EUROPEAN FLEXIBLE
PAVEMENT PRACTICE
FOLLOWING AN EYE-OPENING TRIP TO ASIA IN 2019, AAPA IS TRAVELLING TO EUROPE FOR ITS 2020 INTERNATIONAL KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER TO LEARN ABOUT EUROPEAN SUSTAINABILITY IN FLEXIBLE PAVEMENTS.
R
esearch engineer Robert Noyce once said, knowledge is power, and knowledge shared is power multiplied. In the spirit of multiplying knowledge, about every two years, the Australian Asphalt Pavement Association (AAPA) organises an International Knowledge Transfer (IKT). The IKT sees engineers and road construction specialists flown around the world to share and gain knowledge to advance the flexible pavements industry in Australia. Learning about sustainable road industry trends in Europe will be the focus of the next AAPA IKT. The IKT 2020 Europe trip will see Australian road industry professionals meet with, learn from, and share their experience with European experts in asphalt and bitumen practices. Industry professionals will meet with their counterparts and colleagues in the UK, France and Germany to capture trends and developments in sustainability and learn best practice procedures first-hand. Following the first week of the trip, there
All industry, experts, managers, development leaders and sustainability champions are invited to express their interest for the trip.
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ROADS MARCH 2020
will also be the option for attendees to register for the Eurasphalt & Eurobitume Congress in Spain. This will give delegates the chance to network and engage with people from across the globe. International experts can exchange ideas on industry developments while seeking to overcome similar challenges. Newly appointed AAPA Technical Director Anna D’Angelo is organising this year’s IKT to Europe. She says that the IKT 2020 Europe, Circular Directions from Europe, aims to identify circular economy solutions to respond to the challenges of climate change, carbon emissions and shortage of natural resources. Circular strategies involve extending the lifetime of products through optimising their utility, using waste as a resource, and ultimately, circular design. She says that the UK, France and Germany were chosen to explore the strategies they have implemented to minimise waste, promote resource efficiency and move towards a circular economy. AAPA has chosen to focus on three key
areas of interest to industry on the IKT. The first, is the use of waste stream recycling in road practices. In undertaking research about European practices the AAPA team found that the UK were using recycled plastics in road applications. In early 2019 the UK Government invested £22.9 million into funding for new technology that could stop potholes forming, including testing plastic in a new surface material solution. “In Australia, this is a topic where there have been some trials so we want to go to the UK to understand the quality and performance of the pavement, the environmental implications and also what the approach of the UK Department of Transport is to implement the use of these products,” Ms. D’ Angelo says. The second area of interest for the IKT 2020 Europe will be the current trends in asphalt pavements and bitumen in Europe. “For example, we have seen that European countries are quite advanced in the use of reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) so we would like to investigate what the recent developments are,” Ms. Dangelo says. “We would also like to understand how IMO2020 sulphur regulations are affecting the supply of bitumen and how the quality of bitumen is assessed.” The third and final key area AAPA would like to investigate in Europe is the environmental practices already implemented over there, including the use of RAP, warm mix asphalt and emission reporting systems. Europe has pursued sustainability for over a decade and, with government, have embedded it into operations and purchasing. “Many countries in Europe significantly lower the temperature of structural and
