The Danish Road Directorate is testing climate-friendly asphalt.

Over the next few weeks, Denmark is hosting a world-premiere in the field of green infrastructure. A highly used section of the motorway exiting the greater area of Copenhagen northbound towards Elsinore has been chosen as the first of several on the Danish state road network to receive a special climate-friendly asphalt, as part of the development of pavements that reduce emissions from road traffic.

The asphalt of subject is developed over a decade and is the only of its kind in the world and holds great potential.

“The implications of reducing CO2-emissions from road transport are vast, as all improvements count. Both road users and the environment will benefit from this and our expectations for the Danish citizens and business life are high. We anticipate a benefit-cost ratio of 40 to 1, so that each million invested will save 40 million in fuel. This will be a huge economic achievement, and I look forward to the test results”, says Danish Minister for Transport, Building, and Housing, Mr. Ole Birk Olesen.

Essentially, the goal of this particular  asphalt is to reduce the rolling resistance – the resistance  between tire and road surface. The less rolling resistance, the less fuel, cars will need to move forward. And the less fuel, the cheaper the ride and the less CO₂-emission.

“Over the last decade, we have worked intensively on the development of a special-mix asphalt that results in less energy use and still meets demands for safety and durability”, says Matteo Petinari from the Danish Road Directorate. “It is this asphalt, we are now introducing to the Elsinor Motorway. We already tested the asphalt in laboratories through the research- and development projects COOEE and ROSE, and we are excited to gain more insight into the capabilities of the asphalt in a highly active environment.”

The asphalt will be installed on a 500-meter section and will be monitored closely over the next few years, particularly for rolling resistance, durability and safety.

Over the coming months the Danish Road Directorate will fan out more sections with the new asphalt. All in all, the asphalt will be installed on 50 kilometres throughout Denmark in 2018. The sponsoring parties behind the research and the deployment include the Danish Innovation Fund  and the Danish Energy and Climate Ministry.

If successful, the climatic benefits of introducing the new asphalt will be great; If we can reduce the rolling resistance with up to 4 per cent, we can save about 57 million litres of fuel by 2035 upon full implementation, which again equals 143.00 tons of CO₂-reduction and 76tons of carbon dioxide”, says Christian Axelsen.

First Trial Section with Low Rolling Resistance Asphalt in Denmark – and in the world.