An experimental project for monitoring the 'green' asphalt built on Mount Titano and the creation of a new research center for the management and design of road infrastructures are among the main innovations introduced by the new memorandum of understanding between the Autonomous State for Public Works (AASLP) and the University of the Republic of San Marino.
Signed today, Wednesday 9 September, by the Rector of the University, Corrado Petrocelli, and by the AASLP president, Federico Bartoletti, the document gives new impetus to a collaboration which from 2016 to today has led to the updating of project documents such as the technical regulations , the definition of software useful for identifying priorities in road maintenance interventions on an objective basis, the application of eco-sustainable techniques and the systematic quality control of new works. Precisely these activities have been studied in depth in three technical manuals on road maintenance aimed at public administrations throughout the peninsula, as well as in scientific journals and in international seminars.
The "Ermes (Efficient Road Management and Eco-sustainable Solutions) research and teaching center for the management and design of road infrastructures", which will form part of the activities of the Civil Engineering degree course of the University of San Marino, will put at the service of Autonomous Companies and Public Offices of San Marino "research, teaching and support for management, design and quality control", reads the document.
The 12 objectives mentioned in the statute of the structure also include the preliminary checks necessary for the creation of a "laboratory useful for supporting and bringing together teaching and research" of the University, "the quality control and monitoring activities of the Autonomous Companies, the experimentation and planning of the State Offices, as well as opening and strengthening relationships with other universities, research centers and entities active in the infrastructure sector". Among the benefits: the constant updating of the technical personnel of the Companies and State Offices with respect to the innovations and technological development that characterize the sector.
"The relationship between the Company and the University - says Matteo Casali, AASLP director - has allowed our reality to structure the rationalization of decision-making processes of a technical and economic nature to the intervention methodologies, achieving an important increase in its cognitive and technical standard in terms of construction and maintenance of road pavements”.
At the same time, explains Petrocelli, “the University has given immediate technical and operational application to the research fields, achieving a further significant impact on the San Marino territory of its academic activity. This agreement - continues the Rector - confirms the high level and positive impact of the activities put in place by the University together with AASLP, reinforcing an already solid bond thanks to the creation of a research center which will be able to offer further and new perspectives to the actions and to the experiments that in recent years have marked a path full of results and satisfactions”.
