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EUPAVE celebrates excellence with first Outstanding Projects and Innovations Awards

17/12/2025

EUPAVE hosted its first Outstanding Projects and Innovations Awards ceremony on 9 December 2025 in Brussels. The awards, launched after the publication of EUPAVE’s Strategic Plan 2024–2030, recognise excellence across the European concrete paving sector, honouring both remarkable projects and innovative solutions.

The awards ceremony brought together 20 participants. It opened with an introduction by Stéphane Nicoud, President of EUPAVE, followed by a presentation from Luc Rens, Technical Director, who highlighted the high quality of all submissions and the diversity of innovative approaches in concrete paving.

Nine applications were received from seven European countries with a focus on various themes such as electrification, rapid-hardening concrete, low-carbon cements, process optimisation, and the use of prefab concrete elements. However, the topic that recurred in various projects and innovations was circularity in all its aspects: prevention, reuse and recycling.

List of Projects and Innovations received:

Applicant	Organisation	Country	Award type	Title
Tom Roos	Roos Groep	Netherlands	Outstanding Innovation Award (OIA)	Development of the world-first electrical paver
Fulya Gulen Sahin	Çimsa Çimento San. ve Tic. A.Ş.	Türkiye	Outstanding Innovation Award (OIA)	Flycrete – Rapid Strength Concrete for Critical Infrastructure Rehabilitation
Tim Alte-Teigeler	Otto Alte-Teigeler GmbH	Germany	Outstanding Innovation Award (OIA)	Process Optimisation in Texture Grinding
Pierre Stadsbader	TRBA SA	Belgique	Outstanding Project Award (OPA)	Renovation of motorway E411, a model of large-scale circular reconstruction
Paul Gustav Bolz	Technische Universität Dresden	Germany	Outstanding Innovation Award (OIA)	Precast Concrete Elements for Heavily Loaded Pavements
Amaia Gomza	Acciona Construction Technological Division	Spain	Outstanding Innovation Award (OIA)	Turning End of Life Wind turbine blades into Concrete roads: A first European experimentation
Carlos Fernández	Spanish Institute of Cement and its applications	Spain	Outstanding Innovation Award (OIA)	POWERCRETE – New Concrete Battery in Form of Urban Road Section and UAV Platform for Photovoltaic Energy Storage into the Smart City Environment
Stefan Spalt	Asfinag Austria	Austria	Outstanding Project Award (OPA)	Re-Recycling of an concrete pavement of Motorway A1
Katarzyna Jaworska	Cement Ożarów	POLAND	Outstanding Project Award (OPA)	MILKY WAY – Innovative way to build concrete road pavement with lower carbon footprint

The programme then focused on the winning projects, with teams presenting their work to the audience and sharing insights into the technical and environmental impact of their initiatives. Circularity was also the central theme for the two winners.

Outstanding Project Award (OPA)
The Outstanding Project Award went to “Re-recycling of a concrete motorway A1”, carried out by Stefan Spalt and Karl Saller of ASFINAG, together with Michael Mittermaier of HABAU Hoch- und Tiefbaugesellschaft m.b.H. The project stood out for its innovative and far-reaching approach to circularity in road infrastructure.

The section of the A1 West motorway between Upper Austria and Salzburg was built between 1957 and 1960 and underwent a comprehensive renovation in 1990. During this renovation, the entire concrete pavement was recycled for the first time and incorporated in the cement-stabilised base layer and in the bottom layer of the two-layer concrete pavement. That section was an example and the same process was applied to subsequent renovations.

Now, after more than 30 years of use, the technical lifespan of the roadway was reached, necessitating another renovation. And for a second time, the concrete motorway was entirely recycled into the concrete for the new motorway. Up to 70% (m) of the primary aggregates were saved, one of the conditions to make this project fully compliant with European taxonomy rules. The rehabilitation of the Mondsee-Thalgau section is a real pioneer with the first ever “re-recycling” conducted.

Outstanding Innovation Award (OIA)
The Outstanding Innovation Award was presented to “Turning End of Life Wind Turbine Blades into Concrete Roads and Structures: A First European Experimentation”, led by Amaia Gomez San Martin of ACCIONA, Quentin Favre-Victoire from HOLCIM, and Tao Liu of BLADES2BUILD. The project represents a major step forward in recycling composite materials for use in concrete infrastructure.

Blades2Build) is the first large-scale European initiative to tackle the challenge of end-of-life wind turbine blades through a comprehensive multi-path circular strategy. As wind energy infrastructure expands rapidly across Europe, the project responds to an urgent need: preventing thousands of tons of composite blade waste from ending up in landfills.

Its unique approach lies in combining three complementary strategies—direct reuse, component repurposing, and industrial-scale recycling—to unlock new value chains in construction and manufacturing.

The comprehensive program of material innovation included the development of normal-strength concrete with up to 10% blade fibre content. Blade polymers have been reprocessed into secondary composites and additionally, blade derived materials have shown pozzolanic activity, confirming their potential as supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs). Together, these achievements underscore the technical depth of Blades2Build and its capacity to redefine how composite waste is repurposed in sustainable infrastructure.

Two industrial demonstrators were launched to validate the use of recycled wind blade materials in real road construction applications:

1st proof of success – ENDESA project – Circular Repowering platform in Aldeavieja (Spain): innovative concrete formulation replacing part of the natural aggregates with shredded wind blade fibers and recycled aggregates issued from construction demolition materials, achieving high mechanical performance and a significantly lower carbon footprint. To further reduce emissions during construction, HOLCIM deployed its fleet of electric concrete mixer trucks, ensuring low-impact transport and delivery of the recycled concrete on-site.

2nd proof of success – ACCIONA – Circular Slab Prototype in an Industrial Area (Spain): ACCIONA, in collaboration with HOLCIM, successfully executed a 120 m² industrial slabs at ACCIONA Construction Central Workshop Complex, close to Madrid (Spain). The slab was built using HOLCIM’s ECOCycle® concrete, which incorporates over 10% Construction and Demolition Materials, including materials from end-of-life wind turbine blades. The mix also included HOLCIM’s low-emission CEMV/A(Q-S) cement and recycled aggregates, resulting in a sustainable and technically robust solution.

From left to right:

Winners of the Outstanding Innovation Award: Amaia Gomez, Acciona – Tao Liu, Blades2Build – Quentin Favre-Victoire, Holcim

Winners of the Outstanding Project Award: Stefan Spalt and Karl Saller, Asfinag – Michael Mittermair, Habau