Public procurement notice: Voluntary Ex Ante Transparency Notice
Published: 2018-09-11
Buyer: Statens vegvesen
Country: NO
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Contract award without prior publication
CPV classification: 73110000
Estimated value: 1510000 NOK

Technical requirements: Research aimed at giving us new knowledge on strength and decomposition of road construction materials that cannot be measured in a simple field test.
In this test we will examine the effect of using different gradings of reinforcement layers in road construction. The aim is to examine whether it is possible to increase the use of excess materials on roads and thus achieve a greater degree of sustainability in road construction. We will focus on the decomposition of materials in the reinforcement layer, something that is also new for VTI, which has previously focused on the layers higher up in road construction.
The procurement is connected to the PhD project 'Optimum use of uncombined crushed stone material in road construction', and is for a test with a heavy vehicle simulator (HVS) at VTI (The Government Road and Transport Research Institute) in Sweden. The materials that are to be tested are Norwegian, a total of 80 tonnes stone for one test, and we believe, therefore, that the equipment in Sweden is the only equipment that is relevant, with a view to transport distances and costs. In addition, VTI has experience with testing road constructions from the Nordic countries where bulky stone materials are used. There is a significant difference between the materials that are used for road construction in Norway and Sweden, compared to, for example, Germany and the USA, and it is, therefore, an advantage to do our research with a focus on bulky stone material at VTI. VTI would also like to share data from previous tests with equivalent materials with us, something that will give us the opportunity to analyse a larger amount of data than what we would get from a single test. This procurement is not a pure service procurement, but a collaboration project with a high degree of involvement from us in the production in materials, sample taking before, during and after the test, material analyses, etc.
In this test we will examine the effect of using different gradings of reinforcement layers in road construction. The aim is to examine whether it is possible to increase the use of excess materials on roads and thus achieve a greater degree of sustainability in road construction. We will focus on the decomposition of materials in the reinforcement layer, something that is also new for VTI, which has previously focused on the layers higher up in road construction. We will therefore acquire new knowledge through the test on the strength and decomposition of road construction materials that cannot be measured in a simple field test. The obtained data will be a significant part of the PhD assignment 'Optimum use of uncombined crushed stone materials in road construction', which is being carried out at the NTNU Institute for Earth Science and Petroleum, with financing from the DVV section in the Directorate of Roads.
'Local Stone' is financed through the Research Council of Norway, as a business innovation project. The test we will do at VTI is a collaboration between NTNU, Veidekke and the Norwegian Public Roads Administration (who are all partners in Local Stone). The results will be available to the public through publications in scientific articles and in the PhD thesis, and will, thus, not only benefit the Norwegian Public Roads Administration.
In addition, VTI will contribute with additional data from previous tests and the analysis of new data.
The contract fulfills the terms for research and development in the public procurement regulations § 2-5.


Winner: Statens väg- och transportforskningsinstitut
Award value: 1510000