Sustainable Materials and Design for Wearing Courses and Surface Treatments
A special issue of Infrastructures (ISSN 2412-3811).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 March 2026 | Viewed by 67
Special Issue Editors
Interests: pavement engineering; road materials; sustainable road materials; recycling; bituminous materials; bio-binder; pavement surface treatments; microsurfacing; pavement surface performance; life cycle assessment
Interests: road pavement surface performances; bituminous materials; recycled and sustainable road materials; sustainable mobility; road safety and driver behavior; traffic microsimulation; geometric design and performance analysis of roundabouts; surrogate safety indicators
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The road construction sector is increasingly focused on reducing its environmental footprint, energy consumption, and dependence on virgin raw materials, aligning with the principles of the circular economy. Therefore, this Special Issue explores innovative and sustainable approaches being adopted in the design and performance of road pavement wearing courses and surface treatments, encompassing both their mechanical and functional performance.
We invite submissions that address the use of alternative materials, such as bio-materials, wastes, and secondary raw materials in asphalt mixtures, in order to minimize the exploitation of natural aggregates and to reduce reliance on petroleum-based binders. A significant focus is also placed on low-impact production and construction technologies that enable paving at lower temperatures than traditional hot mix asphalt. Furthermore, the Special Issue emphasizes the critical role of surface maintenance treatments (particularly, cold mix technologies) in optimizing costs and extending the service life of pavements, thereby enhancing sustainability.
The integration of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA) complements the sustainability efforts by quantifying the environmental and economic impacts of the new solutions.
We welcome original research articles, reviews, and case studies on topics including, but not limited to, the following:
- Utilization of bio-based, recycled and waste materials in asphalt mixtures;
- Use of bio-materials/wastes as substitutes of bituminous binder to produce bio-binders;
- Rheological characterization of bituminous, non-bituminous and bio-binders;
- Maximization of Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP) usage;
- Low-environmental impact technologies, such as warm and cold mix asphalt;
- Long-lasting asphalt pavement and surface maintenance treatments.
Dr. Manuel De Rose
Dr. Rosolino Vaiana
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Infrastructures is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- sustainable road pavement
- alternative materials
- reclaimed asphalt pavement
- warm mix asphalt
- cold mix asphalt
- surface maintenance treatments
- surface performance
- life cycle assessment
- life cycle cost analysis
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