The provision and maintenance of a reliable and sustainable infrastructure is a priority for all countries. Societal stability, sustainable growth, quality of life, and resilient response to natural and manmade disasters all rely extensively on efficient, well-maintained infrastructure networks (roads, water pipelines, electrical grids, etc.). In particular, the road infrastructure is of central importance and a critical lifeline in developed societies, with pavement structures consuming a large percentage of the resources (up to 60% according to some sources) allocated for the provision and management of the road infrastructure. Because of this importance, because of their ubiquity, and because of past and ongoing investment, this highway construction is one of the most important areas of infrastructure for which sustainability must be achieved.
The addressing of sustainability objectives has only been a strong requirement in the U.S. in recent years, whereas European countries have been pursuing such goals for many years. Thus, the U.S. needs to avail itself of the advances made outside its borders to rapidly catch up in the field. Furthermore, the current strong drive in the U.S. compared to the slowly grown and more mature development in Europe means that countries on either side of the Atlantic have taken somewhat different trajectories in research and practice, both of which have their respective strengths and approaches. In particular, it is possible to detect differences of emphasis and states of development in the areas of:
Therefore, it is now timely to establish an international workshop to bring together the leading researchers in this field from the U.S. and Europe so as:
The main outcome of the workshop is the following Research Agenda for Sustainable Pavements, which provides an international roadmap for research and collaboration.
The workshop is kindly sponsored by the U.S. National Science Foundation and by the U.S. Federal Highway Administration.