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Enhancing safety whilst saving energy in tunnels due to an optimised choice of road surface materials The durability and longevity of concrete pavements is well known everywhere. Due to these characteristics the overhaul and maintenance requirements, provided the major construction and production principles are respected, are sharply reduced. This results in a prevention of transport disruptions respectively traffic jams and their subsequent costs. However, there are many more positive characteristics of concrete, which become more and more effective during the entire operating life of concrete surfaces, which are widely unknown. Among other things, concrete pavements can reduce the fuel consumption of lorries (resulting in a reduction of CO2 emission), due to non‐deformable pavements. Furthermore hardened concrete is able to absorb and store CO2 and there are advantages caused by the bright surface of the material. The Smart Minerals GmbH examines the aspect of brightness of concrete for the road surface of tunnels in the course of a research project. Due to the good photometric characteristics of concrete and the resulting higher brightness of the pavement, the road users have a subjective higher sense of safety and the bright surface of concrete causes a reduction of energy‐consumption for lighting. To ensure the required brightness of the pavement, concrete surfaces need much less powerful light sources. Therefore it is theoretically possible to reduce the power of the light source, compared to the asphalt surface, to an extent of two thirds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reduction of Urban Heat Islands with Whitetopping. The requirements for traffic areas in the urban zone are manifold and continuously increasing. The reduction of the heat islands, which adversely affect the urban climate due to their increased temperature, is of importance for the residents. An investigation revealed that light-coloured traffic areas can significantly reduce the surface temperature and overall temperature levels in urban areas (illustrated by the example of Vienna) and improve the visibility of traffic participants at unchanged illumination levels at night. As a rehabilitation measure the Whitetopping method is simple and cost-efficient for improving the load bearing capacity and brightness characteristics of urban traffic zones. Replacing asphalt roads with roads with a concrete topping, such as Whitetopping, with an albedo of 0.5 would lead to a daily air temperature reduction of approximately 1 °C in summer. The model simulations of the air temperature over a 150 m × 150 m homogeneous area with Whitetopping also show a decrease in temperature by 1 °C compared to asphalt. Since roads are representing 10 % of the total area of a city, efficient and long- term measures to improve the micro-climate and facilitate a further increase in traffic safety can be taken. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]