Innovative construction and maintenance, with the use of new materials and techniques, for resilient and sustainable transport infrastructure

Expected Outcome

Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following outcomes:

Demonstration of combined solutions for infrastructure construction that achieve the following targets:

• At least 50% of the construction materials used are recycled or sourced from recycled materials;
• Reduced pollutant emissions by at least 30% considering the entire life cycle of the infrastructure;
• Reduced degradation of ecosystems and fragmentation of habitats during construction, maintenance, operation and decommissioning of transport infrastructure (thereby contributing to maintaining biodiversity);
• Increased climate resilience of infrastructure to extreme weather and human caused events, assuring at least 80% capacity at network level during the disruptions;
• Structured analysis and recommendations on the need for EU standards in construction, inspection, maintenance and deconstruction, contributing to the decarbonisation and increased resilience of transport infrastructure;
• Guiding document on the necessary adaptations to public procurement rules that contribute to including clear sustainability and resilience award criteria.

Scope

The overarching policy background is the European Grean Deal, which aims to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. In the transport area, this translates into a 90% reduction of transport-related greenhouse gas emissions by 2050[1]. To deliver the European Green Deal, there is a need to revise and upgrade numerous policies, including those for transport and large-scale infrastructures.

The EU Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy[2] (SSMS), which translates this overall transport target into actions, states that infrastructure must be adapted to climate change and made resilient to disasters. In line with the SSMS, it is also important that such infrastructure should rely on clean and decarbonised energy sources, notably renewable energy, as well as on a modernised grid.

Research in this topic should provide knowledge and technical solutions to a triple challenge: (1) limiting emissions of transport infrastructures; (2) making them more resilient to climate change; and (3) addressing environmental and biodiversity aspects. Projects should cover the entire life cycle of transport infrastructures, covering overall emissions from sourcing of materials, construction, maintenance, operation and decommissioning of the infrastructure.

Proposals should address all of the following aspects:

• Development of new methods and techniques to construct, manage, maintain and repair (including self-repair) transport infrastructures, in order to increase climate resilience and lower emissions;
• Assessment of solutions considering the principles of circularity and taking into account the entire life cycle assessment (LCA) approach;
• Cost-benefit analysis (CBA) of the solutions considering the entire life cycle of the infrastructure and accompanying business plans for their implementation;
• Application of innovative materials (e.g. green asphalt, green cement, carbon sinks) that enable transport infrastructures to become more resilient, more sustainable and emit less pollutants;
• Validation of all the proposed solutions and proofs of concepts is to be carried out in at least two large-scale demonstrations. The demonstrations should cover at least two different transport infrastructure types (e.g., road, rail, waterborne, airport) which are located on at least two different Trans European Transport Network (TEN-T) corridors. The demonstrations should also cover different environments and phases of the infrastructure life cycle (e.g. design, construction, maintenance, decommissioning);
• Analysis of EU national and international standards in construction, inspection, maintenance and deconstruction, contributing to the decarbonisation and increased resilience of transport infrastructure;
• Design of green, sustainable and innovative public procurement methods, contributing to lowering the environmental footprint, resources, and material consumption;
• Demonstration of sustainable and climate resilient infrastructure with nature-based solutions (NBS[3]), minimising the negative effects on the environment, including the degradation of ecosystems, the fragmentation of habitats and the loss of biodiversity.

The projects should develop clear indicators with baselines and quantified targets in support of the expected outcomes that are monitored for each demonstration site. With regards to the expected outcomes, projects should take into account expected technological developments and policy implementation (e.g. revised TEN-T regulation), multi-disciplinary adaptive capacity in line with the European Climate Risk Assessment[4] (EUCRA) and the Commission Communication on Managing Climate Risks[5], in particular cascading impacts across sectors.

Proposals should consider and build on results from previous calls on resilient and sustainable infrastructure and standards,[6] and should incorporate relevant EU guidance on the development and management of European transport infrastructures. Proposals should also build on previous results from projects on advanced materials, sensor technology, digitalisation, asset management, decision support and automation in the construction and maintenance of infrastructures. If the proposed activities and solutions involve the use of artificial intelligence (AI) systems and/or techniques, the proposal is expected to demonstrate that robustness of the solution.

Activities are expected to achieve TRL 7 by the end of the project - see General Annex B. Activities may start at any TRL.

[1] Transport and the Green Deal - European Commission (europa.eu)

[2] https://transport.ec.europa.eu/document/download/be22d311-4a07-4c29-8b72-d6d255846069_en?filename=2021-mobility-strategy-and-action-plan.pdf

[3] https://research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/research-area/environment/nature-based-solutions_en

[4] European Climate Risk Assessment - European Environment Agency (europa.eu)

[5] EUR-Lex - 52024DC0091 - EN - EUR-Lex (europa.eu)

[6] https://im-safe-project.eu/