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CRISPS Webinar – Developing a Quality Control Framework for Epoxy Bitumen: From Theory to Practice
March 1, 2022 @ 8:00 am – 9:00 am CET
About the Webinar
A quality control system is essential during any road construction or maintenance activities to ensure an extended asset life and lower life cycle cost. Despite the importance of ensuring the quality of road surfacings, the literature suggests that there is a lack of quality control procedures for road surfacing material construction, especially in Low and Middle-income countries, which is leading to poor-quality road surfaces. Further to this, there is limited literature on the control of epoxy asphalt bitumen content.
This webinar held on 1st March 2022 presented early findings from the “Climate-resilient sustainable road pavement surfacing (CRISPS)” research programme funded by the UK Aid’s High Volume Transport Applied Research Programme (HVT) in collaboration with the University of Birmingham (UoB), the University of Auckland (UoA), the Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) and the International Road Federation (IRF). This webinar seeked to support the development of a quality control methodology and framework for the material and methods associated with constructing roads using epoxy bitumen.
The webinar provided a review of existing quality control methods and their application in low and middle-income settings. It also described the general components of a quality control system in the construction of road pavements, comprising the following elements: Control of materials and methods; Control of end-product.
This webinar concluded with an introduction to experimental approaches to the characterisation of chemical and physical performance of epoxy-modified bitumen.
By developing a framework for quality control, higher durability and hence lower life cycle cost can be achieved for the epoxy bitumen road surfacings. This is essential to support the development of climate-resilient and sustainable roads that are able to manage changes in climate, e.g. hotter seasons, more extreme precipitation events, and sea-level rise that impinge on road pavement performance in Low and Middle-Income countries. Failure to account for such impacts in future road design, maintenance, and operations planning could cause accelerated road deterioration and higher road use costs, thereby severely constraining socio-economic development.
Presentations of the speakers can be found below the recording.
Watch the recording now:
Speaking for You
Dr. Esdras Ngezahayo (PhD, MSc, BSc)
Research Fellow & Project Manager (CRISPS), University of Birmingham
See bio
Dr Esdras Ngezahayo is a Research Fellow and Project Manager on the CRISPS project. He has over 10 years of academic experience in Civil Engineering coupled with industry expertise as a consultant. He taught at different Universities in East Africa. He specialised in Geotechnical Engineering at the University of Birmingham, with a focus on sustainable and climate-resilient materials for roads and railways.
His PhD thesis was on investigating “Erodibility of Soils in Rural Roads”, while his MSc dissertation investigated the “Impact of Expansive Soils on Buried Facilities”. During his PhD, Esdras was a Postgraduate Teaching Associate and involved in the teaching and supervision of projects for both Undergraduate and Masters’ students.
Recently, Esdras’s research won an award for the UK competition, in the category of “Roads Adapting to a Changing World” and he received the award in a Ministerial presentation. Before joining the CRISPS project, Esdras was a Research Fellow on the stabilisation of the ballasted railways investigating geotextiles potential to reduce sub-ballast flow, prevent pumping of clay and improve drainage conditions of the railway. His role with CRISPS involves the development of quality control anti-fraud systems, contributing to HDM-4 calibration and undertaking Life Cycle Cost Analysis for the epoxy modified bitumen surfacings. He is actively involved in the overall CRISPS project management and dissemination of the research outcomes. Esdras is a former Commonwealth Scholar.
Dr. Mehran Eskandari Torbaghan
Lecturer in Infrastructure Asset Management, University of Birmingham
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Dr Mehran Eskandari Torbaghan is a lecturer in Infrastructure Asset Management at the Department of Civil Engineering with a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) focused in risk management and linear infrastructure systems from University of Birmingham.
Mehran spent five years in the civil engineering industry, as a geotechnical engineer, before returning to academia to study a Master in Construction Management and then the PhD both at the University of Birmingham.
He then worked as a research fellow at the University of Birmingham for around five years, before becoming a lecturer. He was also a visiting research fellow at the University of Nottingham.
Mehran has been engaged in supervising a number of PhD students. His research portfolio and interest lie in the field of smart management of infrastructure systems, investigating the application of robotics and autonomous systems for condition monitoring and repair of urban infrastructure.