On the 20 November 2008, in Amersfoort, Netherlands, the major players in the Benelux bitumen and asphalt industry were expertly led on a technical tour through the maze of developments facing the sector.
Travelling this road, the 360 participants included representatives of local authorities, contractors, road designers, consultants, suppliers and academics. During coffee and lunch breaks attendees visited the 28 exhibition stands, networked with their peers and had the opportunity to meet and question the presenters, face-to-face.
The event was organised by Eurobitume and VBW Asfalt, the Dutch asphalt association
Prof Dr ir A.A.A. Molenaar, the leading Dutch highways and transport engineer, set the scene for the day’s 17 presentations, explaining that increasingly new performance based contracts feature long guarantee periods. This has implications on the design of the pavement and involves greater risks for the contractor. It also prompts changes in the relationships between road owner and contractor, and between contractor and supplier. During this morning session expert speakers gave their opinions on process management, regulations and design. Special attention was paid to healing - a little known factor in road thickness design - and the recovery of polymer modified bitumen from asphalt.
In the afternoon the main issues were the impact of asphalt roads on the environment, particularly noise levels and low temperature asphalt applications. Another important subject was CE marking of asphalt and bitumen. The Netherlands have chosen a performance based CE marking for dense asphalt. This causes specific problems and some solutions were suggested. Within the requirements of tender documents it is always tricky to introduce innovations. Especially in a way that road owners can appreciate the rationale and benefits. Performance requirements are certainly an answer to this. An interesting new project, LOT (Lifetime Optimisation Tool) demonstrated that innovation can be a key and valuable item for all parties.