Skip to main content

Recycled road innovation in France

Eurovia has completed part of major French highway renovation project using 100% recycled asphalt.
February 27, 2019 Read time: 2 mins
Marini-Ermont and Eurovia worked together to develop the TRX100 mobile continuous plant, able to utilise up to 100% RAP in its feed

Eurovia has completed part of major French highway renovation project using 100% recycled asphalt. Eurovia, a subsidiary of transport infrastructure firm 5177 VINCI, claims that this is the first time anywhere that a road has been rebuilt using only recycled materials.

Eurovia carried out the work in collaboration with VINCI Autoroutes. The road was rebuilt as part of a major highway renovation project on the VINCI Autoroutes network, along a 1km stretch of the A10 route between Pons and Saint Aubin in south-west France. Eurovia successfully completed this pilot experiment after more than two years of research and development.

The fully recycled road was made possible through the development, in partnership with Marini-Ermont (part of the Fayat Group), of the innovative TRX100 mobile continuous asphalt plant. This plant made it possible to recycle up to 100% of asphalt aggregates from nearby road maintenance sites.

The bulk of the supply could be sourced from the milling of materials produced by the site, minimising the need for fresh material and reducing transport logistics and the site’s carbon footprint, This approach is said to have helped deliver a 50% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

VINCI Autoroutes is a leading highway operator in France and the firm says it is keen to further utilise road recycling solutions across its projects. This research project won the ‘Route du futur’ call for projects launched by the French Environment & Energy Management Agency, ADEME.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Bitumen technology: three ways to more sustainable roads
    May 14, 2020
    This issue we look at three case studies showcasing new technologies designed to deliver more sustainable paving solutions.
  • Warm asphalt is a hot topic
    June 12, 2012
    Lower temperature mixes – a key advance in bitumen technology - Kristina Smith reports Warm and cold mix asphalts were not on the original agenda for this year’s Eurasphalt & Eurobitume Congress, being held in Istanbul in June. But when the organisers took a look through the papers submitted for their sustainability-themed event, they realised that this is one of the industry’s hottest topics. “We hadn’t quite anticipated the high level of research in this area,” says E&E’s technical programme committee c
  • ARTBA reports green success in US
    March 1, 2012
    A new report from the American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) says that the US transportation sector has been instrumental in improving the country's environment over the past 40 years.
  • Rebuilding the busy Frankfurt Airport in Germany
    September 12, 2017
    Handling up to 450 take-offs/day, Runway West is Frankfurt Airport’s busiest runway. Over 50% of the aircraft taking off from the airport uses Runway West, and a point worth noting is that this German airport is one of the busiest in Europe. In 2016, Frankfurt Airport handled nearly 61 million passengers, surpassed by Schiphol in Amsterdam and Charles de Gaulle in Paris, Europe’s third and second busiest airports respectively. Meanwhile London’s Heathrow remained Europe’s busiest airport