04.10.2018
Budimex SA and Ferrovial Agroman SA together in SAFEWAY – an international research and development project, co-financed by the EU under the Horizon 2020 programme. This is a huge undertaking bringing together as many as 14 consortium members from Europe.
The SAFEWAY project is closely linked to the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T), which was designed to complete the operation and maintenance of infrastructure investments in key transport corridors in Europe.
In the implementation of TEN-T projects, great emphasis is placed on risk assessment, improvement of safety and minimization of risks related to occurring meteorological phenomena or transport disasters. The aim of SAFEWAY is to design, evaluate and evaluate
and implementation of comprehensive methods, strategies and tools for planning technical interventions,
and, as a result, significantly increase the safety of land transport infrastructure.
The developed solutions will be tested in terms of both effectiveness and versatility. The research will include the ability to predict and respond early to natural hazards such as floods, droughts, fires, earthquakes and landslides, as well as man-made disasters such as accidents, terrorism and fires.
The SAFEWAY project will consist of four real-life case studies,
in four countries, linked to the 5 corridors of the TEN-T core network. These will be:
- The Atlantic Corridor, which is characterized by intensive development of railway infrastructure
and road traffic on the Iberian Peninsula. Research on climatic and weather phenomena and fires will be carried out here,
- The Mediterranean corridor, which runs through Spain. The south-eastern part of Spain is characterized by moderate seismic risk, high precipitation
and extreme temperatures, - The North Sea, Baltic and Mediterranean Corridors, where the railway infrastructure between Manchester and London – the most frequented railway line in Great Britain – will be analysed,
- The Port of Rotterdam and a section of the motorway dedicated to autonomous vehicles.
During the project, various data sources, processed in real time, ICT solutions, control tools based on remote sensing and predictive modeling, as well as the possibility of their integration and use in traffic management systems will be tested.
The expected results of SAFEWAY are a five-fold improvement in mobility and a reduction in infrastructure maintenance costs of at least 20%. The project is also expected to lead to a significant improvement in the safety of transport infrastructure, the development of comprehensive tools, including an application for predicting and mitigating the effects of extreme events in all types of road disasters.
International consortium
The SAFEWAY consortium is made up of 14 partners who specialise in multidisciplinary and multi-sectoral areas related to transport infrastructure in Europe. The main consortium members of the project are: Ferrovial Agroman SA (Spain), Universidad De Vigo (Spain), Stiftelsen Norges Geotekniske Institutt (Norway), The Chancellor, Masers and Scholars of the University of Cambridge (UK), Ingenieria Insitu S.L. (Spain), Demo Consultants BV (Netherlands), Universidade Do Minho (Portugal), Planetek Italia SRL (Italy), Infrastructure Management Consultants GMBH (Switzerland), Infrastruturas de Portugal SA (Portugal), Network Rail Infrastructure Limited (United Kingdom), BeTR Ben Rutten Technology Research (Netherlands), Innovactory International B.V. (Netherlands), Transportokonomisk Institutt (Norway).
The SAFEWAY project will run for 42 months and end in 2022. The project plan assumes the implementation of 10 task packages. Budimex SA will take part in 4 of them as a partner of Ferrovial Agroman SA.
The value of co-financing of the project from the European Union funds, from the Horizon 2020 program is EUR 4,500,000.
