4th member meeting – with distance!

After the 3rd member meeting unfortunately had to be canceled due to the Corona pandemic, the 4th member meeting took place digitally for the first time on November 17th and 18th. On the first day, the project meetings took place after introducing general information about the RWTH Aachen Campus, the CBI, and other current topics such as subsidy management or external cooperation. In addition to the currently running projects continuously reinforced concrete pavement, modular bridge constructions, and practical guide modular construction, four new projects optimization of sandwich facades with concrete cover layers, SWOT-analysis of the use of hot-dip galvanized reinforcing steel in structural engineering, connection techniques of reinforced precast concrete elements, and requirements from automated driving to the infrastructure, could be started. The project meeting on sustainability modular construction will be held at a later date.  Together with its members, the CBI continues to pursue the goal of setting new trends and actively shaping the future construction industry with innovations. After the official program, the members had the opportunity to exchange ideas virtually in a digital evening event, keeping with social distancing.

The second day focused on finding topics and initiating projects. To get important impulses for identifying possible main topics, four members (ALGECO, HALFEN/Leviat, ELA, and solidian) had the opportunity to introduce themselves and present their expectations, chances, and risks the construction industry of the future. To give all members an overview of the current consortium projects, the respective project managers presented the projects’ motivation, problems, and objectives in short summaries. Based on the impulses gained in this way and further short project ideas of the CBI, identifying topics started with an interactive online whiteboard. The following topics were discussed:

• 3D-concrete printing
• Green road construction site
• Caps for (modular) bridge construction
• Practical guide for modular bridge construction
• Hybrid constructions
• Digitization (e.g., of road construction processes)

All in all, the 4th member meeting was a complete success even under the new conditions. Many thanks to all participants for the very constructive exchange! We hope to welcome you again personally in Aachen for the 5th member meeting. Stay healthy!