APSE

The APSE project is a FP7 funded project which arises from the need to promote sustainable roads construction, by reducing the use of virgin materials and promoting the use of environmentally efficient alternative materials.

The overall aim of the project is to establish a new concept of asphalt pavement structures with ecologically oriented attributes, significantly reducing the asphalt pavement carbon footprint while achieving a level of long term performance comparable or greater than that of conventional pavement structures. This goal will be achieved by focussing on the two main components of asphalt mixture: bitumen and aggregates. On the binder side the aim is to replace almost the 100% of the bitumen by greener materials from renewable raw sources, e.g. vegetable oils, by-products of bioethanol production.

On the aggregates' side, efforts will be made on the valorization of construction and demolition waste and in the use of reclaimed asphalt for asphalt mixtures.

The APSE project will provide a systematic approach for selecting the right combination of these components in the design of asphalt mixtures, from laboratory and accelerated testing to real applications. The APSE technology will be validated in real cases studies; two test sections will be built and monitored for two years, one in Poland and the other one in Spain.