RoadWatch: Roundup

March 2019

Welcome to Austroads RoadWatch: Roundup for March. This is our monthly newsletter which includes links to our latest reports, webinars and Guide updates.

Road safety audits guidance updated

Austroads has published a new Guide to Road Safety Part 6: Managing Road Safety Audits.

The Guide provides guidance on the procurement, management and conduct of road safety audits. It aims to:

inform practitioners new to road safety audit principles and concepts (especially project clients and project managers) and encourage the conduct of audits and other assessments to maximise their benefits
ensure practitioners are aware of up‑to‑date operating environments and contexts (e.g. the Safe System approach to road safety), and recent developments in predictive risk assessments.

Stabilised materials guidance updated

Austroads has published an updated edition of the Guide to Pavement Technology Part 4D: Stabilised Materials.

The Guide describes in detail the:

types of stabilisation undertaken to improve pavement materials and earthworks materials
types of binders used in stabilisation
types of binders suitable for particular materials
laboratory determination of the type and quantity of binder required to achieve a particular type of stabilised material (mix design).

This Guide is a complete revision of edition 1.0 originally published in 2006 and includes restructuring the Guide based on stabilisation materials; editorial changes and minor technical changes throughout; and major technical changes to the guidance relating to cementitiously stabilised materials and foamed bitumen stabilised materials.

Traffic management guidance updated with Safe System content

Austroads has released updated editions of six Parts of the Guide to Traffic Management (AGTM) following a Safe System review.

In January, Austroads released the report Embedding Safe System in the Guide to Traffic Management. The new and revised content recommended in this report for AGTM Parts 1, 5, 7, 9, 10 and 12 has been incorporated into the series.

The publication of the six updated editions addresses the priority gaps identified in the review and presents an opportunity to better integrate Safe System into traffic engineering and management activities.

Guide to Traffic Management Part 6: Intersections, Interchanges and Crossings is also currently under review and is expected to be published with new safe system content by April.

Road tunnels pavement guidance updated

Austroads has released an updated edition of Guide to Road Tunnels Part 2: Planning, Design and Commissioning with expanded pavement design guidance.

Part 2 sets out the Austroads expectations regarding appropriate design for road tunnels. It discusses all aspects of planning, design and commissioning of road tunnels including structural and geotechnical requirements, fire and life safety, ventilation, lighting, traffic monitoring and control, plant monitoring and control, electrical power supply and the requirements for associated building structures.

The new edition of the Guide includes significantly expanded pavement design guidance in Section 5 and updated references to Austroads Guides throughout.

New fire data set for major Australian road tunnels

Austroads has released a report detailing fire incidents in 11 major road tunnels in Australia .

The tunnels which form the basis of the study are all more than 1km in length, have high traffic volumes, are in an urban location, and are monitored and controlled through a continuously staffed control centre.

The high-quality data set captures extensive information about 78 fire incidents in Australian road tunnels. The data capture extends from the opening date of the Sydney Harbour Tunnel which opened in August 1992, to include subsequently opened major tunnels and their operation up to and including June 2016.

The study identified a need for a consistent method of reporting fire incidents using pre-determined terminology and the report provides a simplified fire incident questionnaire, to enable future incidents to be easily added to the base data set.

It is envisaged that the data will be periodically updated to reflect the continued operation of the existing eleven major tunnels. Future versions will also include road tunnels opened after July 2016 such as the Waterview Tunnel in Auckland.

Read more | Download the report

A national approach to measuring non-fatal crash outcomes

Austroads has released a report documenting the first stage of a pilot project to improve the measurement and reporting of serious injury road crashes by matching police crash data and hospital data.

Road transport agencies recognise that linking hospital and police data is integral to future reporting, as demonstrated by the results of the NSW linked data study conducted by Transport for NSW in 2017.

The Austroads study was designed to provide a proof of concept for a national approach to source and analyse data related to non-fatal hospitalised road injuries.

Read more | Download the report

Join us for a webinar on Thursday 4 April 2019, 1pm AEDT for an overview of the study by the report authors James Harrison and Dr Angela Watson. No charge but registration essential. Can’t make the live session? Register and we’ll send you a link to the recording.

Register now

New road risk assessment tool to assist with speed management

Austroads has launched a new tool and report on Infrastructure Risk Rating (IRR), a simple road assessment methodology designed to assess road safety risk at a network level, primarily as an input to the speed limit setting process.

Inappropriate or excessive speed is a major road safety issue. Effective speed management is fundamental and critical to reducing speed-related road trauma.

Speed limit setting is at the core of speed management. Speed limits need to be set at a safe and appropriate level, considering the function, design and safety of the road.

The report explores the application of IRR in Australia, with particular emphasis on how it may be used by State and local governments to inform speed management on their road networks.

Read more | Download the report

Access the tool | Download the Webtool manual

Join us for a webinar on Tuesday 26 March 2019, 1pm AEDT for an overview of this study by the report authors Haris Zia and Dale Harris. No charge but registration essential. Can’t make the live session? Register and we’ll send you a link to the recording.

Register now

Foamed bitumen stabilised materials showing good deformation performance

Austroads has released a report detailing the findings from the first phase of a project to evaluate the deformation performance of foamed bitumen stabilised materials.

Foamed bitumen stabilisation involves insitu or plant mix stabilisation of pavement materials with bitumen as the primary binder. The process is used to improve the strength of granular materials while retaining a flexible pavement.

Austroads project TT2046 is assessing the field performance of in situ foamed bitumen stabilised materials under full-scale accelerated loading and consists of two phases.

This first phase included:

evaluating early-life deformation
measuring long-term deformation characteristics under warm climate conditions
benchmarking the foamed bitumen stabilised base performance with an asphalt control section
evaluating the effects of recycling reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) in the foamed bitumen stabilised base.

Read more | Download the report

Upcoming Austroads webinars

Guide to Road Safety Part 6: Managing Road Safety Audits 21 March 2019, 1pm AEDT

Road Risk Assessment, Case Studies and Engagement Guidance for Speed Management 26 March 2019, 1pm AEDT

A National Approach to Measuring Non-fatal Crash Outcomes 4 April 2019, 1pm AEDT

Guide to Pavement Technology Part 4D: Stabilised Materials 11 April 2019, 1pm AEDT

Updated Guidance for the Design of New Pavement for Road Tunnels 30 April 2019, 1pm AEST

No charge but registration is essential.

Can’t make the live session? Register and we’ll send you a link to the recording.

Latest webinar recordings

Developing the Data to Support Heavy Vehicle Road Reforms
This webinar, presented on 14 March 2019, provides an update on the Austroads’ project to develop the data to support the Heavy Vehicle Road Reforms.

Long-Term Pavement Performance Study
This webinar, presented on 7 March 2019, provides an overview of Austroads' long-term pavement performance study.

Passing Lanes: Safety and Performance
This webinar, presented on 5 March 2019, provides an overview of the benefits associated with passing lanes for guidance for practitioners.

Improving Driver Licensing Programs for Indigenous Road Users and Transitioning Learnings to Other User Groups
This webinar, presented on 27 February 2019, provides an overview of the barriers to driver licensing program access experienced by Indigenous people and ideas on potential common underpinnings for future policy and program design, data collection and reporting.

View all our past webinars online www.austroads.com.au/webinars.

Vehicles as a Workplace: Launch & Forum

In early March Austroads joined with the Heads of Workplace Safety Authorities (HWSA) in Brisbane to launch a new work health and safety guide Vehicles as a Workplace.

Following endorsement by HWSA, the guide was published jointly by Austroads and Workplace Health and Safety regulators from Queensland, NSW, Tasmania, South Australia, Northern Territory, ACT and the Commonwealth.

Austroads Chair, Neil Scales, commended the collaborative effort to date and said that Austroads would continue to provide technical support as the Guide is rolled out over the next six months.

The Pedestrian Experience literature review

This literature review brings together some of the findings from the disparate literature on pedestrian experience to inform planning or service delivery within the NZTA. A better understanding of pedestrian needs will inform efforts to promote the use of walking as an
economical and healthy part of more people’s lives. The review considers pedestrian experiences, behaviours, needs and barriers to walking, where possible from the direct perspective of the user. Individuals may have extremely different incentives and barriers to participation as a pedestrian, be they physical,
psychological, social, or environmental.

Download the review

Performance benefits of polymer modified bitumen binders for thin surfacings

The aim of this research was to try to identify field data from New Zealand and overseas that supported
the expected performance enhancements gained from using polymer modified binders (PMBs) in thin surfacings. Research was undertaken at WSP Opus Research in 2018 to investigate evidence from field studies supporting the performance benefits of polymer modified binders (PMBs) in thin asphalt and chipseal road surfacings. Improved performance benefits claimed for the use of PMB modified thin surfacings include reduced rutting and fatigue cracking in dense asphalt, reduced chip loss in chipseals and open graded porous asphalts and reduced flushing in seals.

Download the report

Appointment of Professor Phil Evans for CPEE academic board

The Centre for Pavement Engineering Education (CPEE) has further enhanced its Academic Board with the appointment of Professor Phil Evans, Consultant and Professor of Law, faculty of Law at Notre Dame University, Fremantle WA.

The Academic Board supervises development of CPEE's academic activities including the maintenance of academic quality, integrity and standards.

Latest BITRE resources

Road Deaths Australia—Monthly Bulletins

This bulletin contains current counts and summaries of road crash deaths and fatal road crashes in Australia. It is produced monthly and published on BITRE's website on or around the 14th of each month. Data are sourced from the road traffic or police authorities in each jurisdiction.

Download the February 2019 report

Fatal Heavy Vehicle Crashes Australia—Quarterly Bulletins

This quarterly publication tracking counts of fatal crashes that involve heavy vehicles.

Download the December quarter 2018 report

Bi-annual road trauma data tables for the Australian Trauma Registry

This Excel sheet provides national summary tables of severe injury cases (admitted patients with an Injury Severity Score > 12) added to the Australian Trauma Registry. These tables were produced under a joint funding agreement between the Australian Government Department of Health and the Department of Infrastructure, Regional Development and Cities.

Download the 1 January to 30 June 2018 report

Road Trauma Involving Heavy Vehicles—Annual Summaries

This report presents counts and rates of fatal crashes, fatalities and hospitalised injuries from road traffic crashes in which one or more heavy vehicles were involved.

Download the report