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Day in and day out, thousands of vehicles drive over the Mondsee-Thalgau motorway section between Upper Austria and Salzburg. From 2023, this high traffic load made extensive renovations necessary. Thus on behalf of ASFINAG, for the first time ever, HABAU GROUP and Asamer Kies- und Betonwerke are realising a project featuring the systematic re-recycling of the existing concrete surface. The concrete had already been recycled during the first general renovation over 30 years ago – now this sustainable approach has been taken one step further and successfully applied once more. For this pioneering achievement, the project was honoured by EUPAVE (the European Concrete Paving Association) in Brussels.
“For us, sustainability in infrastructure construction means using resource-friendly interventions that minimise material consumption and grey emissions”, says HABAU GROUP CEO Hubert Wetschnig. “We set store by durable, reusable materials and close the loop by making building materials recyclable. Digital planning tools such as BIM help us to design the entire lifecycle of a structure in a sustainable manner. From the choice of materials to cooperation with regional partners, we take on responsibility. Because we want to do more than just build structures; we want to create values for generations to come.”
New standards for circular economy in construction
Back in 1991, HABAU GROUP set a technological milestone in European concrete road construction with the complete recycling of the existing concrete surface in the Thalgau-Schmittenhäusl section of the A1 West motorway. At the time, this accomplishment not only marked the first concrete carriageway manufactured by HABAU GROUP using its own slipform paver, but also paved the way for a fundamental paradigm shift: for the first time, the existing motorway infrastructure was systematically seen and used as a secondary source of raw materials. With this, the circular economy principle in concrete road construction was put into practice decades before it was anchored in the legislation.
The present-day general refurbishment of the A1 West motorway in the Mondsee-Thalgau section is directly linked to this early pioneering feat and sets new scientific and technical standards. For the first time in Europe, a concrete motorway is being re-recycled: concrete that was already manufactured from recycled material is being reworked and processed into high-quality road concrete. With this, the multiple recyclability of the material concrete, thus far mainly postulated theoretically, is being empirically proven under real, large-scale conditions for the first time.
The realisation of said re-recycling placed tough demands on the planning, materials technology and construction. It required profound know-how in both engineering and materials science, the precise adaptation of the concrete composition to the properties of the repeatedly prepared aggregate as well as tight-knit, interdisciplinary cooperation between the client, contractors, testing institutes and concrete manufacturers. Only thanks to this integrative project organisation were the strict requirements regarding durability, usability and compliance with regulations able to be reliably fulfilled.
European award for re-recycling
For this innovative feat, unique across Europe, in December 2025 the project was distinguished with the “Outstanding Project Award” by the EUPAVE in Brussels.
The systemic significance of this project reaches far beyond the section of motorway considered. It shows that concrete carriageways are durable infrastructure elements that are able to simultaneously act as long-term urban material stores. The successful re-recycling forms the basis for the future repeated materials recovery of millions of tonnes of existing concrete motorways, the significant reduction in the need for primary raw materials and the substantial lowering of CO₂ emissions across the entire lifecycle.
