NEWSLETTER N°84
February 2020

Dear readers,

The 2020 - 2023 Strategic Plan, which will guide PIARC's activities over the next four years, was approved by our Council at the end of last year. Its implementation has already started actively, with kick-off meetings of our new Committees held at the Gustave Eiffel University (Grand Paris, France) in January and February. More than 1,000 experts from over 50 countries were invited to gather to take ownership of their objectives and define their work plans.

Some lessons have already emerged, which I share hereinafter:

- The decision to appoint the Chairmen and Secretaries of the Committees six months in advance is bearing fruit. [...]

>> Read more

PIARC took part in the Third Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety 

19-20 February 2020, Stockholm (Sweden)

The United Nations and the Swedish government organised the Third Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety on 19-20 February 2020 in Stockholm. The King of Sweden, His Majesty Carl XVI Gustaf, opened the conference, which was attended by more than 1,700 delegates from over 140 countries, including 80 ministers or deputy ministers. The objective was to determine the outcome of the Decade of Action for Road Safety, and to identify progress tracks for the next ten years.

In this very rich context, Claude Van Rooten, President of PIARC, led a session dedicated to road engineering. IRF, iRAP, Polis, UN Habitat and the Ugandan Minister of Public Works and Transport were the panelists, and exchanges with the audience were extensive. “What are the optimal speeds?”, “How can interventions be prioritised?”, “Are solutions always replicable from one country to another?”, etc. Many of these topics are already covered in PIARC reports or in the Association online manual. Patrick Malléjacq, Secretary General, is now in charge of preparing the official conclusions of this session.

>> Further information

PIARC has launched its new Strategic Plan 

22 January – 14 February 2020, Champs‐sur‐Marne (France)

PIARC has launched its new Strategic Plan by organizing kick-off meetings for all its 22 Technical Committees and Task Forces. A thousand experts from about 50 countries participated in the meetings in order to discuss how to organize their work for the next four-year cycle.

The new Strategic Plan covers years 2020 to 2023 and details the topics that the Association will focus on over the next cycle, in line with the goal of the Association to remain a leading international forum for creating and disseminating knowledge on all topics related to roads and road transport. They are organised in Four Strategic Themes: Road Administration; Mobility; Safety and Sustainability; and Resilient Infrastructure cover 22 Technical Committees and Task Forces, and all of them met during a three-day kick-off meeting in Paris, from 22 January to 14 February 2020.

>> Read more

Council meeting in Dakar in October 2020 

On the occasion of the Third Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety in Stockholm, Claude Van Rooten, President of PIARC, met with the Minister and with the First Delegate of Senegal.

The Council of the Association has indeed decided to hold its next annual meeting the week of Monday 19 October 2020 in Dakar (Senegal). Our Senegalese members are well underway with the preparations, and have booked the Abdou Diouf International Conference Centre, which offers excellent meeting facilities, ideally located between the airport and the city centre. This will be the first time that the Council will meet in Sub-Saharan Africa, which is in itself proof of PIARC's renewed commitment to the countries of the region and to low and middle-income countries. In addition, it is envisaged that a regional conference will be held in conjunction with the Council meeting (subject to confirmation), in order to showcase the best practices of the countries of the region at the international level. Detailed information will be shared with Council members in the near future.

>> Learn more about the Council of the Association

Technical reports soon available in Polish! 

PKD, the Polish National Committee, and PIARC have just signed a Memorandum of Understanding authorising the Polish side to translate, publish and disseminate all or part of the technical reports of the PIARC 2016-2019 cycle into Polish. This decision was taken on the centenary of PKD, celebrated in Warsaw in December 2019 in the presence of Presidents Claude Van Rooten (PIARC) and Zbigniew Kotlarek (PKD).

>> Further information

Open Call for Applied Research Proposals in Long Distance Road and Rail and Urban Transport for Climate Change Mitigation, Adaptation and Inclusive Transport 

PIARC is happy to share a call for proposals from the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID). DFID and PIARC have already been partners on several projects. Recent examples include the development of a business plan for the HDM-4 software and Foresight sessions at the 26th World Road Congress. An Open Call inviting Research Suppliers to submit proposals to provide research services under HVT Programme was launched. This open call seeks co-created research projects addressing climate change (mitigation and adaptation) and inclusive transport (transport for people with disabilities, vulnerable groups, older people and the youth and gender-neutral transport). The focus of the research will be on long distance strategic road and rail transport and on urban transport modes, including walking.

Deadline: 12th March 2020 at 21:00 pm GMT

>> Further information

Register now for the conference “Sustainable roads: environmental protection in transport infrastructure” 

31 March - 1 April 2020, Lublin (Poland)

The conference "Sustainable Roads: Environmental Protection in Transport Construction" is a continuation of the seven conferences held so far in the series "Environmental Protection and Aesthetics in Transport Construction" and conferences related to concrete roads and technologies used in transport construction.

The aim of the conference is to identify new challenges and issues in the field of transport construction both in investment activities and maintenance of already built facilities in the context of sustainable development and climate change. The conference will also be a forum for the exchange of international experience in the field of asphalt and concrete road construction and material recycling. The presentation and discussion will also cover the issues of using innovative materials and technologies. It is the intention of the organisers that all issues raised during the Conference should be connected with the idea of sustainable development.

>> Further information

Italian Conference on "Testing Laboratories" 

27-28 May 2020, Rome (Italy)

PIARC Italian National Committee is organizing a Conference on testing laboratories and on-site monitoring and controls. A high-level debate will be held on priority and critical topics for Road Administrations pending of adequate regulations and guidelines such as: safety barriers, tunnel ventilation, georadars, bridge decks and others.

>> Further information available soon (in Italian)

First meeting of the new cycle 2020 – 2023 of PIARC Italian National Committee 

19 February 2020, Rome (Italy)

On February 19, 2020, 17 Technical Committees and 2 Task Forces gathered for the first annual meeting of the new cycle 2020 – 2023 of PIARC Italian National Committee (PIARC Italy). The programme of activities planned by the Committee and the new national strategic plan were presented along with the project of the new website www.piarc-italia.it, which will be online by next May. The Chairs also illustrated their activities in their respective International Technical Committees after the kick-off meetings of last January and February. For this first meeting of the Chairs of the Technical Committees, some university professors from all over Italy were present as auditors and shared their common experiences and initiatives.

>> Further information (in Italian)

PIARC representatives joined the first Road Infrastructure Management Congress (KZID) in Poland 

4-5 December 2019, Warsaw (Poland)

From December 4-5, PIARC representatives of Germany and Poland took part in the first Polish congress entirely dedicated to road infrastructure management. PIARC President Claude Van Rooten gave the keynote speech presenting the PIARC Strategic Plan for Resilient Infrastructure, following the opening speech by Dr. Sławomir Heller, Chairman of the Working Group Dissemination and Education of the Technical Committee Asset Management. In the subsequent plenary session, representatives Dr. Thomas Linder, Chairman of the Technical Committee Asset Management, Dr. Jürgen Krieger, Strategic Theme Coordinator Resilient Infrastructure as well as Marcin Nowacki and Prof. Adam Zofka, Polish delegates in the Technical Committee Asset Management, focused their presentations on different aspects of modern asset management.

>> Find more details about the congress

Project risk catalogue 

During the 2016-2019PIARC work cycle, a general, extensive Project Risk Catalogue was prepared by WG2 members of TC A.3 Risk Management. The goal of the catalogue is to serve as a comprehensive tool that will facilitate the risk management process, and supplement brainstorming sessions for the identification of relevant project risks. Although it was intended to be comprehensive as well as practical, listing the most frequently occurring risks in major road projects, the catalogue does not intend to include all possible risks.

>> Read the technical report

Intra- and Inter-Agency Integration of Winter Maintenance Management: Case Studies 

Within PIARC Technical Committee B.2 Winter Maintenance, Working Group B.2.1 Transportation Management during Winter Events was tasked with identifying noteworthy examples of cooperation within and between agencies responsible for winter maintenance management. A total of 10 case studies were received from seven countries, four of them representing intra-agency cooperative management efforts [...]

>> Read the technical report

Reducing the Life Cycle Carbon Footprint of Pavements 

This report reviews innovations reported to reduce the carbon footprint of pavements and contains a critical review of the assessment of carbon footprint of pavements. There are numerous other environmental indicators for road pavements, but these were outside the scope of this report which focuses only on the carbon footprint. In this report the definition of sustainability of road pavements is discussed, including a definition of system boundaries [...]

>> Read the technical report