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International Sustainable Pavements Workshop

January 7-9, 2010

Background

The provision and maintenance of a reliable and sustainable infrastructure is a priority for all countries. Societal stability, sustainable growth, quality of life, and resilient response to natural and manmade disasters all rely extensively on efficient, well-maintained infrastructure networks (roads, water pipelines, electrical grids, etc.). In particular, the road infrastructure is of central importance and a critical lifeline in developed societies, with pavement structures consuming a large percentage of the resources (up to 60% according to some sources) allocated for the provision and management of the road infrastructure. Because of this importance, because of their ubiquity, and because of past and ongoing investment, this highway construction is one of the most important areas of infrastructure for which sustainability must be achieved.

Objectives

  • To identify the main issues associated with the design, construction, and management of sustainable pavement systems from an international perspective
  • To report on the most recent research advances and current developments in pavement materials engineering and pavement construction that deliver environmental and sustainability benefits
  • To determine the future research efforts that are needed to deliver continuing and increasing sustainability in the sector
  • To establish a "roadmap" for its delivery, defining short-, medium-, and long-term research agendas for the development and implementation of more sustainable pavement engineering and management technologies and practices
  • To determine the relative areas of strength and expertise in Europe and North America with a view to fostering international research collaboration that will benefit both regions.

Sustainability in the U.S. and Europe

The addressing of sustainability objectives has only been a strong requirement in the U.S. in recent years, whereas European countries have been pursuing such goals for many years. Thus, the U.S. needs to avail itself of the advances made outside its borders to rapidly catch up in the field. Furthermore, the current strong drive in the U.S. compared to the slowly grown and more mature development in Europe means that countries on either side of the Atlantic have taken somewhat different trajectories in research and practice, both of which have their respective strengths and approaches. In particular, it is possible to detect differences of emphasis and states of development in the areas of:

  • climate change
  • measurement of sustainability
  • environmental protection
  • available recycling and re–use technologies
  • materials innovation
  • noise management, reduction, and attenuation
  • scaling and localization

Therefore, it is now timely to establish an international workshop to bring together the leading researchers in this field from the U.S. and Europe so as:

  • to compare and contrast best practices in the U.S., Europe, and other countries
  • to explore the vital subject of sustainable pavements
  • to identify a roadmap of future research needs

Roadmap

The main outcome of the workshop is the following Research Agenda for Sustainable Pavements, which provides an international roadmap for research and collaboration.

Sponsors

The workshop is kindly sponsored by the U.S. National Science Foundation and by the U.S. Federal Highway Administration.


Presentations

Introductions and Workshop Overview
Opening Program Gerardo Flintsch
Workshop Purpose Gerardo Flintsch
Welcome Tom Harman
Work Plan Andrew Dawson
NTEC Description Andrew Dawson
VTTI Description Gerardo Flintsch
Participant Presentations
"Big Picture" Issues
Thinking Green Tom Harman
Sustainable Pavement / Asset Management Gerardo Flintsch
Climate Change Impacts on Pavement Engineering Kamil Kaloush
Roadways as part of the Urban Industrial Ecosystem Kevin Gardner
(Environmental) Life Cycle Assessment Tony Parry
Carbon Footprint: Topic Introduction Howard Marks
Innovative Photocatalytic Pavements Maurizio Crispino
Tomorrow's Flexible Pavement Bio–Binder Gayle King
Pavements Providing Low Rolling Resistance Ulf Sandberg
Pavement Materials
Environmental Sustainability of Pavement Materials: Some Thoughts to Initiate Discussion John Harvey
Soil treatment with Non–Traditional Stabilizers — Introduction and State of the Art Pauli Kolisoja (presented by Andrew Dawson)
Pavement Recycling — In–Place Cold Recycling Trenton Clark
Use of High Recycled Content Hussain Bahia
Recycled Concrete Aggregate in Transportation Projects Bouzid Choubane
Engineering a Non–Petroleum Binder for use in Flexible Pavements Chris Williams
Rubber Recycling Magdy Abdelrahman
Rubber Recycling Paulo Pereira
Use of [other] Secondary and Recycled Materials in Pavements Andrew Dawson
Warm Mix Asphalt John Harvey
Pavement Systems
Durable and Sustainable Pavement Systems Martin van de Ven
Introduction — US Quiet Pavements Larry Scofield
Low–Noise Pavements (LNF) Ulf Sandberg
Perpetual Pavements and Sustainability Brian Ferne
Innovative Pavement Systems Hosin "David" Lee
Innovative pre–fabricated Pavement Systems Martin van de Ven
Optimizing Pavement Function (Wearing Course Design/Selection) Kevin McGhee
Thin Surfacings Manfred Partl
Concluding Remarks
Summary and Action Items