the great challenge of a powerful corporate sector, which is growing driven by public expenditure as well as private investment, particularly on R&D.
Spain is a world leader in construction and exploitation of roads
CARTIF is working in those technologies and attending in some of the most influential national projects in the sector, like OASIS (Safe, Intelligent and Sustainable Highways Operation), funded by the Spanish national
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Embedded sensing in PAVIREX project
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government with 30Mâ‚Ź, between 2008 and 2012. The OASIS project constitutes a unique initiative in Spain for the design of the toll road of the future and was an example of public-private cooperation in strategic industrial research. The main goal of this project was to improve the safety
and the service sustainability of Spanish toll roads. The research team of CARTIF took part in embedded sensing and visual inspection tasks, external and embedded sensors designing for dynamic road management. These sensors weigh the resistance of the structure taking into account installation requirements, functionality, energetic consumption and costs. These data predict the evolution of road surface and are used to prevent its deterioration. The VIALCYL project (2008-2012) was in the same research area. It developed new technologies for maintenance, rehabilitation, and sustainable and safety management of Castilla y LeĂłn roads. In this framework, CARTIF is involved in several tasks like the development of new technologies for road safety and the sustainability of processes related to road
Part of the CARTIF research team
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marking of roadway infrastructures. In this field, there have been developed innovative methods such as the intelligent equipment guidance system of painted/re-painted of road marking, based on laser and vision technologies. In the road inspection field, a new tool to define and estimate the safety level in a particular stretch of road has been designed. Regarding environmental research, the Sustainable Management Area of CARTIF analysed new types of ice melters that can replace road salt in winter season. Another project with complementary aims was REHABCAR. It concluded in 2013 and developed new tools for roads and highways rehabilitation in high quality and economically sustainable infrastructures in order to adapt them to the new needs of traffic and to extend their life span. In this case, CARTIF contributed on the development of cross-section measure
CARTIF auscultation equipment
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CARTIF developed new types of ice melters to replace road salt
s y s t e m which made possible to obtain very swiftly threedimensional models of the road and its surroundings. Thus, topography work was reduced through the development of tools that facilitate obtaining an accurate survey of the road layout.
On the new materials for asphalt mixes sector, CARTIF is working in two very interesting projects. PAVIREX, co-funded by MINECO, researches to find a pavement that responds effectively to dangerous situations such as ice (in this case, it is looking for a pavement that avoid icing through a mix of intelligent mechanisms placed under the bituminous wearing course and the use of additives added to the binder. ) or fire in enclosed places (like tunnels), two hazardous situations for drivers. CARTIF contributes in the smart detection for anticipating icing. In this case, field tests have been conducted with promising results. The second project related to the pavement is a European project co-funded by LIFE program. The EQUINOX, which has just started, wants to demonstrate the effectiveness of an asphalt treatment that eliminates the nitrogen oxides of urban areas. Thanks to this new method, roads will be able to “capture� the NOx in
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We work in “new anti-polluting roads” projects
the environment, due to a chemical reaction between solar radiation and titanium dioxide.
The main idea is to develop the concept of “new anti-polluting roads” with application inside the cities. Combined with the new management structures and the urban traffic control and with other measures, it will help to reduce NOx concentration in urban environments as stressed in the Directive 2008/50/EC. Another European project ongoing is HeERO2, which main goal is carry out the Pan-European eCall based on 112. This will be undertaken at a European level in
accordance with the approved standards. In case of a car accident, eCall is an invehicle system able to automatically dial the European emergency number 112 and transmit relevant information regarding the location and technical data of the vehicles involved to the emergency services. This allows rapid intervention in the unlikely event that passengers are no longer able to speak. The system also allows manual dialing from the vehicle. eCall is free to the public and it will be compulsory in the European Union as from 1 October 2015. CARTIF works in the Spanish demonstrator, close to 112 Service in the Spanish regions of Madrid, Galicia and Castilla y León.
eCall operation diagram
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the project
the project LIFE RESCATAME: selected as one of the Best LIFE projects 2013
conference on European environment policy, will take place from 3 to 5 June, in Brussels.
The main objective of the RESCATAME project was to accomplish sustainable urban traffic management by using two key elements: a pervasive air-quality sensors network and prediction models.
The objective of the exercise is to help improve the dissemination of LIFE project results by clearly identifying those projects whose results, if widely applied, could have the most positive impact on the environment.
Another objective was to control pollution level (mainly caused by traffic emissions) that affects cities all over Europe, by supporting Local Authorities in order to achieve an efficient and sustainable urban traffic management in accordance with existing environmental policies and regulations. RESCATAME has allowed to testing in real urban environments the collection and processing of data from 35 motes located in experimental roads of the city of Salamanca (Spain) during a year-round period. During the testing period, more than two millions data were collected and processed in the project data centre, allowing local authorities foresee high pollution episodes and act accordingly.
These projects have been selected according to criteria as: projects’ contribution to immediate and longterm environmental, economic and social improvements; their degree of innovation and transferability; their relevance to policy and their cost-effectiveness.
Project methodology and technology developments are now ready to be transferred to other cities. RESCATAME, led by CARTIF between 2010 – 2013, has been selected as one of the 21 Best LIFE Environment projects out of the 85 that finished and were evaluated in 2013. The results should be announced in April. The award will be made in the context of Green Week, the biggest annual
Dolores Hidalgo and Marta Gómez, main researchers of the project
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one of us
one of us Ferran Sunyer i Balaguer (Figueres 1912 - Barcelona 1967)
was a self-educated mathematician. He worked for the Office of Naval Research of USA Due to a cerebral palsy, Sunyer was in a wheelchair since birth. Being a child, he showed a great fascination for the mathematics science. In 20’s, Sunyer’s cousin, Ferran Carbona, got him a French Manual about algebra. Ferran made the most of this opportunity and memorized each concept, until he found a mistake. Then, he tried to contact to French Mathematical Society, but there was no reply until 40’s, when the French Society recognized their malpractice.
Márius Serra, who is the author of the only book that counts the history of Ferran Sunyer, Plans de futur, explained: “They put him through an administrative ordeal for obtaining the bachelor’s degree title. He was a self-taught. He was out of the system and this didn’t like them”. Meanwhile, Sunyer were researching for Office of Naval Research of United States, where it was recognized the value of his studies and research work in the field of mathematics and his contribution to science community.
Some of his personal works, such as the theory of functions of complex variable, obtained certain reputation and also, he got many scientific prizes. Sunyer wrote more than 40 publications in specialized journals such as Comptes Rendues de l’Académie des Sciences, where published his first article and began his career as self-taught mathematician. These publications would let him rub shoulders with the most important European scientific circles.
Stranger in Franco’s Spain, now he is recognized as one of the most important mathematicians in that time. In 1967, a few days before his death, the CSIC granted him the research category, the highest academic category.
In 1948, The Spanish Council of Scientific Research (CSIC) granted him the lowest academic category within CSIC hierarchy. Ferran decided to obtain the bachelor degree and Ph.D.
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cartif selection WAZE Traffic app where more of 50 million users share road information in real time. It suggests the most quickly and safe routes, informs about the traffic, potential dangers, and also, the cheapest petrol stations. Available on
Road safety is the focal point of the apps of this month. For watching, we recommend you the production process of the asphalt, one of the protagonist of this number.
IPAVEMENT Ipavement2 is a new generation of smart pavement made in Spain and created by Vía Inteligente company, with an operating system, apps and sensors that will equip the streets of multiple functions. This type of pavement is installed in Puerta del Sol of Madrid and in the Main Square of Cáceres and allows you access to different apps, wifi and bluetooth.
TWERI ON ROAD The “Let me know when you arrive!” of our mothers has become obsolete due to this app, that sends automatically mails with the localization of the vehicle to a familiar or friend, when the driver wants to. The application will alert the familiar if detected an unusual long stop. Avaibale on
HOW IT’S MADE Asphalt “How it’s made” the popular television program of Discovery Max, allows us to know about the production process of conventional mix asphalt. In this case, the asphaltic concrete joins to other components for producing the pavement of our roads.
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innovation engine