Share of experiences, research results and new developments during the 14th International Symposium on Concrete Roads

06/07/2023

Five years after Berlin, the 14^th International Symposium on Concrete Roads was held from 25 to 28 June 2023 in Krakow, Poland, in the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel. The organization was in the hands of the Polish Cement Association, together with EUPAVE, under the honorary patronage of the Polish Ministry of Infrastructure and the General Directorate for National Roads and Highways, and with the support of the World Road Association PIARC and the International Society for Concrete Pavements ISCP.

The motto of this edition, “Concrete Roads to the Green World” was present throughout the programme. In addition to the classic technical themes such as design, materials, construction and applications, a lot of attention was paid to sustainability themes like the European Green Deal, circular construction and the economic and social aspects of concrete roads.

Around 220 participants were present to listen to over 70 presentations during the 3-days conference, covering 12 different themes plus a workshop on “Concrete Roads 4.0”.

Opening Ceremony and Gala Dinner

The event started with an enjoyable welcome reception on Sunday evening. Jan Deja, Director of the Polish Cement Association and Luc Rens, Managing Director of EUPAVE kicked off the Symposium.

The Opening Ceremony on Monday morning included welcomes speeches from Jan Deja, Luc Rens, Krzystof Kieres, President of the Polish Cement Association, Stéphane Nicoud, President of EUPAVE, Nazir Alli, President of PIARC, Lucio Salles de Salles, Member of the Executive Committee of ISCP, Zbigniew Kotlarek, President of the Polish Road Congress and representatives of the two main sponsors, OAT and GORAZDZE.

It was followed by an Opening session with contributions from several Polish keynote speakers, sharing the Polish experiences in concrete road construction. Dr. Mark Snyder from the U.S. ended this session with a presentation on “The past and future of load transfer systems for jointed concrete pavements”.

Following a day of sessions, the Polish Cement Association organized the Gala Dinner at the spectacular Wieliczka Salt Mine.

Technical visits

The 2 worksite visits organized Tuesday afternoon were a great success.

One group visited the local concrete roads and bicycle paths in Skawina and the concrete sections in tunnels on S52 in Krakow. Another group went to the section of concrete on A1 Pyrzowice-Czestochowa motorway and visited a test section, where GFRP (glass fiber reinforced polymer) reinforcement bars were used instead of steel for the construction of a CRCP (continuously reinforced concrete pavement) section. The project was executed and presented by Mr. Igor Ruttmar from TAP, STRABAG.

Closing Ceremony

The event came to an end Wednesday 28 June 2023 with the Closing Ceremony.

During the ceremony, Luc Rens introduced the “Carlos Jofré Award” which is dedicated to our colleague Carlos Jofré who passed away on 10 December 2020. It is offered by OFICEMEN, IECA and EUPAVE. It recognizes the whole career of professionals who have a long experience and relevant works in fields related to concrete pavements and cement treated bases. For the first edition, Michael Darter, internationally recognized expert in pavement research and consultant, and participant to all 14 editions of the Symposium, received the trophy. He was also offered financial compensation of 500 EUR for expenses related to the Symposium and an 18-month partnership with EUPAVE.

Rory Keogh, vice-president of EUPAVE, gave the Award of the “Best Technical Paper” to Frederic Otto from Aachen University RWH and his co-authors, M. Oeser, J. Rickwärtz, S. Stevic, J. Kolb, K. Hameyer, M. Niedermeier, R. Grajcarek for their paper “New construction concepts for the realization of electric road systems with dynamic inductive power transfer technologies”.

Stéphane Nicoud, president of EUPAVE, gave the Award of the “Best Marketing Paper” to James Mack (CEMEX USA) and his co-authors, Greg Dean (ACPA) and Leif Wathne (CPTech Center) for their paper “Improving pavement resiliency to flooding: a case for concrete pavements”.

We thank all participants, partners, sponsors, exhibitors, and members of the International Technical Programme Committee for their support and commitment.

For more information, see www.concreteroads2023.com.