"CONCRETE ROADS - ACHIEVEMENTS AND CHALLENGES"

Proposed surface type for the highways network by 2020 (GDDKiA)

The Targi Kielce Congress Centre Hall Omega housed the  Seminar on concrete pavings organized by the Polish Cement Association under the auspices of the General Directorate for National Roads and Motorways. The participants had the opportunity to become familiar with concrete pavements advantages, share their own experiences related to this surface type application and performance and learn about the trends is concrete paving. The  event was attended by over 200 participants

According to GDDKiA forecast for 2036, traffic-volumes on roads which have been selected for concrete surface technology scheme will exceeded 10 thousand vehicles a day in in particular places. Therefore today in Poland we have the capabilities to execute 850 km of motorways with the use of the concrete technology.

GDDKiA recommendations are absolutely legitimate; this is the step to balance and diversify technological solutions in Poland's road construction sector.

Polish road engineering milieux, the media, thematic conferences are the platform for heated discussions on technology to be applied in the next phase of motorway network development. The General Directorate for National Roads and Motorways, having performed a thorough and in-depth analysis of the possible solutions indicated that it justified to construct about 850 km of new express-ways with the use of concrete technology. For decades such solutions have proven effective in all corners of the world and in our immediate European neighbourhood - i.e. Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic. For almost 20 years concrete pavements have also been present as a part of Poland's road network. Nearly 600 km of motorways and express-ways recently commissioned in Poland serve as a clear proof that we can utilise other technologies, not only asphalt-based. The analyses clearly show that concrete pavements offer lower total construction cost and id due course , more economical roads (the so-called whole life costs are taken into consideration). This is particularly evident in the case of roads where traffic volumes exceed 20 thousand. vehicles a day.