The E&E congress is due shortly and is being organised jointly by the European Asphalt Pavement Association (EAPA) and Eurobitume. It will now be held in a virtual environment from 15th – 17th June 2021, with the them: Asphalt 4.0 for future mobility.
The event was originally scheduled to take place in Madrid May 2020 but due to the ongoing health pandemic a decision was taken to postpone the congress to 2021. At the end of last year, it became apparent that to be absolutely certain to go ahead, the only option available was to change the E&E Congress Madrid to a virtual platform.
The organisers were disappointed not to be able to hold the 7th E&E congress from the magnificent city of Madrid and enjoy the local Spanish culture. The previous years of preparation were supported by local members of both associations and the organisers will miss not being able to embrace the physical experience fully however.
By transforming the E&E Congress into a fully virtual format, the organisers will ensure the benefits and value of the technical program and exhibition to all participants and stakeholders.
The overall theme, Asphalt 4.0 for future mobility, remains an important issue for discussion and exchanges at the congress. The future mobility scenarios will have clear impacts on our road infrastructure. The way of travel will change, and the use of automated and guided vehicles will have an effect on road requirements.
This means that the road infrastructure going forward, approximately 90% of which is represented by asphalt materials, will also need to accommodate the future mobility solutions. How transport systems will look is not clear, but the asphalt pavements need to be ready for these future requirements and asphalt roads and the services they provide will remain of high important in the future for all types of end users from cyclists, motorcycles, cars, buses and heavy goods vehicles regardless of the way they move forward.
New technologies do not only influence the future, they also have and will have a clear impact on the way we produce materials, pave and compact asphalt in the future. For example, the implementation of digitalisation will undoubtedly influence the way quality is controlled and how processes are steered and managed.
The digitalisation of the asphalt industry and the data exchange between computer systems are the foundations of Asphalt 4.0. Various sensors that were developed and machine to machine communication that was introduced will be the beginning of a real transformation, which is underway.
