Sustainable road construction

Together with sixteen partners, Nye Veier has received support from the Green Platform Initiative to develop more climate and environmentally friendly roads in Norway. The objective is to test innovative solutions and bring them to market. The project will run over three years and has a total budget of 123 million kroner.

“Nye Veier has ambitions both in terms of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and reducing our impact on nature and the environment. To fulfil them, we need to collaborate with the best people around the best solutions. Funds from the Green Platform Initiative help us to make more investments more quickly into sustainable solutions,” says Arild Nygård, Head of Strategy and Sustainability at Nye Veier.

Over the past twenty years, a number of new and exciting technologies have been tested in pilots on Norwegian roads. However, commercialisation has proven a challenge.

The road from pilot to market is time consuming and long, and the risk of adopting new pilot technologies is too great. Parts of the current allocation system unfortunately act as an impediment to the green transition.

“The project is going to change the way we build roads in Norway. Funds from the Green Platform Initiative are crucial in allowing us to meet our climate goals,” says Helen Roth, CEO of VIA – Innovation Cluster for Transport Infrastructure.

Innovative solutions for road construction

Pilot projects generate new knowledge about what promotes – and what impedes – innovation within road construction. The pilot phase will be the beginning of a journey to bring new and sustainable technologies to the market. An important objective is therefore to formulate surefire and effective contract bases.

“We have seen for ourselves here at Nye Veier how contract requirements can lead to innovative solutions that reduce the carbon and environmental footprints of projects. We see the value in competitions where contractors are rewarded for adopting new and better solutions in their work,” says Anette Aanesland, Managing Director of Nye Veier.

Over the course of the three-year project period, at least ten new innovative solutions for road structures, tunnels and roadside constructions will be qualified and piloted. The solutions are based on raw materials from three different resources:

• Mass and materials from construction sites
• Byproducts of mining and processing industries
• Recycled glass

Using data from the pilots, a methodology and an innovation system will be developed in order to serve as a ‘European Road’ for new Norwegian technology. This will take new innovations in the sector from idea through to pilots and then out onto the market.

The industry is ready to deliver concepts that are able to trigger a transformation of the Norwegian construction sector and contribute towards the development of circular solutions that can be exported internationally.

The Green Platform Initiative is funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries and jointly allocated by the Research Council of Norway, Innovation Norway and the Industrial Development Corporation of Norway (SIVA).
The aim of the initiative is to develop a sustainable industry that can protect our climate and environment while simultaneously generating economic value. A total of NOK 623 million was awarded to eleven project participants in this round of funding. Participants also make significant contributions of their own, meaning that the projects have a total budget of over one billion Norwegian kroner.