Preliminary Findings of the “SMASHit” Project: Towards Sustainable Maintenance of Secondary Road Pavements

The maintenance strategies employed by road authorities with regard to the secondary road network present considerable challenges due to the net-work’s capillary extension and the associated environmental issues. “SMASHit” is an Italian project of national interest which aims to enhance the sustainabil-ity of secondary road pavements. A comprehensive evaluation of the prevailing maintenance strategies was undertaken to define a unified formulation of mix-ture to be employed in maintenance works with the potential to reduce the use of raw materials. The unified mixture incorporates the utilisation of RAP, steel slags, incinerator ash, bio-rejuvenators and waste plastics. This article presents the preliminary experimental findings, which represent the first milestone of the two-year project.