New sustainable Green Gantry in Austria made from Wood
With the “Green Gantry”, Kapsch TrafficCom introduced a gantry made from local and renewable resources that paves the way for sustainable road infrastructure with its positive carbon footprint.
Everyone is familiar with the sight of the mostly grey steel gantries on highways, with display panels, sensors and cameras mounted on them. For decades, these gantries have been made of steel and aluminium, with a correspondingly poor carbon footprint – on average, each steel gantry causes over 30 tons of CO2 during its production.
In contrast, the gantry developed by Kapsch TrafficCom, which is made of Austrian wood, binds more than 20 tons of CO2 and thus has a positive carbon footprint.
Resilient and sustainable
Katharina Rynesch, Innovation Manager at Kapsch TrafficCom, explains further advantages: “Our Green Gantry not only has a positive CO2 balance, it also is equally stable and resistant to environmental impacts by using a natural material.”
The Green Gantry is protected from water, ice and snow by a constructive wood protection, guaranteeing a lifespan of over 20 years. Moreover, even after it is dismantled, it does not pollute the environment, as no harmful chemical substances are used to treat the wood.
Meets all relevant norms and standards
The Green Gantry complies with all relevant European norms and standards and the design is perfectly matched to the properties of wood while still being competitive. The modular design allows an installation comparable to standard steel bridges and also with the same service life and maintenance intensity.
“Our road infrastructure is currently a blind spot in efforts to make the transport sector more sustainable. With our Green Gantry, we hope on the one hand to contribute to greater sustainability, but on the other hand also to demonstrate that even concepts that have been established for many years can be rethought and made sustainable,” Rynesch concludes.
This project is funded by the Waldfonds, an initiative of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Regions and water Management and is carried out as part of the Think.Wood programme of the Austrian Wood initiative.
