The Pavement Preservation and Recycling Summit (PPRS) 2018 in Nice (26 – 28 March 2018) set the scene for the signature of an important MoU between Ashghal, the Qatari Public Works Authority and the International Road Federation (Geneva). Ashghal’s participation in the summit was part of its endeavour to open opportunities for cooperation and investment in the road sector and recycling of construction materials.
Ashghal’s delegation made of a group of senior officials was headed by H.E. Dr. Eng. Saad bin Ahmed Al-Muhannadi, President of the Public Works Authority. Ashghal has planned to recycle 3 million tons of asphalt waste over the next two years and is working with its partners to increase the proportion of recycled materials and use them in projects in a range of 15 to 50%, to be included with the specifications of QCS 2018. The MoU signed by Ashghal’s President Dr. Eng. Saad Al-Muhannadi and Mrs. Susanna Zammataro, Executive Director of International Road Federation (Geneva) aims at boosting cooperation in the field of construction recycling. “We are delighted to support Qatar in the implementation of its national strategy 2017-2022. IRF’s expertise and network will provide an extra gear to the ambitious plan set by Ashghal”, said Susanna Zammataro of IRF.
The National Strategy 2017-2022 of the State of Qatar aims: 1. at ensuring that at least 20% of recycled materials is used in road construction projects 2. a reduction of 30% for the cost of raw materials used in road construction in Qatar and 3. a greater uptake of environment friendly methods and techniques in the construction sector, in line with Qatar National Vision 2030 for sustainability.
Ashghal’s engagement to promote recycling of construction materials looks at facilitating the establishment of a platform for the development of sustainable local infrastructure and reduce volume of import of aggregates and bitumen from abroad. This will of course have the effect of reducing costs and improve on time project delivery.
The signature of the MoU between Ashghal and IRF was also followed by the signature of an MoU between Ashghal and Anas Qatar Branch, who since 2012 works in Qatar to develop a Quality Assurance / Quality Control system for road pavements. The MoU marks the start of the e-library to be created by ANAS on Ashghal’s web portal to offer access to technical knowledge in the field of civil engineering, standards and technical specifications.
If you wish to learn more or get involved in IRF-Ashghal collaboration, please contact IRF Secretariat in Geneva info@irfnet.ch.