Kapsch TrafficCom installed Austria’s first environmentally friendly gantry, together with the Austrian road operator Asfinag.
On its official portal, the company explains that unlike conventional toll gantries made of steel or aluminum, which are associated with considerable emissions due to their manufacturing and recycling processes, the Ecological Gantry is made of wood.
“This sustainable material not only offers the same functional possibilities as conventional gantries, but also considerable environmental advantages: The Ecological Gantry in Carinthia saves 15 tons of CO2, while comparable steel bridges cause up to 30 tons of CO2 during their production,” details Kapsch TrafficCom.
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High-tech and Sustainability
Samuel Kapsch, Head of Region Latam at Kapsch TrafficCom, emphasizes that the Ecological Gantry not only has a positive CO2 balance, but also has the same capacity and is more environmentally friendly than a normal gantry.
He further stressed that the installation complies with all relevant European norms and standards for toll gantries, making it just as safe to use, easy to maintain and can be dismantled and recycled after its useful life of at least 20 years without any additional environmental impact.
“For us, sustainable construction is not just an empty slogan; we want to set new standards in this area,” say Hartwig Hufnagl and Herbert Kasser, members of the board of directors of Asfinag.
The supporting core, and thus the major part of the new portal, is made of glued laminated spruce timber. For the outer layer, weather-resistant larch wood was used, which can be easily repaired in the event of damage.
The HASSLACHER Group delivered the highly prefabricated timber construction to the S 37 freeway construction site.
The assembly on the freeway was carried out by the traffic engineering company Forster under the supervision of Asfinag and was completed within one day thanks to the high degree of prefabrication.
The electricity for the operation of the gantry also comes from the company’s own photovoltaic system. A battery storage system was installed to ensure sufficient power availability even in bad weather and at night.
