ElLife
LIFE+ 09/ENV/EE/227
Maanteeamet Eesti Energia Nordecon Ramboll Skepast&Puhkim

The project is going to achieve its objectives with means of following seven actions:

  1. Preparations include activities that are preliminary activities of the project and ascertain a smooth start of the actual LIFE-project. Most of the preliminary activities start before the LIFE project period but some continue at least during the first months of the LIFE project. Preliminary activities include decisions for the new equipment for project purposes, decision on the final pilot site(s), carrying out the permit application procedure, determination of acceptance criteria for materials and applications, decision on the detailed material test program, making of the consortium agreement and choices of the Steering Group participants, and checking and eventual revision of the details of project plan.
  2. Materials Action is carried out with help of geotechnical and chemical laboratories in order to ascertain appropriate materials based on OSA for the different pilot applications. The Action also demonstrates the required test procedures to ascertain the quality of OSA materials. The activities include sampling of required materials; characterisation of the material components; production of functional material recipes; determination of the potential variation of the different material components and the effect of the variation on the properties of the materials based on recipes; and control of the materials to be used in the pilot applications. The results of this Action will be used in Actions 3 and 4.
  3. Applications Action will ascertain that the piloting Action 4 is based on appropriate and efficient plans to produce successful applications with respect to general civil engineering criteria, and that the project will achieve full and appropriate information and data for the evaluation of the results during the verification procedure of Action 5. The Action includes geotechnical and –environmental pilot site investigations; design and planning of pilot structures on the basis of data from Action 2; and production of instructions for the implementation of pilot structures, quality control and follow-up activities (Action 5). The Action also includes brief field tests of the new equipment and of the handling of the OSA materials with conventional construction equipment.
  4. Piloting Action is going to demonstrate the practical implementation of three types of civil-engineering applications with materials based on OSA: layer stabilisation of existing road base courses, mass stabilisation of peat e.g. for road and housing foundations, and road base based on mixtures of oil-shale mining waste and OSA. The pilots are implemented partly in the summer – autumn 2011 and partly during next summer – autumn 2012. All quality control activities are carried out as part of Action 5. 
  5. Verification Action is needed to give the project stakeholders proof that the methods, materials and applications based on OSA are environmentally safe and technically and economically feasible. The Action uses instructions from Action 3 and reported information and data from Actions 2 and 3.  Action 1 is going to provide the criteria for the verification of materials and pilot applications. Environmental permits for the pilots are also used as basis for the verification. The verification is carried out with help of quality control and follow-up activities to gather and document relevant data from the pilots of Action 4. Additionally, environmental life-cycle assessment (LCA) and life-cycle costing (LCC) procedures are carried out. The Verification and life-cycle assessment reports will be given for independent external experts for comments and evaluation. 
  6. Dissemination Action is going to disseminate and communicate the results of the project to the target groups of the project so that the knowledge gained during the project can benefit whole Europe. The dissemination tools will include the project webpage, notice boards at piloting sites, DVD-presentation, Guidelines for the European practice, Layman’s report and all other published articles, reports and conference papers about the project. The project participants will present the project at relevant conferences and in road shows for specified target groups in Europe during and after the project period. An international workshop will be arranged in Estonia in 2013 or 2014. The project will also be presented in national and international professional magazines. 
  7. Management Action involves the overall management and co-ordination of the project according to the details of the project plan and financial budget and with respect to the contract with the Commission. The distinct activities of the Action include the official activity reports to the Commission, monitoring of the project, the audit of the financial statement and the After-Life communication plan as part of the final report. Monitoring will measure and document the effectiveness of the project actions as compared to the initial situation, the objectives and the expected results. The monitoring will also evaluate the Carbon Footprint of the project.

This project has been funded with a contribution from the LIFE financial instrument of the European Community