INFRA ry presents a seven-year research program for road infrastructure.
"We are now looking for solutions to the current and future challenges of roads, railways and pavements. The costs of the program financed from the state budget could be around five million euros per year. The program should also be supplemented with other public and private funding", INFRA's leading expert, Doctor of Technology Nina Raitanen says.
Climate change, the increase in the size of the transport fleet as well as social and geopolitical changes challenge the road infrastructure. The repair debt is increasing, but the road funding cannot be increased indefinitely.
"For the condition of the infrastructure to meet, for example, the goals set in the Transport 12 program, we have to innovate new products, materials and ways of working. Bad infrastructure becomes expensive, because it weakens maintenance and operational reliability and increases the costs of goods and services in all areas of society."
The government is committed to the proposal of the parliamentary R&D working group to increase Finnish R&D funding to four percent by 2030.
"It is also important for the road infrastructure to get its share of this, because the poor condition of the infrastructure is a significant national problem. We are not only solving the problem of infrastructure, but of society as a whole," Raitanen reminds.
"At the turn of the 1990s, with the ASTO research program, studded tire wear on the road was brought under control and the effect of aggregate on wear was understood. Research brings ways to change the way we work - if we always work the same way, it's not worth expecting a different end result."