5 minute read
International Knowledge Transfer
PAVEMENT PRACTICE EUROPEAN FLEXIBLE
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.
Research 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 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
surfacing asphalt and binder products to reduce emissions and reduce energy consumption. Learning from their practice should continue the use of products and new product development in Australia,” Ms. D’Angelo says.
She says as from the previous IKTs and study tours, the experience brought back will save the industry time and money by understanding what is tried and tested. Last year’s IKT to Asia saw attendees visit a refinery investing US $1 billion to upgrade its facilities ahead of IMO2020. Following that trip, AAPA undertook a strong campaign to spread awareness of IMO2020 and its possible effects on bitumen quality.
While learning from Europe will be the focus of the trip, Ms. D’Angelo says AAPA will have the opportunity to share developments from Australia.
Some of the Australian knowledge that AAPA will showcase includes the Australian research into recycled plastic in asphalt and Australia’s experience using crumb rubber for spray sealing.
“Europe is not as developed in the use of crumb rubber as Australia so we would like to share our knowledge around crumb rubber spray sealing,” she says.
Ms. D’Angelo’s colleague at AAPA Robert Vos has undertaken extensive research to develop the AAPA Sustainability Framework for Asphalt which is modelled off the international European system and will be shared on the IKT.
In the UK attendees of the IKT will meet with Highways England, Nottingham University and Eurobitume to learn about their practices, policies and research.
In France, the group will meet with Routes de France, Universite Gustave Eiffel and Exxon Mobil. Attendees will then be hosted by the German Asphalt Pavement Association, BAST (a German national research body) and Germany’s leading university in the field of road construction University of Braunschweig.
Following the week-long IKT 2020 Europe tour, attendees can choose to stay in Europe and travel to Spain for the Eurasphalt & Eurobitume Congress.
“At the congress we are going to be exposed to all the research being done worldwide. The themes of the congress are sustainability, asphalt development, testing, binder performance, sustainability and environment and warm mix asphalt,” Ms. D’Angelo says.
“There will be even more opportunity to bring back more varied knowledge, technology developments, improvements in testing and new directions for the future.”
All industry experts, managers, development leaders and sustainability champions are invited to express their interest for the trip. The IKT 2020 Europe will run from 2 May to the 9 May and the additional conference week will extend the trip until 15 May, 2020.
“The way we have structured for the IKT 2020 Europe is to be able to offer something for everyone. We want to give everyone the chance to learn and to advance the Australian pavements industry on their return,” Ms. D’Angelo says.
Visit AAPA’s website at www.aapa.asn.au to register your expression of interest for the IKT 2020 Europe.
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