VALENCIA HURTS US
Climate change and its impact on roads
The images shocked us all. In a few hours, tragedy took hold of the Valencian community. The formation of an Isolated Depression at High Levels (DANA) generated an unprecedented volume of precipitation, dumping the equivalent of a year's rain on the area in a few hours.
The human toll is the most terrible; More than 200 people lost their lives. The material losses are incalculable at the moment. And the damage to the road infrastructure will require very rapid actions to be able to reestablish circulation in several areas, with highways cut off, highways and roads seriously affected, and an entire mobility network collapsed.
Climate change is a reality that increasingly affects the daily lives of populations in different parts of the planet. The actions taken aimed at sustainability are key to being able to mitigate its impact and begin to generate a new reality, which will undoubtedly take many years to be reflected in a recovery of the environmental quality that we had not long ago.
And what does the road industry have to do in that sense? A lot.
The construction of road infrastructure as a segment within the civil engineering sector has been taking giant steps in the incorporation of techniques and procedures that reduce environmental impact and that can save great costs for governments and the entire planet.
The recycling of asphalt, a material that can be reused infinite times, the reduction of temperatures in the application of asphalt through the use of warm mixtures, the use of modified asphalt that is specially designed to resist extreme temperatures, both cold and hot, The use of water-based asphalt emulsions and the incorporation of waste from other industries that are difficult to recycle, such as rubber or glass, are just some of the measures that can be quickly implemented to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, temperatures used in the production and laying processes and the impact on quarry materials.
National authorities, universities, students and, above all, members of the industry must become aware that what hurts us today in Valencia will surely be a repeated phenomenon in other parts of the planet. And that the decision to change is in our hands.
