On the need for innovation in road engineering: A Dutch example

In an ever faster changing world, innovation is a crucial tool to maintain the quality of road networks. In order to safely use innovative materials and techniques, validation procedures are needed. Because of the variable and non-standard nature of innovations, it is hard to standardize this kind of validation. Also, ensuring that innovations address the needs of road authorities can be quite a challenge. The Dutch highway authority, Rijkswaterstaat, currently uses a three tier approach to the validation of innovations. These consists of solicited innovations to address specific agency challenges and two systems to address unsolicited innovations. This paper describes the need for innovations, the most urgent topics that require solutions in the Dutch situation, the current approach towards innovation validation including examples of all three types of validation and the further developments foreseen for that system.