Greenway – An Environmentally Friendly road: a Project-based Learning Experience

Rita Vieira, Rafael Martins, Beatriz Ferreira

Escola Secundária da Maia, Maia, Portugal

Greenway unites a set of technologies that have been developed but have not been collected under a single material. The joint use of those techniques is the great challenge of this project: the development of an environmentally sustainable product in many aspects (multifunctional). This project also aims to study the advantages and limits of the use of sustainable materials (renewable, recyclable and biodegradable) as well as their association. The separate use of recycled rubber and plastic in paving layers results in interesting properties from a building (mechanic) point of view, i.e., it increases the material’s overall resistance, which can lead to a reduction in layer thickness with the consequent reduction in raw material consumption. In addition, it does not entail extra energy spending or significant changes in equipment and production methods. The use of glass spheres is innovative and aims to reduce the need for road lighting, due to its ability to reflect light, as well as to guarantee comfort and safety in road traffic. The combination of these materials, in certain quantities, with the materials traditionally used in road paving (aggregates and asphaltic bitumen) results in a surface texture which reduces tyre-pavement noise as nowadays the contribution of the engine is rather small and at low speeds. Therefore, it is possible to reduce noise by 3 decibels at the source, which corresponds to reducing vehicle noise in half.

Full text: http://universitypublications.net/jte/0901/html/B9T63.xml

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