Addressing Winter Traffic Issues: Eiffage Énergie Systèmes Develops Innovative Road Heating Solution
Each winter, heavy snowfall and black ice lead to significant traffic delays and numerous accidents. To mitigate the socio-economic impact, particularly for motorway operators, Eiffage Énergie Systèmes has introduced a groundbreaking solution. In partnership with the Eiffage Route Study, Research, and Training Centre (CERF) in Corbas (69), they have developed Conductive Interfaces for Heating and Powering Roads (ICCAR). Together, the teams constructed a functional prototype, with Eiffage Énergie Systèmes handling the electrical components of the project.
ICCAR is an alternative solution to de-icing salts and snow plows designed for civil engineering structures and certain strategic areas, such as slopes, motorway entrances and exits or car parks. The principle of the solution developed by our experts is based on the application of a conductive paint (connected to electrodes) between the wearing course and the base course of the road. The heat thus released prevents the appearance of black ice and automates “winter viability”, in other words: the transformation of snow or ice into water.
“Once the principle was validated: uniformity of heating, insulation of the coating, dosage and resistance of the paint, it was necessary to choose the paint technology, develop the implementation method (application, number of layers), carry out the retro-calculation of the conductivity of the paint and evaluate the kinetics of the system”, explains Dominique Le Blanc, project manager.
At the end of 2021, a demonstrator, for which our experts produced the electrical part, was installed in the access ramp to the CERF d’Eiffage Route car park in Corbas. The “heating control” is done according to the weather forecast and our specialists designed a computer bay housing a weather station and an automaton for supervision.
“We created the low-voltage power supply for the demonstrator, commissioned a control-command cabinet and installed a weather unit, capable of managing the automatic piloting of the installation. From the control-command cabinet, we also created the electrical power supply for the electrodes that are connected to the resistive paint used to heat the roadway, as well as the tests. Weather sensors, a thermal camera, radiation sensors and a visibility sensor completed the system, which is entirely connected to the electrical cabinet that we developed,” he continues.
Patented by Eiffage Route in 2019, this innovation, resulting from close collaboration with Eiffage Énergie Systèmes, received financial support of 150,000 euros from the Eiffage group, via the Seed’Innov 2021 seed fund. Next step: the industrialization phase, the objective of which is to optimize the investment cost, currently estimated at 500 euros/m2.
