Starting in 2020, new climate-friendly asphalt will be used by contractors on Danish roads, when new road paving is needed.

The decision to increase the use of the new climate-friendly asphalt was taken by the Danish government after testing the new climate-friendly asphalt on four Danish highways. The project to develop a new type of paving to reduce the road’s rolling resistance in at least 6.5 percentage and thus reduce CO2 emissions started in 2011, writes Danish media Ingeniøren.

So far, the project has only received funding for next year. However, if the initiative continues, CO2-emissions from traffic could be reduced by 182,000 tons between 2020 and 2030, according to the Danish Road Directorate. Furthermore, the road directorate underlines that if the entire Danish road network is replaced with the climate-friendly alternative asphalt, CO2-emissions can be cut by 616,000 tons by 2037.

Climate-friendly asphalt is 10 per cent more expensive

The additional cost of implementing the new type of asphalt instead of the conventional alternatives will be around EUR 35,3 million over the next 10 years if used every time a state road pavement is renewed. That is approximately 10 per cent more expensive than the current asphalt used in Denmark.

However, according to the Danish Ministry of Transport and Housing , there is a net gain for every public Euro invested of between EUR 1.4 and 2.9 in derived effects. These effects include noise reduction, less pollution and reduced fuel consumption and CO2-emissions.

The asphalt type is an offshoot of the research project ‘Rose’ between Roskilde University, the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), the Danish Road Directorate and several private companies. ROSE involves three parts: research, development, and implementation, and they have shown a durability for the climate-friendly asphalt to be at least equivalent to the paving types currently used by the Danish Road Directorate.

First kilometres of the eco-friendly asphalt were delivered between 2012-2014. At the time, a total of 40 kilometres of eco-friendly road surface has been paved, with the Danish company NCC overseeing the process and the production of the green asphalt. NCC has also been involved in strategic road investments. At the time of road investment boom, the company was involved in the construction of A2 motorway – a crucial investment for Poland’s road infrastructure system.

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