CTCON and VTI represented at PFDM 2025

In the first week of July, PFDM 2025 took place in Delft, the Netherlands. PFDM is the acronym for the international symposium Pavement Functional Design and Management, one of the few regular meetings for pavement researchers. NEEVE was represented there by Victor Garcia from CTCON and Ulf Sandberg from VTI. The Symposium was organized by the Technical University of Delft, which is a leading university in Europe in pavement engineering.

Victor presented a paper with the title ”Innovative technologies to monitor and reduce Non-Exhaust Emissions, particles and microplastics of Vehicles and pavement to improve air quality and human health (LIFE NEEVE)”. It included general information about NEE and the NEEVE project, with focus on the role pavements play in such emissions. Ulf presented a paper “All double-layer porous asphalts are not effective noise-reducing pavements” but was also invited to present a Keynote Lecture. The Keynote had the title “Innovative noise-reducing variants of porous pavements”. Although, mainly about noise, Ulf’s presentations included parts showing how porous asphalt can reduce not only noise but also NEE.

The Symposium included about 80 presentations, in two or three parallel sessions, plus a panel discussion about minimizing CO2 emission from pavements and a workshop about AI and digital technologies in pavement research. Attendees came mainly from academia, with 29 countries represented.

An impression from PFDM was that pavement engineers and researchers do not pay enough attention to NEE, given all attention this subject currently receives by vehicle and tyre industries, as well as by authorities and regulators who are all acting to reduce the harmful effects of particle emissions from tyres and road pavements. Here, NEEVE can help to step up the pavement R&D community and not the least the relevant university departments to pay more attention to NEE as pavement properties are part of both the problem and the solution.