GDDKiA award for the SUT’s student
Adrian Pluta Eng. won third place in the competition "Innovations in Road Engineering" organised by the General Directorate for National Roads and Motorways (GDDKiA). Forty students from all over the country entered the competition.
The competition was addressed to students or graduates of first and second cycle studies, full or part-time, in the academic years 2017/2018 - 2020/2021. The competition aimed to select the best diploma theses (master's or bachelor's ones) which results can be applied to the road engineering industry.
The competition was divided into 3 categories: road materials and technologies, traffic engineering and road safety solutions, road engineering structures. Our student Adrian Pluta Eng. won the prize in the category of road materials and technologies. His thesis was supervised by Bartłomiej Grzesik PhD, Eng.
- The topic of my thesis was "Reconstruction of a roundabout in concrete technology with continuous reinforcement". It was innovative to design a fully reinforced concrete roundabout with continuous reinforcement and a concrete surface. The construction is a novelty on the market, as no such roundabouts are built in Poland, rather only intersection faces. In international experience, such constructions are used as durable, maintenance-free and comfortable in use. An additional option was to replace the traditional reinforcement with a composite reinforcement made of glass fibre, which is completely free of the disadvantages of steel reinforcement, such as lack of corrosion. Such reinforcement has also higher durability and, importantly, a lower price. Currently, steel prices are high on the market and composites are a very good and cheaper alternative - says Adrian Pluta, Eng.
Furthermore, the production and recycling of the composite are more environmentally friendly.
- The solution presented in my thesis can be used on national roads, where the traffic load is very high. It is a durable solution, even for 30 years, without the need for major maintenance, service or repair. The vertical forces that are generated by vehicles when moving slowly at an intersection with circular traffic exert enormous pressure on the surface, destroying it. Concrete pavements, and even more so reinforced concrete ones, cope much better with such a load and thus the lifetime of such a construction is extended - explains the student.
Adrian Pluta Eng., studies at the Faculty of Civil Engineering at the Silesian University of Technology. He completed his bachelor studies in July 2021 and continues his education at the same faculty, in the field of Road Construction. - In the future, I would like to use my work to facilitate communication and life of people in Poland and in the world - adds A. Pluta, Eng.
Congratulations!
