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AustroadsNews | April 2016Welcome to the April edition of AustroadsNews. This newsletter provides a run-down on our latest publications, links to other relevant work in Australasia and elsewhere, and links to upcoming seminars and conferences. If you have been forwarded this email you can subscribe here to receive future updates. |
Achieving Safe System speeds on urban arterial roadsAustroads has released a compendium of 27 engineering‑based treatments that, either as a stand‑alone treatment or in combination, will lower the operating speed on urban arterial roads to Safe System speeds. A significant proportion of road crashes occur on urban arterial roads including those that lead to fatalities and serious injuries. Installation of these types of treatments have the potential to reduce the incidence and severity of crashes. An inclusive definition has been used for urban arterial roads in this study, with information on treatments provided for ‘higher traffic volume’ roads. While the focus is on engineering measures, some information on non‑engineering‑based treatments (e.g. enforcement, in‑vehicle systems, road user education, and publicity) is provided along with information on speed management measures in work and school zones. Several emerging treatments were identified as having considerable potential for effective long‑term usage, including signalised roundabouts, turbo roundabouts, road diets, raised intersections, wombat crossings, raised platforms and dwell‑on‑red signals. |
Changes recommended to improve design procedures for asphalt pavementsAustroads has published a report recommending changes to the asphalt design procedures in the Guide to Pavement Technology Part 2: Pavement Structural Design. Proposed improvements include:
The recommended changes to the procedures in the AGPT are introduced in Section 2 of the report. The remainder of the report provides the validation of the proposed changes. Field experiments were performed to characterise the modulus of asphalt in situ at different temperatures. The field work is discussed in Section 3. Materials were sampled in the field for the purpose of modulus and fatigue characterisation testing in the laboratory, the results of which are presented in Section 4. In Section 5, the comparative results of the field and laboratory experiments are used in combination with data from earlier work to validate the proposed changes to the AGPT. The conclusions of the study and possible future work on improving the AGPT design methods are presented in Section 6. |
Roadmap shows the way for development of consistent ITS architectureAustroads has published a roadmap to the development of a national Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) Architecture. ITS includes:
The National ITS Architecture will enable Australian transport agencies and industry to deploy ITS in a consistent, interoperable way and deliver road safety, mobility and environmental outcomes for road transport users including private, freight and public transport modes. The roadmap provides an overview of Austroads’ activities and timeframes to progress the development and implementation of the National ITS Architecture. The roadmap:
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Keeping freight moving in emergencies maintains economic and social wellbeingAustroads has published the results of a study confirming the importance of maintaining freight movement to communities impacted by emergencies. In the three years prior to 2013, Australasia experienced a severe earthquake decimating the City of Christchurch, Victoria’s most tragic bushfires, category 4/5 cyclones in Queensland and Western Australia, and major general flooding in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. Recent research and workshops held as part of the study confirm that freight movement is essential for maintaining the economy and social wellbeing of disaster impacted communities, In the face of these types of disasters jurisdictions have had to develop rapid and innovative responses to keep freight moving on damaged or non-typical transport networks. This has included pre-positioning goods before emergencies; stockpiling materials and sometimes plant on areas of hard-standing adjacent to bridges, fords and range crossings; planning and designing heavy vehicle rest areas to allow double and triple road trains to turn around; and developing technology to communicate emergency traffic management plan deviations for different classes of light and heavy vehicles. Depending on the scale of the disaster, response and recovery traffic movements and preserving security for damaged towns and dwellings, can overwhelm or constrain the availability of the remaining transport elements for their normal social and economic use. This can impede the ability to maintain crucial freight movements required by businesses and for employment. The report recommends:
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Better understanding level of service requirements for heavy vehicle driversAustroads has published survey responses by road freight drivers, operators and road infrastructure managers to better understand their asset management level of service (LOS) requirements. The responses identified three primary road attributes impacting on LOS for heavy vehicle drivers and freight operators: ride comfort (road roughness); road shoulder width and condition; and road and bridge geometry and general access. A follow-up survey investigated the responses of truck and car drivers to variations to the above identified three key road inventory attributes. Analysis of sample rating data indicated that LOS ratings provided by car and truck drivers closely followed changes in LOS for roughness, shoulder width and lane geometry, but truck drivers on average rated LOS below that rated by car drivers. To account for differences in ride comfort ratings between car and truck drivers, two ride comfort measures (Heavy Articulated Truck Index (HATI) and the Heavy Vehicle Roughness Band Index (HVRBI)) were used as well as the International Roughness Index (IRI) used by road agencies. HATI is truck specific and used by some agencies to assess truck ride comfort. The experimental HVRBI measure was included because it can model cab and seat responses in estimating the ride comfort of the freight vehicle types used. The IRI models the suspension characteristics of cars and therefore is only partly capable of estimating heavy vehicle responses. The comparisons of truck and car driver ratings with the three roughness measures support further development of ride comfort measures aligned with truck ride responses. Used together with IRI these measure should allow asset managers to deliver LOS levels better suited to the needs of cars and freight vehicles. The report recommends further research is undertaken to clearly determine a process for road agencies to set a separate LOS for: ride comfort; lane and shoulder width; and road geometry for rural roads based on road function (class) and rural freight vehicle requirements. |
World Road Association: Technical Committee ReportsThe Austroads team of local practitioners participating in the World Road Association (PIARC) technical committees have completed the first round of meetings for this strategic cycle. The following meeting reports are now available: Sustainable Multimodality in Urban Areas from Michael McClean, VicRoads National Road Safety Policies and Programs from Blair Turner, ARRB Design and Operations of Safer Road Infrastructure from Daniel Cassar, VicRoads Pavements from Michael Moffatt, ARRB Road Tunnels Operations from George Mavroyeni, AECOM Adaptation Strategies/Resiliency from Caroline Evans, ARRB Environmental Considerations in Road Projects and Operations from Rob Hannaby, TNZA and Helen Murphy, VicRoads PIARC was established in 1909 as a non-political, non-profit organisation that aims to develop international cooperation and foster progress in the area of roads and road transport. The organisation brings together the road administrations of 121 governments and has members – individuals, companies, authorities and organizations – in more than 140 countries. |
VicRoads ITS Transport Technology Grant ProgramApplications for the Victorian $4.5 million Intelligent Transport System (ITS) Transport Technology Grants Program are now open. VicRoads is seeking Expressions of Interest from companies, industry bodies and other transport technology industries to trial projects that support innovation and the development of transport technologies and products that benefit Victoria and the wider Australian community. The grants will allow VicRoads to work with industry to develop technologies to help reduce traffic congestion and improve traffic flow, reduce road crashes, improve the integration between transport modes, improve environmental sustainability; and improve traveller information to enable to choice alternative transport modes. The grants will also allow industry to undertake research and trials and provide an opportunity to showcase new technologies and innovation at the 2016 ITS World Congress to be held in Melbourne in October. Applications will close on Friday, 15 April, with successful candidates announced in late-May. |
New Street Classifications for London
Over the last 18 months more than 400 transport professionals have collaboratively examined how London's road network is helping people move across the Capital but also providing liveable social space. Transport for London's new street classification system moves beyond simple arterial, collector and large vehicle classifications. Their new system considers the land use context and the placemaking aspect that streets can play. |
Road Safety ReportsRoad Deaths Australia—Monthly Bulletins 2015 Victorian Road Trauma Report |
ABC2017 Call for AbstractsThe Austroads Bridge Conference is Australia's premier bridge conference and ABC2017 will provide great opportunities for local and international bridge engineering specialists to share experiences, innovations, achievements and knowledge. Submissions are warmly invited for presentations at ABC2017 which address the conference theme of Bridges: Connecting Communities and one or more of the following sub themes:
For more information visit the website www.abc2017.com.au |
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