Data Project

Data Beneficiary

The project aims at demonstrating the competitive ability, sustainability and environmental benefits of road construction methods that reuse old road material and recycle high-volume waste from the paper and chemical industry in construction and maintenance of secondary road network.

The project will test the new, innovative methods in the full scale, ascertain the proper performance of the new processes and show the favourable long-term behaviour and the environmental, technical, societal and economical benefits of the new methods to various interest groups in Europe.

The project has produced the first of the pilots, Pilot 2002, starting from the recipes for the stabilisation, instructions to implement the stabilisation and control its quality and the stabilisation process itself. The technical report on the results of the first project year will be produced in November 2002. Planning for the second pilot, Pilot 2003, has also started and goes on.

Dissemination during the report period has covered all the activities as planned and will continue as planned.

The project costs will pass the 40 % threshold value of eligible costs at the beginning of 2003 - this year, the peak of the costs has been during the construction of Pilot 2002, like expected.

The main deliverables and outputs during the report period have been

The co-ordinator and project manager, Mr Seppo Kolkka, has been carrying out the overall responsibility for the project management. Also other personnel of FRE have participated the project management, especially during the hectic operations of the pilot 2002 construction (Task 3).

In May 2002, the project manager nominated a small task group with persons from FRE and expert organisations for the practical carrying out of the Tasks 2 and 3 for Pilot 2002. A similar task group, including also experts of Luopioinen municipality, has been operating for the carrying out of the planning for Pilot 2003, since August 2002. The task group meetings have been held when necessary (in average from once a month). The partner organisations Kemira and Finncao have been taken care for the delivery of industrial by-products like fly ash and filtercake for Pilot 2002 construction.

The Steering Group, consisting of members of the beneficiary, co-financing and partner organisations as well as the main experts for the project, also has assisted with the project management and with the carrying out the scheduled tasks. The project organisation can be described with the following organogram:

Reporting is planned to be as simple as possible. Therefore, for example, the results of the Tasks 1, 2 and 3 will be compiled in one technical report of Pilot 2002. The report is not yet finalised and is scheduled to be annexed to the Interim Report of the project.

The project started with material tests in December 2001 in order to have adequate data for the planning (e.g. engineering) and other preparations for the Pilot 2002. The Laboratory Test Programme was at first made for the Pilot 2002, and in 3 separate stages that were needed in order to adjust the material recipes with the actual plans for Pilot 2002. These plans are given in Annex I (3 pages). The material tests for Pilot 2002 concluded in August 2002.

The task was completed at the beginning of August 2002. Technical designs and plans for Pilot 2002 were finished at the end of July 2002, like planned. Instructions for construction, quality control and follow-up were accepted and finalised at the beginning of August 2002. The figures for the designs are given in Annex II and the document of instructions in Annex III (13 pages and 8 annexes).

The task included following actions: 1) preparing of the site (pilot road) for the stabilisation or construction, 2) sampling and reference tests for the environmental and technical follow-up, 3) delivery of materials and equipment to the construction and mixing sites, and 4) construction or building/ stabilisation of Pilot 2002 road. Practically, all the actions have been completed at the end of September, only the report pending. The inhabitants of the municipality celebrated the improved road in an ‘opening festival’ on the 25th September 2002.

Planning for Pilot 2003 started at the beginning of August 2002, like planned. Action 1 (Soil investigations and determination of pilot sections for light traffic paths) has been almost completed, but soil investigations need to be checked in October 2002. Action 2 has been practically completed, but the Pilot programme (as well as the materials programme for the Pilot) will be officially approved at the meeting of the Steering Group at the end of November 2002.

Environmental permit application for the material (by-product) storage has been submitted to the regional environmental authorities with approximations of maximum quantities of fly ash, fibre sludge and other materials needed for the Pilot 2003. More accurate approximations can be made only after the engineering action (Action 3) has been completed. The delays or shifts in the programme will not affect the Pilot programme provided there is sufficient information and data available for the environmental permit application for the construction at the end of December 2002.

Plan for the follow-up of Pilot 2002 is given in the Annex IV.

So far, no specific problems or difficulties have encountered or are foreseen that would have implications for future actions of the project.

Dissemination activities have been carried out according to the original plans. Video filming started already in the spring 2002 at the site (the background condition of the road). The first version of web-pages was available at the end of August (www.ramboll.fi/luopioinen/life) and improving all the time. Leaflet has been prepared and spreading by e-mail to the organisation network of the participants and outside of it. The Leaflet is available in the web-pages also. Copy of the Leaflet is given in Annex V. The Contact Network is growing all the time.

Material tests will be concluded. The programme for the material tests for Pilot 2003 has not been finalised in order to wait for the specific needs of different types of recipes, based on the mixtures of fly ash with fibre sludge and on the fibre sludge alone, from Task 2. The tests, including environmental leaching tests for the mixed materials, will start in November 2002, after the sampling of fresh material components for the tests. Thus, the task will be finalised at the end of March 2003 instead of 30.11.2002. Anyway, this will not affect the overall progress of the project.

The results will be reported in November 2002 as a combined technical report for Tasks 1, 2 and 3. The report will be annexed to the Interim report.

Actions 1 and 2 will be completed, engineering of Action 3 will be almost completed, environmental permit for the storage will be obtained and environmental permit application submitted.

1st follow-up at the Pilot 2002 site will be finished (October 2002; technical tests on the bearing capacity and visual checks at the outcome). Preparations for the next follow-up, that will take place after thawing, have started.

Dissemination activities will continue with spreading the information and widening the Contact Network. One of the forums will be a workshop about ‘Engineered Recycled Materials in Infrastructure’ (not included in the Kukkia Circlet project, but closely related to it) on 7th November 2002, that will be participated by many different interested parties from European countries. The drafting of the Guide will start by making a draft for the contents of the Guide for the acceptance of the Steering Group on 29th November. See also