AustroadsNews | April 2017 

Welcome to the April 2017 edition of AustroadsNews. If you have been forwarded this email you can subscribe here to receive future updates.

Contents

• New Australian Bridge Code helps to build Australia

• ABC2017 informs, excites and inspires

• Austroads Guide to Temporary Traffic Management Practice

• Consistently assessing the impact of high productivity vehicles

• A focus on tunnels

• Austroads Webinar: Introducing the updated Pedestrian Facility Selection Tool

• BITRE Road Safety Reports

• Fourth UN Global Road Safety Week

• ARSC2017

• Upcoming workshops + conferences

New Australian Bridge Code helps to build Australia

The highly anticipated AS(/NZS) 5100:2017, Bridge Design series (also known as the ‘Bridge Code’)  was published in late March through collaboration with Austroads and Standards Australia’s technical committee BD-090.

The 2017 series addresses areas such as changes in the Australian climate, sustainability and safety-in-design. New bridge design loads such as light rail, fire, ship impact and loads from natural disasters including urban flooding were also introduced to reflect the needs of bridge designers. Rail loading provisions have been extensively revised to align with accepted international practice.

Material in the 2004 version was strongly focused on steel and concrete. The 2017 revision extended this to include composite, rehabilitation material and engineered timber. Other changes to note, Part 6 has become a joint document with Standards New Zealand. Parts 8 and 9 are two new documents to the series, which cover rehabilitation and strengthening of existing bridges and timber bridges.

The Austroads Bridge Conference featured presentations about the new and updated parts of the Bridge Code. The papers will be available on the Austroads publications website by the end of the month.

Austroads is now updating all seven parts of the Guide to Bridge Technology  and developing a new part 8 Waterway Design of Road Structures. The updated Guide series will be available later in the year.

ABC2017 informs, excites and inspires

The 10th Austroads Bridge Conference was hosted by VicRoads in Melbourne from the 3-6 April. 

The event attracted more than 420 practitioners from around the world and over 150  papers were presented (which will be made available on the Austroads website by the end of the month).

The conference is  an excellent example of how Austroads champions innovation, technology development and knowledge transfer into practice. 

We are grateful for the the work of the organising committees and especially that of Nigel Powers and Andy Ng who co-chaired the conference and  Dr Yew-Chin Koay who chaired the scientific committee. The organisers did a superb job of bringing together experts form across the globe to inform, excite and inspire the audience.  

"I think the conference was one of the best I have attended. It had the right balance of practical vs academic and provided good opportunity to catch up with colleagues."

We were very pleased this year to sponsor the prizes for best papers and posters The winners were:

• Best Poster Mackays to Peka Peka Expressway Project – Construction Stage by Geoff Brown, Jamil Khan, John Palm and Craig Service (Beca)
• People's Choice Poster Mackays to Peka Peka Expressway Project – Construction Stage by Geoff Brown, Jamil Khan, John Palm and Craig Service (Beca)
• Best Young Author Paper Runner Up A Comparison of the Effect of Pier Shape on Flood Load on Bridges by Mayam Nasim (RMIT University)
• Best Young Author Paper Best Paper Criteria and Guidance for the Design of Integral Bridges by Moustafa Al-Ani (Opus International Consultants Ltd)
• Best Paper Runner Up Hendon Park Footbridge and the Waterview Shared Path Bridges Connecting Communities by Will Pank (Beca)
• Best Paper Winner Dynamic Load Allowance – A Synthesis of the State of the Art by Colin Caprani (Monash University)

Austroads Guide to Temporary Traffic Management Practice

Aurecon has been awarded three contracts to develop the first parts of the new Austroads Guide to Temporary Traffic Management Practice. 

Austroads initiated the strategic priority project Safety at Road Worksites in 2015. The Austroads Board recognised that safety at roadworks was a significant issue for road agencies and industry. It was acknowledged that improvements are required to manage the risks associated with providing the optimal level of safety for employees and contractors working in or near traffic, combined with the need to provide a safe road environment for all road users. 

Following completion of a series of research tasks in 2015/16, Austroads committed to developing and publishing a new Guide series for Temporary Traffic Management Practice. This Guide will sit alongside the Australian Standard AS1742.3 which will continue to define the standard for Traffic Control Devices for Works on Roads. 

Consistently assessing the impact of high productivity vehicles

Austroads is developing a nationally consistent methodology to determine the impacts of High Productivity Vehicles (HPVs) on the Australian road network.

This report documents the findings of the project which aims to gain a thorough understanding of pavement vertical loading and subsequent deterioration caused by HPVs.

Australia is the world leader in the use of HPVs, from B-doubles and road trains to innovative multi‑combination heavy vehicles.

Australia’s Performance Based Standards (PBS) scheme, formalised in 2007, does not include a performance requirement for pavement vertical loading. This project makes progress towards establishing such a standard. 

A focus on tunnels

Austroads' Road Tunnels Task Force consists of jurisdictional representatives from around Australia and New Zealand, and representatives of the Australasian Tunnelling Society (ATS) and Australasian Tunnel Operators Group (ATOG).

The Task Force is responsible for considering all aspects of tunnel planning, design, construction, operation and maintenance. It coordinates updates to the Austroads Guide to Road Tunnels and the development of technical research projects.

Austroads also supports representatives on the World Road Association (PIARC) Road Tunnel Operations Technical Committee. George Mavroyeni's report from the committee meeting in early April indicates a strong connection with the work of the Task Force and the Committee.  

Austroads is undertaking a project examining measures to reduce crashes adjacent to and within tunnels. The methodology used by Austroads for its project is almost identical to that being used by PIARC to develop their report  Prevention and Mitigation of Tunnel Related Crashes. The Austroads project is well advanced and our report is expected to be released later in 2017. The Austroads report will be a valuable input to the PIARC project. 

Nigel Casey, who represents NSW on the Austroads Task Force and is corresponding member to the PIARC Road Tunnel Operations Committee, has recently taken on the role of ATS2017 conference chairperson. The 16th Australasian Tunnelling Conference will be held in Sydney from 30 October-1 November. 

BITRE Road Safety Reports

Road Deaths Australia—Monthly Bulletins

Released mid month - Latest March 2017 
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.

Light commercial vehicle safety

Released April 2017
In 2015 crashes involving light commercial vehicles accounted for 262 road deaths (21 per cent of road deaths), down 3.7 per cent on 2014.  Deaths in crashes involving light commercial vehicles were down 5.0 per cent on the National Road Safety Strategy base period 2008–2010, significantly less than light passenger vehicle involved crashes (16.4 per cent). While this is partly due to greater exposure, the fatal crash rate for light commercial vehicles is still 17 per cent higher per billion VKT than for light passenger vehicles.

Fourth UN Global Road Safety Week

8-14 May 2017

The theme for the Fourth United Nations Global Road Safety Week is ‘Save Lives # Slow Down’.    

The United Nation’s website provides a range of ideas and resources for organisations and individuals to become involved including:

Showcasing what your organisation is doing:  posting your own road safety event or initiatives for the week directly on to their website.

Take the Pledge: there is an invitation to ‘Take the Pledge’. Can I commend this to you as a simple, yet effective way for your organisation, your members and or staff to get involved.

In line with the goals agreed to in the Decade of Action for Road Safety, we have more to do to address Australia’s own road deaths and serious injuries. Raising awareness of Road Safety Week is an easy way to draw attention to our goal and commitment and your organisation. 

www.unroadsafetyweek.org

ARSC2017 

Perth, 10-12 October 2017

The 2017 Australasian Road Safety Conference (ARSC2017) will be held in Perth from Tuesday to Thursday 10-12 October 2017. The Australasian College of Road Safety, Austroads, ARRB and Curtin Monash Accident Research Centre are proud to support the largest road safety-dedicated conference in the Southern Hemisphere.

With a theme “Expanding our horizons”, ARSC2017 will showcase the regions’ outstanding researchers, practitioners, policy-makers and industry spanning the issues identified in the United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety:

• Road Safety Management
• Infrastructure
• Safe Vehicles
• User Behaviour
• Post-Crash Care.

Upcoming Workshops + Conferences

NEW Austroads Webinar: Future Challenges of Changing Agricultural Equipment | Fri 28 April 2017, 12-1pm AEST, Online, no charge but registration essential

NEW Austroads Webinar: Pedestrian Facility Selection Tool | Tue 16 May 2017, 1-2pm AEST, Online, no charge but registration essential

NEW 5th International SaferRoads Conference | 21-24 May 2017, Auckland, New Zealand

National Electronic Tolling Forum 2017 | 23-25 May 2017, Sydney, NSW

IPWEA Australasian Fleet Conference | 23-25 May 2017, Brisbane, Queensland

NEW IPWEA NSW Emerging Technologies in Public Infrastructure Conference | 15-16 June 2017, Sydney, New South Wales

Trucking Australia 2017 | 21-23 June 2017, Darwin, Northern Territory

NEW ASCP 4th Concrete Pavements Conference | 16-18 July 2017, Kingscliff, New South Wales

NEW Australasian Corrosion Association Brian Cherry International Concrete Symposium | 26-27 July 2017, Melbourne, Victoria

NEW Institute for Sensible Transport Road User Pricing Seminar | 8 August 2017, Sydney, NSW

NEW Institute for Sensible Transport Road User Pricing Seminar | 10 August 2017, Melbourne, Victoria

2017 AAPA International Flexible Pavements Conference | 13-16 August 2017, Melbourne, Victoria

AITPM National Traffic and Transport Conference | 15-17 August 2017, Melbourne, Victoria

Australasian Road Safety Conference | 10-12 October 2017, Perth, Western Australia

Concrete 2017 | 22-25 October 2017, Adelaide, South Australia

ITS World Congress | 29 October-2 November 2017, Montréal, Canada

NEW Australasian Tunnelling Society Conference 2017 | 30 October-1 November 2017, Sydney, NSW

IRF World Road Meeting | 14-17 November 2017, Delhi, India

NEW ADVI 2nd International Driverless Vehicle Summit | 15-17 November 2017, Adelaide, South Australia

NEW 28th Australian Road Research Board (ARRB) International Conference | 29 April - 2 May 2018, Brisbane, Queensland

NEW World Road Association's 8th Symposium on Pavement Surface Characteristics: SURF 2018 | 2-4 May 2018, Brisbane, Queensland

NEW IABMAS 2018 | 9-13 July 2018, Melbourne, Victoria