Rafael Jurado-Piña

The accelerated growth of the transport sector has increased oil consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, intensifying global environmental challenges. The electrification of transportation has emerged as a key strategy to achieve sustainability targets, with electric vehicles (EVs) expected to account for 50% of global car sales by 2035. However, widespread adoption requires smart infrastructure capable of enabling dynamic in-motion charging. In this context, Electric Road Systems (ERSs), particularly those based on Wireless Power Transfer (WPT) technologies, offer a promising solution by transferring energy between road-embedded transmitters and vehicle-mounted receivers. This study assesses the structural response and service life of conventional and electrified asphalt pavement sections representative of the Spanish road network. Several standard pavement configurations were analyzed under heavy traffic (dual axles, 13 tons) using a hybrid approach combining mechanistic–empirical multilayer modeling and three-dimensional Finite Element Method (FEM) simulations. The electrified designs integrate prefabricated charging units (CUs) placed at a 9 cm depth, disrupting the structural continuity of the pavement. The results reveal stress concentrations at the CU–asphalt interface and service life reductions of up to 50% in semiflexible pavements. Semirigid sections performed better, with average reductions close to 40%. These findings are based on numerical simulations of standard Spanish sections and do not include experimental validation.

The geometric design of a roundabout follows an iterative process that aims to achieve an optimal balance among safety provisions, operational performance, and large vehicle accommodation. The evaluation of safety involves checking the speed consistency along the vehicle paths, which requires identifying the trajectories of the fastest vehicles and the speeds at which they travel. A systematic procedure to identify the fastest vehicle paths for all possible movement types between the approaches of a roundabout using as input data the roundabout geometry and the minimum distance between the vehicle and the roundabout edge is proposed. The determination of the fastest path between an entry and an exit is based on the generation of multiple feasible paths and the final selection of the fastest one. The proposed procedure supports the safety assessment of a roundabout geometric design according to the most relevant international guidelines and can be easily implemented in a heuristic roundabout design procedure. The application of the method to a trial case is presented to demonstrate its performance and applicability.

Existe una extensa literatura que ha demostrado los grandes beneficios que implica el desarrollo de trabajos colaborativos entre estudiantes de Educación Superior. En el campo de la Ingeniería Civil, un proyecto exitoso es siempre un trabajo en equipo, y los profesores deben preparar a los estudiantes para que trabajen en este tipo ambiente cooperativo. El problema es que hay pocos ejemplos en la literatura que evalúen las experiencias positivas y negativas percibidas por los alumnos cuando acometen este tipo de trabajo de proyecto. “Planificación y Gestión de Carreteras” es una asignatura nueva en el Máster de Ingeniería de Caminos de la Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) e incluye trabajos de proyecto. Este artículo contribuye a la literatura aplicando a una asignatura de Máster una metodología ya validada en Grado para evaluar la percepción que los estudiantes tienen del trabajo de proyecto. La metodología fue testada en una muestra de 82 estudiantes, y aunque los resultados destacan que los trabajos de proyecto grupales son percibidos muy positivamente por los alumnos, se detectaron también ciertas deficiencias relacionadas con la experiencia previa de los alumnos en trabajos colaborativos. [A large body of research has demonstrated the considerable benefits and minor organisational problems of collaborative work in higher education. In Civil Engineering, a successful project is often a highly collaborative team-based activity, and the engineering education community must therefore prepare graduates to work in this type of environment. The problem is that few case studies reported in the literature evaluate the positive and negative experiences encountered by students when undertaking group projects. “Road Planning and Management” is a new course in the Master of Civil Engineering of the UPM (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid) which includes collaborative project works. This paper contributes to this limited literature by assessing previously existing methodologies applied to group projects in a Bachelor´s degree in Civil Engineering and compares the results with those obtained for students of a Master´s degree. The methodology was tested on a survey sample of 82 students enrolled in the “Road Planning and Management” course of the new Civil Engineering Master of UPM. Although the results highlight the extremely positive effects of group projects on the students’ perception, certain deficiencies were also detected relating to the lack of previous collaborative work in the students’ background, an area which requires further research.] Guirao, Begoña; Del Val, Miguel Ángel; Gallego, Juan; Jurado, Rafael

This article presents a heuristic procedure for the optimization of speed consistency in the geometric design of single-lane roundabouts. The procedure is based on a real-code genetic algorithm that supports the optimization of roundabouts with any number of intersection legs and any angle between legs. The proposed methodology provides great flexibility to the design process, since it allows introducing the position of the centre of the roundabout, the inscribed circle diameter, the central island diameter, and the splitter island length as problem decision variables. The objective function may be formulated using any functional form, without the restrictions that are inherent in linear programming techniques. This flexibility renders the model highly suitable for solving the design problems that are often encountered in professional practice.