REPARA2.0

The aim of REPARA is the development of new bitumen mixes with rate of recycled up to 100%, with noise reduction and self-regeneration characteristics, besides new TIC developments.

Throughout these developments, it is pretended the rehabilitation and conservation of any kind of road, with less economics and environmental costs, improving the adaption to the climate change. This project emerges in a critical moments due to the poor state of the Spanish national road network and of the other European countries.

For that target, the project deals with the innovative developments in the following areas:

• Noise reduction bitumen mixes: the noise due to the traffic of the vehicles is reduced thanks to the development of a new pavement with noise reduction characteristics, which is able to reduce more than 5 dB(A) in relation a conventional one.
• Self-healing bitumen mixes: a preventive self-healing technology in pavement is developed from warm mix asphalts with rate of recycled up to 30% (RAP). New materials which in a controlled way heal the pavement will be added.
• Recycled cold bitumen mixes in place: it is studied the possibility of replace the pavement based on hot mix asphalt by a cold mix asphalt with rate of recycled up to 100% in the surface layer. It will mean in a totally innovative solution so it is not known examples in which there is a total replacement of the pavement by a cold recycled pavement with a rate up to 100%.
• Recycled cold bitumen mixes in plant: it is developed bitumen emulsions in several stages with similar characteristics to hot mix asphalts.
• Reflective bitumen mixes – cool pavements: it is developed new reflective mixes (cool pavements) with rate of recycled up to 25% which decrease the surface temperature and, by this way, the environmental temperature due to the solar radiation.
• Resilience against climate change: the risk and the influence of climate change in the road will be analysed. The aim of this analysis is to prevent and solve the obstacles related with the climate change and achieve the challenge of resilience in roads.
• Monitoring and detection of pavement state: a monitoring strategy is posed in order to collect and transfer real-time data to a system which allows analysing the state of the road.
• Environment: life-cycle cost analysis: a software tool is developed to analysis the environmental behaviour, particularized to the rehabilitation of roads based on LCA and LCCA.
• Regulations and pavement dimensioning tools: a software tool is developed to the design of pavements, including conventional mix asphalt and experimental recycled asphalt studied during the project. A new normative and regulation will be edited with the target of being validate by the competent administrations in order to accelerate the product marketing.

The participants in the project are the following entities: SACYR Construcción, ACCIONA Infraestructuras, REPSOL, FRACTALIA Engineering, CHM Obras e Infraestructuras, CEMOSA, Solid Forest e INZAMAC, supported by 11 public research centers.

CEMOSA addresses:

• Designing of a new cold bitumen mix with 100% recycled material (RAP- reclaimed asphalt pavement)
• Development of a high yield auscultation system particularly designed for pervious pavements.
• Development of a software tool in order to the designing and calculation of pavement using mechanistic method, including the new bitumen mixes developed during the project.