Towards reliable, green, safe&smart and human infrastructure in Europe.
What will the European road system look like in 2040 ? How can innovation deliver solutions to the challenge of the future, which combines simultaneously growing transport needs and sustainability goals ?, such are the two crucial questions to which NR2C aims to answer.
Consequently its objective were firstly to provide a long term vision of the road infrastructure and secondly to develop specific innovations in three fields : urban infrastructure, interurban infrastructure and bridges.
NR2C has developed long-term perspectives, concrete pilot projects and research recommendations, linking long-term visions and ideas to short-term actions. ‘Dialogue and cooperation’, ‘Creativity and innovation’ and ‘Short-term and long-term’ are the main ingredients of this project.
The project, its organization and the main results provided are presented at the beginning of the report. A vision reflecting society’s perception of road infrastructure in the year 2040 forms the basis of NR2C’s aim to identify and specify the research required in the field of road engineering to guarantee comfortable and reliable ground transport in a sustainable and environmental-friendly way for the coming decades.
The presentation of the vision, of its four concepts – reliable, green, safe and smart, and human -, and of the corresponding identified developments required constitutes the part A of the present final report.