This Special Issue of Road Materials and Pavement Design entitled ‘InfraStructures and Bituminous Materials’ includes 13 peer-reviewed papers. Short versions of these papers were presented during the RILEM International Symposium on Bituminous Materials (ISBM Lyon 2020) and selected among the best papers to be extended for publication in this journal.
RILEM ISBM Lyon 2020 event took place from 14th to 16th December 2020 and was held online. The University of Lyon/ENTPE (France) organised the conference in collaboration with the University of Parma (Italy), Université Gustave Eiffel (France) and University of Waterloo (Canada). RILEM ISBM Lyon 2020 gathered the three RILEM Technical Committees of Cluster F (‘Bituminous Materials and Polymers’), in a first joint event:
264-RAP (‘Asphalt Pavement Recycling’)
272-PIM (‘Phase and Interphase behaviour of bituminous Materials’)
278-CHA (‘Crack-Healing of Asphalt Pavement Materials’).
A wide range of topics is covered by this Special Issue, including hot and cold recycling, low-energy materials, low-temperature properties, aging and self-healing of materials, innovative materials with new usage and properties. In addition, some papers in the Special Issue address the topic of improving methods for better characterisation and modelling of the behaviour of bituminous materials.
These topics reflect the current concerns and up-to-date challenges to be tackled by the scientific community in the domain of sustainable infrastructures. However, this constitutes a non-exhaustive list of scientific or technical topics that one can come across in the field of road, railway and airfield infrastructures. The editorial team hopes that this Special Issue will contribute to pave the way for future fruitful research and innovation.
Finally, we would like to offer our most sincere acknowledgements to all the persons who contributed to the existence of this Special Issue. This includes the authors for their work in preparing their papers, as well as the reviewers that kindly agreed to evaluate all the articles and contributed to the scientific quality of this Special Issue.
The conference RILEM International Symposium on Bituminous Materials (ISBM Lyon 2020) benefited from the financial support of the Auvergne Rhône-Alpes Region, which allowed for the publication of this Special Issue of Road Materials and Pavement Design.