ACCIONA Infrastructure and other European entities will collaborate with the US Federal Highway Administration in the research for the road of the future

Researchers from the Technological Centre of Madrid and representatives of the European Commission went to Washington last week to establishing the bases of collaboration in the infrastructure field between USA and Europe for the following three years.

The collaboration will be established within the framework of two European funded projects, ECOLABEL and DURABROADS, where ACCIONA Infraestructuras is involved as coordinator (ECOLABEL) and as a partner (DURABROADS). All the American research activities will be performed in the Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center, the roads research center of the FHWA.

The main objective of ECOLABEL project is to develop a new, green, holistic and EU-harmonised ecolabeling methodology integrating a Life Cycle Engineering (LCE) approach: environmental indicators along with the economic, technical and social aspects, for the assessment of future and existing road infrastructures, as well as their construction materials such as asphalt mixtures and cement-based materials. This methodology, together with a guide for road eco-labelling and multi-criteria software tool developed under this project will define eco-labels and provide recommendations to improve the label achieved, supporting and motivating relevant stakeholders and industry to include greener, more cost-effective and safer technologies in their road construction, maintenance and renewal projects.

DURABROADS project aims at developing pavements adapted to new challenges and achieving an efficient, smarter and safer mobility, while maintaining sustainability principles, through the development and demonstration of cost-effective, eco-friendly, durable and resilient pavements. These pavements will be based on innovative nanotechnology enhanced asphalts and through the optimization of procedures to build and rehabilitate long-life, safer and greener roads. The collaboration with the Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Centre will be focused in the evaluation of the different new materials developed under the American methodology, and creating design guidelines with them.

In addition, two researchers of the ACCIONA's Technological Centre of Madrid presented a seminar about Sustainability in infrastructure's construction in the headquarters of the World Bank, located in Washington.