EAPA Symposium 2019

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On Thursday 6 June 2019 EAPA organised the EAPA Symposium 2019 at La Maison des Travaux Publics in Paris (France). Around 100 participants, mainly from Industry and Public Road Administrations attended the event, where they had a great opportunity to interact with the speakers and network with other stakeholders of asphalt industry.

Session 1 “Opening and Panel Discussion”

The event was opened by EAPA President John Kruse Larsen, who then joined a panel discussion with Steve Phillips, Secretary General, Board of European Road Directors (CEDR) and Breixo Gomez, EAPA Technical Director. The discussions, moderated by Katrina Sichel, focused on what the future holds for asphalt roads in a changing mobility sector.

Session 2 “Digitalisation and Zero Emissions”

After a coffee break, a technical session named “Digitalisation and Zero Emissions” took place with three interesting presentations:

1. Riccardo Viaggi, Secretary General of the Committee for European Construction Equipment (CECE), stated that the sector missed the train of digitalisation in 2014 with the H2020 programme and now it is behind of other sectors in this regard. Then he presented how, from 1 September 2019, CECE will work on a digital platform for construction.

2. Frank Bijleveld, from the Dutch Strukton Civiel, talked about how Pavement Information Modelling (PIM) has started to provide lifecycle process and performance information for Dutch contractors.

3. Hakan Johannsen, from Trafikverket (Sweden) explained the vision of Swedish Road Authorities of neutral emissions infrastructure and the proposed road map to achieve it by 2045.

Session 3 “Celebration speech of Egbert Beuving”

After the first technical session, former EAPA Secretary General, Egbert Beuving, who retired in January, gave an inspiring speech about the main achievements of asphalt industry in the last 40 years, as well as his ideas about what is waiting in the future. He also highlighted that in order to push the whole industry forward it is important that the highest possible number of people participate in the EAPA Committees.

Session 4 “Communication Session – Strengthen the communication on asphalt’s advantages”

The Symposium continued after lunch with the Communication Session, where the participants worked in groups developing marketing or communication ideas, which they had to capture in a poster or clip and present to the rest of attendees. At the end of the session, the participants voted and selected, as the best idea, the #RoadHeroes, whose objective is to change the perception of road users regarding construction and maintenance workers, from annoyance due to traffic disruptions to pride and satisfaction and all the benefits they are bringing in terms of safety, sustainability and savings.

Session 5 “Asphalt pavements and applications – today and tomorrow” 

The busy agenda continued with the second technical session, named “Asphalt pavements and applications– today and tomorrow”, and its two oral presentations:

1. Jean Eric Poirier, Scientific Director of R&D department at COLAS, presented the outcomes of the MURE project on multiple recycling of asphalt roads.

2. Xavier Carbonneau, also from COLAS, presented practical experiences of using asphalt layers in railway tracks in France, especially in high-speed lines, producing significant advantages in terms of durability, maintenance and comfort, which proves that asphalt is not a material only suitable for roads.

In the “Awards Ceremony” session EAPA awarded Slovenko Henigman President of ZAS (Združenje asfalterjev Slovenije), the Slovenian Asphalt Pavement Association, with the “EAPA Asphalt Advocate 2019 Award”, for having demonstrated own initiatives regarding a better asphalt road marketing, the communication of important industry’s topics and support to the “Asphalt Advantages” campaign. Furthermore, EAPA honoured Egbert Beuving with the “EAPA Asphalt Advocate – Lifetime Award”, as especial recognition never awarded before.

The Symposium ended with the words of EAPA Secretary General, Carsten Karcher, who thanked the speakers, attendees, and the general sponsors (BASF, COLAS and SASOBIT as well as the sponsor of the dinner JRS, for making possible such a successful event.