Eurovia meets the 100% RAP “Recyclee” challenge on a French motorway

Eurovia says that it has successfully paved a 1km stretch of a French motorway using 100% recycled asphalt pavement – a global first for RAP. Eurovia said that the “fully recycled road”, done in conjunction with its parent company VINCI Autoroutes, is part of a major motorway renovation project on the A10 between Pons and Saint-Aubin in southwest France. The road is the result of two years of research and a partnership with asphalt plant equipment maker Marini-Ermont of the Fayat group. Marini-Ermont
October 25, 2018 Read time: 3 mins
Not a virgin in sight: Marini-Ermont created the TRX100% mobile continuous asphalt plant to use 100% RAP

3281 Eurovia says that it has successfully paved a 1km stretch of a French motorway using 100% recycled asphalt pavement – a global first for RAP.

Eurovia said that the “fully recycled road”, done in conjunction with its parent company 6531 VINCI Autoroutes, is part of a major motorway renovation project on the A10 between Pons and Saint-Aubin in southwest France.

The road is the result of two years of research and a partnership with asphalt plant equipment maker Marini-Ermont of the 2779 Fayat group. Marini-Ermont created the TRX100% mobile continuous asphalt plant that can handle up to 100% of asphalt aggregates that originate at nearby road maintenance sites.

Other partners include the government of the Nouvelle Aquitaine region and PACA Laboratories.

This development represents significant progress compared with the current recycling rates of 50-60%, Eurovia said in a written statement.

The bulk of the supply can be sourced from milling material produced by the site. This would partly or fully protect natural  resources and keep transport logistics to a minimum. It also would cut up 50% the site’s carbon footprint, Eurovia claimed.

VINCI Autoroutes, which operates nearly 4,500km of French motorways, is part of the French global infrastructure company VINCI. The project to use 100% RAP is one of four similarly environmentally based projects that together make up the “Route du futur” scheme launched by ADEME, France’s Environment and Energy Management Agency.

Routes du future is, in turn, part of the Investing for the Future Programme to promote the development of innovative and ambitious industrial solutions to reduce the environmental impact of road infrastructure and support the energy transition in the road industry.

The three other Routes du future project are NOVATHERM, I-Street and REGIC.


The NOVATHERM project, being coordinated by Eurovia, includes working with the governments of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Nouvelle Aquitaine and the Ile-de-France regions. The object is to harness the solar-induced energy of a road and channel it into geothermal or biomass energy for use in nearby towns, be it for street lighting or electricity for shops and factories or social housing heating.

Part of the NOVATHERM work is to explore the extraction of heat during the hot summer months and during winter using the technology to reverse the energy flow to heat the pavement to reduce the risk of ice and to melt snow.

I-STREET is a project coordinated by EIFFAGE and done by TOTAL, French research group IFSTTAR using its fatigue carousel in Nantes and pigment producer PME OLIKROM. The goal is to develop more wear-resistant coatings for asphalt.

The use of “intelligent geo-synthetic reinforcements” – project REGIC – is to inhibit the creation of cavities in pavement. The work is being done by engineering textile manufacturer Texinov in conjunction with Ineris (Institut national de l'environnement industriel et des risques) and the laboratory 3SR (Sols, Solides, Structures, Risques).

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • ERIC 2016: What shape the ‘Smart Road’?
    February 7, 2017
    Optimism about the future of highways worldwide abounded at the inaugural European Road Infrastructure Conference (ERIC) in Leeds, UK Around 500 delegates passed through the varied sessions during the three-day event at the Royal Armouries Museum in the northern English city of Leeds. They came away with many visions of what a motorway and road could look like. But what speakers at the event - co-organised by the Brussels-based European Union Road Federation (ERF) and the UK’s Road Safety Markings Ass
    Read More
  • Automated testing is safer, cheaper and more thorough
    December 12, 2018
    Automated testing is improving safety during paving and saving on testing costs. But it could also help reduce long-term maintenance costs too - Kristina Smith writes Testing pavements as they are laid can be a hazardous activity. The technician may be on their hands and knees, far behind the main gang, or reaching inside the hopper to measure the temperature of the hot mix or dodging rollers to take density readings.
    Read More
  • A European Deere?
    July 4, 2018
    Iconic US manufacturer John Deere is back in Europe, thanks to its purchase of Wirtgen. David Arminas looks at what’s in store The gods were smiling on the Wirtgen Group for the company’s Road Technology Days 2018 event. This year it was held in summer-like weather at the recently expanded Voegele plant near Mannheim in Germany. Within days in northern Europe the season dramatically changed from dreary chilly late winter to glorious high temperatures, just in time to bathe the amassed demonstration equi
    Read More
  • Asphalt plants use recycled asphalt, reduce costs
    February 29, 2012
    Cesan, the Turkey-based supplier of asphalt plants and related products, says it is following a customer-oriented development strategy and anticipating their needs. "By providing customers with quality, delivery, installation, instruction and after-sale services, we are setting high standards and applying advanced technology developing our business," says Çesan. Looking to the environment, Çesan says it produces and manufactures dust collector systems under licence from B.M.D. GARANT.
    Read More

Highlighted Content