NEWSLETTER N°92
November 2020

We are pleased to announce that PIARC has recently established two new Task Forces:

• TF 2.2, on Electric Road Systems, chaired by Jan Pettersson (Sweden)
• TF 4.1 on Road Design Standards, chaired by Mariusz Kiec (Poland)

Indeed, one of the main lines of our 2020-2023 Strategic Plan is to offer more flexibility and responsiveness to our members. At the beginning of the year, we surveyed them to gather their latest expressions of need, and these topics emerged. We therefore decided, without waiting for the end of this work cycle, to set up these new Task Forces, bringing the total number of our Committees to 24 [...]

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Are you an expert in winter service or road resilience? Submit your abstract before January 31, 2021! 

The theme of the XVIth World Winter Service and Road Resilience Congress will be "Adapting to a Changing World" and will focus on two themes: winter service and resilience (new!). PIARC has launched a call for papers on 15 topics in order to contribute to the programme of this Congress.

All international road and transport experts are invited to submit abstracts.

>> Don't wait any longer and submit your abstract here before 31 January 2021!

Distribution of the Routes/Roads magazine 

In order to continue to receive the Routes/Roads magazine in hard copy from 2021 onwards, you must complete the following questionnaire before 31 January 2021.

>> Link to the questionnaire

In any case, it will always be possible to read the magazine exclusively in electronic format (enriched HTML and/or PDF).

Fruitful discussion of the PIARC Advisory Group

4 November 2020

PIARC held its’ fifth meeting of the Advisory Group on 4 November. It was a virtual meeting where we met with partners to discuss the latest developments within each organization, relating to PIARC’s cross-cutting issues: Road Safety, Resilience, and Climate Change. These discussions were very insightful; they will feed in the work of PIARC’s Committees and may lead to future cooperation projects. This time, we met with Africa Transport Policy Programme, African Union, Asian Development Bank, China Highway and Transportation Society, EIB Jaspers, High Volume Transport Programme, FISITA, iRAP, IRF, TRB, YOURS, UITP, and the World Bank.

The Advisory Group meets twice per year and it is designed to provide an opportunity for PIARC and its partners to discuss strategic issues, share news and identify opportunities for collaborations with other organizations that are active within the road transport sector.

Take part in PIARC's survey on the future of transport! 

PIARC Technical Committee 1.1 (Performance of Transport Administrations) is undertaking a research programme on the role of transport agencies in responding to and designing new transport technologies and service models.

The research is part of the work of the Technical Committee for the work cycle 2020-2023 and will be published in a technical report, which will be presented at the XXVII World Road Congress in Prague in 2023. The conclusions of the programme will help to provide guidance for policy and governance arrangements in this field.

The deadline for submitting responses to the questionnaire is Friday 4 December. The questionnaire is also available in French and Spanish.

>> Read more

You could not see the presentation during the 6th Malaga Road Maintenance Days? You can watch it again here! 

27 - 28 October, online

Miguel Caso Flórez, Technical Director of PIARC, participated in the 6th Malaga #Road Maintenance Days, which was organised by the City Council of Malaga, Spain, on 27 and 28 October. Miguel presented the conclusions of the Technical Committee 2.1 Mobility in Urban Areas, highlighting the essential role that road networks play in peri-urban areas by providing access to the whole territory and enabling the inhabitants of peri-urban areas to contribute to the success of the city, as well as the crucial need to make intelligent use of road infrastructures in city centres to promote sustainable mobility: public mobility, shared mobility, electric mobility, active modes. Some conclusions of Technical Committee 2.4 Road Network Operations / Intelligent Transport Systems and Technical Committee 3.3 Road Asset Management enriched the presentation.

>>Video recording of the presentation (in Spanish)

Follow the news of the American National Committee of PIARC with their new newsletter! 

AASHTO's Performance Based Management Committee recently launched its newsletter. Among other interesting articles, you will find one on PIARC's Committee 1.1 Performance of Transport Administrations and another on COVID-19 and Roads.

>>Read the first issue on their website

Technical and Economic Considerations of Bridge Rehabilitation Methods 

Bridge park managers are concerned about failures. The main concerns are the degradation of bridge components due to aging, accidents and other factors. This is assessed by the Bridge Condition Index.

But bridge managers must also be concerned about the evolution [...]

>> Read the report

Damage and Deterioration Assessment Decision-Making for Highway Bridge Safety 

In most countries, bridge managers regularly assess bridge damage and degradation in order to ensure the safety of users and to adequately manage the service life of bridges. These managers may discover damage or degradation [...]

>> Read the report

Prevention and Mitigation of Tunnel-Related Collisions 

Due to the confined space of a road tunnel, many safety measures are aimed at controlling the risks associated with fire and dangerous goods. However, practice generally shows that injuries and fatalities in tunnels are actually linked to traffic accidents, which would be just as likely to occur [...]

>> Read the report