Sustainable road construction: A greener footprint for reconstruction

Since February 2022, Russia has been waging a full-scale war of aggression against Ukraine. Lviv is located in the west of the country, only around 80 kilometers from the Polish border. Yet missile attacks have damaged parts of the city’s already strained infrastructure as well.

This makes fast and practical solutions for rehabilitating the road network all the more urgent. This is exactly where the project comes in: using the Novocrete binder, 7,000 square meters of road surface in Lviv are to be rehabilitated. For IBS GmbH, supporting Ukraine also offers considerable business potential: IBS can build contacts, expand its portfolio and gain access to the Ukrainian market, where affordable solutions for road rehabilitation are urgently needed. The project can also serve as a blueprint for sustainable road construction across the country: in the long term, Ukrainian municipalities should be able to improve their road infrastructure independently, quickly, environmentally friendly and, above all, cost-effectively.

The following steps were planned to provide the Ukrainian population with better infrastructure:

• Selection of a pilot site and establishment of cooperation with local construction companies and authorities
• Implementation, supervision and completion of the road rehabilitation at the pilot site
• Knowledge transfer and establishment of the method (rehabilitation using binders) through locally adapted training and practical guidelines

IBS GmbH contributes many years of experience from projects in Asia, Africa and South America. The Swiss company OPiS AG is also involved in construction supervision. The construction work itself is carried out by a local company. The German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) co-finances the project through the develoPPP funding programme.

With support from the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, IBS GmbH was able to bring the city and oblast of Lviv on board as partners for the pilot site. GIZ also helped establish contacts with relevant stakeholders in both the construction sector and the responsible public authorities.

In October 2024, GIZ organized a visit to IBS by a delegation from Lviv. The delegation included representatives of the road construction authority and two university professors. Lviv Polytechnic National University is involved in the theoretical part of the training and also supports the translation of a guide on the use of Novocrete.

Knowledge transfer took place not only in the classroom, but also on the construction site. A total of 35 local specialists – including site managers, cost and project planners, and construction workers – received training in road rehabilitation using binders. This also included laboratory staff who, for example, assess the composition and quality of the existing road material before work begins. This broad-based transfer of know-how lays the foundation for independently implementing further environmentally friendly rehabilitation projects in the future.

• Ukrainian municipalities receive urgently needed support in repairing their infrastructure and can rehabilitate roads efficiently and in an environmentally friendly way.
• 35 local specialists were trained and gained new, directly applicable practical knowledge.
• Cooperation between German and Ukrainian partners strengthens Germany’s profile as a driver of sustainable infrastructure solutions.

The project required the coordination of many stakeholders – from companies, the district administration and the university to customs authorities and the design of the tendering process. The project already provides an example of how sustainable road construction in Ukraine can succeed through public-private partnerships.

“At the beginning, we will still be on hand to provide advice on the construction site or in the laboratory”, says Julian Bihl. From project experience, he knows that it does not work without consistent knowledge transfer. “The goal, however, is for the Ukrainian project managers to be able to handle further similar construction projects independently in the medium term.”