IFAT trade fair includes pavement recycling section

The 2018 version of IFAT, a Munich event that bills itself as “the World’s Leading Trade Fair for Water, Sewage, Waste and Raw Materials Management,” will for the first time incorporate sustainability in road construction at its event. IFAT 2018 is May 14-18 and is organized by Messe München.

A new section of the Munich exhibition site has been designed to spotlight resource-saving procedures and machines as well as durable materials for road engineering, according to the organizer.

“Focusing on sustainability, the special show’s product range covers the entire process chain in road construction—from road demolition to the conditioning and recycling of construction materials and their installation,” says Silvia Fritscher, IFAT exhibition director at Messe München. “The special exhibition provides additional value for our municipal participants [and] it also addresses construction companies, engineering offices and road construction authorities.”

A conceptual partner in the new exhibit area is the German Association of the Building Industry and Environmental and Mechanical Engineering (VDBUM), which will organize presentations designed to complement the new display section. The program’s topics will include new developments in road demolition, deconstruction and preparation of materials for recycling, the optimization of logistics processes, quality assurance and future tender requirements.

Digitization also will play a role, says VDBUM Managing Director Dieter Schnittjer. “Digitization hits the construction sector with great force; especially in road construction, there are processes that digital technologies can make more efficient, more calculable and safer in terms of the documentation. Together with the professional experts, we want to present these solutions at IFAT 2018.”