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We are involved in the SAFEWAY international EU infrastructure project

News date: October 4, 2018
We are involved in the SAFEWAY international EU infrastructure project

Budimex SA and Ferrovial Agroman SA together in SAFEWAY - an international research and development project, co-financed from EU funds under the Horizon 2020 Programme. This is a huge undertaking bringing together as many as 14 European consortium members.

 

The SAFEWAY project is closely related to the Trans-European Transport Networks (TEN-T), which was planned to complement the service and maintenance of infrastructure investments in key transport corridors in Europe.

 

In the implementation of TEN-T projects, great emphasis is placed on the assessment of risks, improvement of safety and minimisation of hazards related to meteorological phenomena or traffic disasters. The aim of SAFEWAY is to design, evaluate and implement comprehensive methods, strategies and tools for planning technical interventions, and, as a result, significantly increase the safety of land transport infrastructure.

 

The solutions developed will be tested in terms of both efficiency and versatility. The research will involve the possibility of predicting and providing early response to natural hazards, such as floods, droughts, fires, earthquakes and landslides as well as disasters caused by people: accidents, terrorism and fires.

 

The SAFEWAY project will consist of four real case studies in four countries linked to 5 core TEN-T corridors. They will be:

  • The Atlantic Corridor, which is characterised by intense development of railway and road infrastructure on the Iberian Peninsula. Research will be conducted on climate phenomena, weather phenomena and fires,
  • The Mediterranean corridor that runs through Spain. The south-eastern part of Spain is characterised by moderate seismic risk, high rainfall and extreme temperatures,
  • The corridors of the North and Baltic Seas, and the Mediterranean Sea, where the analysis will involve railway infrastructure between Manchester and London - the busiest railway line in Great Britain,
  • The Port of Rotterdam and motorway section dedicated to autonomous vehicles.

 

In the course of the project implementation, the following aspects will be tested: various sources of data processed in real time, ICT solutions, control tools based on remote-sensing and predictive modelling, as well as the possibility of their integration and use in traffic management systems.

 

The expected results of SAFEWAY are a five-fold improvement in mobility and at least 20% lower infrastructure maintenance costs. The project is also expected to lead to a significant improvement in the security of transport infrastructure, the development of comprehensive tools, including applications for predicting and mitigating the effects of extreme events, regarding all types of road accidents.

 

International Consortium

 

SAFEWAY Consortium is formed by 14 partners who specialise in multi-disciplinary and multi-sector areas associated with road infrastructure in Europe. The main consortium members are: Ferrovial Agroman SA (Spain), Universidad De Vigo (Spain), Stiftelsen Norges Geotekniske Institutt (Norway), The Chancellor, Masers and Scholars of the University of Cambridge (the United Kingdom), Ingenieria Insitu S.L. (Spain), Demo Consultants BV (the Netherlands), Universidade Do Minho (Portugal), Planetek Italia SRL (Italy), Infrastructure Management Consultants GMBH (Switzerland), Infrastruturas de Portugal SA (Portugal), Network Rail Infrastructure Limited (the United Kingdom), BeTR Ben Rutten Technology Research (the Netherlands), Innovactory International B.V. (The Netherlands), and Transportokonomisk Institutt (Norway).

 

The SAFEWAY Project will last for 42 months and end in 2022. The project plan assumes the execution of 10 project streams. Budimex SA will participate in 4 of them in partnership with Ferrovial Agroman SA.

The value of financing from European Union funds, under the Horizon 2020 Programme, is 4,500,000 EUR.