In line with the urgency to adapt to climate change, there is an increasing international demand for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, the boosting of energy efficiency, the implementation of Circular Economy (CE) principles, and the acceleration of the use of clean energies.
Consequently, road infrastructure needs to transition towards sustainable, smart, and resilient infrastructure to face and sustain future mobility scenarios.
To achieve this, the construction and upgrading of infrastructure are now more necessary than ever.
Currently, there are several engineering software tools that support infrastructure construction and upgrading.
However, deployment is hindered by the limited presence of open-source tools and methods to measure all aspects linked to circularity, sustainability, and resilience.
Concept
The CIRCUIT project aims to develop a holistic approach, supported by digital solutions and guidelines, for the upgrade and construction of road infrastructure, focusing on four main pillars: Digitalisation, Recycling, Reuse, and Energy.
The proposed solutions will consider circular economy principles, with the goal of reducing the environmental impact of transport infrastructure and facilitating the transition towards smart and resilient transport systems.
Additionally, the project aims to promote the deployment of Green Public Procurement and foster innovation.
Objectives
CIRCUIT is an EU-funded project under the framework of Horizon Europe that aims to combine technological and non-technological innovations to drive the transformation towards greener, more digital, and resilient transport infrastructures. The project has the following objectives:
1
Address digitalization gaps and facilitate the upgrading of existing assets to transform them into smart infrastructure.
2
Mitigate congestion and minimise accidents.
3
Validate different technologies selected to reduce environmental impacts in an operational environment.
4
Promote circular economy principles, resilience, and performance-based designs, as well as recycling and reusing.
5
Decrease energy consumption of transport infrastructures during both construction and operation phases.
6
Identify solutions and mitigation measures, and incorporate new technical, environmental, and economic elements from CIRCUIT into a real tender process.