HIPEBA (“High Performance Steel for Safer and more Competitive Safety Barriers”) is a EU-funded project that focuses on the development of safer and more competitive road restraint systems by using high-performance steels. HIPEBA is funded under the Research Fund for Coal and Steel (RFCS) framework programme. The Research Fund for Coal and Steel (RFCS) provides funding for high-quality research projects that support the competitiveness of the European Coal and Steel industries.

Objectives

  • Map current and future performance-related requirements for safety barriers.
  • Determine how steels with enhanced material characteristics can contribute to improve the performance of safety barriers in all stages of their life cycle.
  • Deliver criteria for the technical implementation of high-performance steels into road safety barriers.
  • Demonstrate that introducing high-performance steels in safety barriers can make products more competitive and yield economic revenues for EU’s industry and society, compensating the initial purchase cost.
  • Develop and test pilot designs that demonstrate the benefits of high-performance steels.
  • Ensure that road safety barriers manufactured with high-performance steel meet the required certification and approval processes.

Why?

The European Union, a world leader in the steel industry, is facing increasingly fierce competition from non-EU producers. Advanced research is essential for European industry to remain competitive, as well as a deeper understanding of the paramount importance of high-performance steel within the everyday needs of the road safety sector.

With the purpose of supporting this leadership, HIPEBA is a ground-breaking initiative relevant to the maintenance and new construction of EU road infrastructures, as the latest and safest technology must become available to European road users.

Who?

The HIPEBA consortium has gathered a group of specialist organisations from industry, academia and research securing a successful implementation and deployment of its planned activities.

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News & Recent Events

The third HIPEBA consortium meeting takes place in CIDAUT facilities (Spain) on 13 October 2015

All partners of the HIPEBA project gathered in Valladolid (Spain) to review the work done during the last year -mostly under Work Package 1- and to discuss the work plan for the next months. In particular, the consortium agreed on the next steps to successfully complete the tasks under Work Package 2 (“Material Properties and processes analysis“) by the end of the year. In addition, a tele-conference was set up for 28 October in order to schedule the imminent characterization of steels tests. The results of these tests will provide a wide knowledge about the high performance steels which would be used in the barrier systems.

hipeba_2HIPEBA meeting hold 13 October 2015 Cidaut facilities.

The HIPEBA project was invited to the TRA2016 poster session

The European Commission has officially invited HIPEBA (“High Performance Steel for Safer and more Competitive Safety Barriers”) to be present during the 6th Transport Research Arena (TRA2016) poster session. The Smart Transportation Alliance (STA), leader of the project’s communication and dissemination efforts, will be present at the TRA2016, the most important transport research event in Europe, which will take place in Warsaw (Poland), from 18 to 21 April 2016.