RoadWatch: Roundup

December 2018

Welcome to Austroads RoadWatch: Roundup for December. This is our monthly newsletter which includes links to our latest reports, webinars and Guide updates. From the whole Austroads team we wish you and your family a happy holiday season and all the best for 2019.

Austroads releases 2017-18 Annual Report

Austroads has published its 2017-18 annual report which provides a detailed review of the strategic focus of each Austroads Program as well as the projects completed and progressed during the year.

At a glance, in 2017-18 Austroads:

invested $10.8m in its roads related research work program
undertook work in 114 projects, completing 43 during the year
published 118 reports, papers and updates to the Austroads Guides (with 349,000 publications sold and downloaded)
enabled 167m driver licence and vehicle registration database transactions via the National Exchange of Vehicle Data Information Service (NEVDIS).

In his Chair's report, Neil Scales said that Austroads has continued to build on the successes of last year and has delivered an exceptional body of research along with significant digital developments.

" The Austroads Board members have been energetic and collaborative in this second year of delivery of the Austroads Strategic Plan 2016-20. In Australia and New Zealand 85% of our engineers are men and so I am encouraged that the most recent recruits to the Austroads Board are highly placed and experienced women," Neil said.

Nick Koukoulas, Chief Executive said in his report that the second year of the Austroads Strategic Plan 2016-20 delivery had been very pleasing.

"The process changes established last year to improve the development and delivery of our research projects were further refined and have proven to be very successful. We have continued to reduce the number of projects, but we are not doing less research. Our projects are more complex, larger in scale and they have more significant outcomes," Nick said.

"I would like to thank the Austroads Chair, Deputy Chair, Board members, the Task Force and Working Groups members, our Project Managers and all Austroads staff for their work this year. We’ve seen some terrific gains and I am looking forward to confidently building on these over the next 12 months," Nick said.

Download the report

Austroads Board Meeting No. 32

The Austroads Board met on 22 November 2018 in Brisbane, Queensland and was chaired by Neil Scales, Director-General, Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads.

The meeting Communiqué, which provides an overview of significant items discussed, is now available.

Read the Communiqué

Fleet Ride Index proposed to better manage rural roads for freight

Austroads has published a report that proposes a ride quality index of roads for heavy vehicles, a heavy vehicle equivalent of the International Roughness Index (IRI) for cars.

The study investigated the perceived safety and comfort of drivers in a range of vehicles for the purpose of setting LOS standards, as well as collecting driver seat vibration data to refine a new ride quality index for heavy vehicles.

The value of the road freight task in Australia in relation to gross domestic product is the highest of all OECD countries. With Australia’s freight task expected to double over the next 20 years, understanding the interaction between heavy vehicles and the roads they drive on is essential.

Australasian Pedestrian Facility Tool V2.1 now available

Austroads has released an updated version of the Australasian Pedestrian Selection Facility Tool and supporting user guide.

The 2.1 version of the tool include economic evaluation updates, design improvements and the addition of Safe and Appropriate Speeds (for New Zealand jurisdiction).

Expected crash reduction factor values for platforms, zebra crossings on platforms and zebra crossings on platforms with kerb extensions have been updated to incorporate recent Australasian research into the safety of raised platforms.

An input for Safe and Appropriate Speed has been added to the tool for New Zealand assessments. The new input is used as the “do minimum” speed for calculating delays/disbenefits for vehicle occupants and has been included to conform with section 2.7 of the NZ Transport Agency 2018 Economic Evaluation Manual (EEM).

To incorporate periodic updates to the NZTA EEM economic update factors, the tool now includes values adjusted to July 2017.

Vehicle registration and driver licensing comparison highlights harmonisation progress

Austroads has published a comparison of driver licensing and vehicle registration practices by Australian states and territories and New Zealand which highlights the considerable progress made in harmonisation of registration and licensing regimes.

The report was developed on behalf of all Australian and New Zealand registration and licensing agencies and includes: an outline of the road safety imperative in Australia and New Zealand; a description of the key practices associated with the vehicle and driver licence pathways; and a focus on the major areas of difference between in the jurisdictions.

The publication aims to improve regulatory and service delivery policy, planning and coordination, with the overarching objective of improving road safety across Australia and New Zealand.

It will help road and traffic agencies understand how other jurisdictions are responding to ongoing policy and operational challenges, inform better policy development by all Austroads members, and assist discussions in transnational taskforces and forums.

Latest webinar recordings

C-ITS Compliance Assessment Framework for Australia and New Zealand
This webinar, presented on 11 December 2018, provides an overview of Austroads' assessment of options for the development of a C-ITS Compliance Assessment Framework in Australia and New Zealand.

Evaluation of the European C-ITS Platform including Threat, Vulnerability and Risk Analysis
This webinar, presented on 6 December 2018, provides an overview of Austroads’ evaluation of the European Telecommunications Standards Institute Threat, Vulnerability and Risk Analysis (ETSI TVRA) for the European C-ITS platform in the Australian context.

Measuring and Reporting the Value of Road Maintenance and Renewal Works
This webinar, presented on 27 November 2018, provides an overview of a framework to help assess the value of maintenance and renewal works, consistent with capital investments.

Establishing Extended Hours Delivery Trials
This webinar, presented on 22 November 2018, outlines the benefits of government working with industry and business to change delivery patterns by extending delivery hours.

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

World Road Association technical committee updates

Austroads currently has full or corresponding representatives on 15 World Road Association technical committees.

The technical committee representatives are either members of or have a close working relationship with an Austroads Taskforce or working group.

Performance of Transport Administrations

The work program of the Performance of Transport Administrations technical committee includes developing a framework to measure effectiveness and efficiency in road and transport administrations, evaluating the transformation of transport administrations, and examining good governance and anti-corruption measures including creating a culture of transparency and accountability.

Download the report by Alan Colegate, Main Roads Western Australia, who attended the committee meeting in October 2018.

Asset Management

The Asset Management technical committee’s tasks are to publish and improve the PIARC Guide to Asset Management, prepare asset management training materials, identify and promulgate innovative asset management approaches, and update HDM4.

Download the report by David Darwin, New Zealand Transport Agency, who attended the committee meeting in October 2018.

Road Tunnels Operations

The Road Tunnels Operations technical committee is studying sustainable road tunnel operations and developing an improved understanding of safety management in underground road networks. Much of the work will be incorporated into an updated Road Tunnels Manual.

Download the report by George Mavroyeni, AECOM Australia, who attended the committee meeting in October 2018.

Adaptation Strategies and Resiliency

The Adaptation Strategies and Resiliency technical committee is examining current adaptation strategies being adopted to increase the resilience of road infrastructure and refining the International Climate Change Adaptation Framework for Road Infrastructure.

Download the report by Caroline Evans, Arcadis, who attended the committee meeting in October 2018.

Environment Considerations in Road Projects and Operations

The goal of Strategic Theme E is to ‘increase resiliency and protect investments in transportation infrastructure from impacts of climate change events while lessening the impact of road transportation on the environment’. The Environment Considerations in Road Projects and Operations technical committee has an emphasis on road transport-related air quality and noise mitigation matters.

Download the report by Helen Murphy, Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, and Rob Hannaby, New Zealand Transport Agency, who attended the committee meeting in October 2018.

NTC examining driver distraction and the Australian Road Rules

The National Transport Commission (NTC) is examining the effectiveness of the Australian Road Rules relating to driver distraction.

An issues paper has been released for public comment to further explore questions around responsibility for driver distractions, technologies that can assist and distract from the driving task, and prescriptive versus performance-based approaches.

The paper is open for comment until 14 February 2019. Following the receipt of submissions, the NTC will release a discussion paper in June 2019.

Results released of NSW partially automated vehicle trials

Transubran, in partnership with Austroads member Roads and Maritime Services, and Transport for NSW, have recently released results from the testing of partially automated (Level 2) vehicles on Sydney’s Orbital Network. The results build on testing Transurban conducted in Melbourne in 2017.

The report makes for interesting reading with highlighted issues around pavement markings, road repairs, ramp configurations, electronic motorway signage, and signage placed near motorway lanes (including on buses).

Austroads is working to provide guidance for road authorities and how to design, build and operate motorways to support automated driving. Two of the key issues identified in the Transurban report – traffic sign readability and pavement markings, are also featured in Austroads projects:

CAV6056 Implications of in-vehicle sign recognition on road operators was released in August 2018
CAV6119 Pavement Markings for Machine Vision, is currently in progress and will make findings on how to improve pavement markings available in September 2019.

Both studies will build and incorporate the results from Transurban’s testing.

Download the report and view the videos

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 November 2018 report

Fatal Heavy Vehicle Crashes Australia—Quarterly Bulletins

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

BITRE have published interactive maps showing the number of years with zero deaths between 2008 and 2017 by local government area and ABS statistical area (SA3).

Download the September 2018 report

New Building Information Modelling (BIM) Guidelines available

The Australasian BIM Advisory Board (ABAB), has published two guidelines to drive a consistent approach to the adoption of BIM through the design, construction and operation of an asset.

BIM Process Consistency: Towards a Common Framework for Digital Design, Construction and Operation will help governments and industry adopt, implement and align the use of BIM on public projects. This will lead to increased productivity and competitiveness, greater quality control, and support for small and medium enterprises in transitioning to the new BIM environment. It will help governments provide better public services and better value for public expenditure.

Asset Information Requirements Guide: Information required for the operation of an asset will assist clients and their consultants to define their information requirements in order to take advantage of BIM’s capacity to capture and deliver data for the effective long-term management of assets.

Building Information Modelling (BIM) is a digital form of construction and asset operations. Recent Austroads research, Scoping Study for a Location Referencing Model to Support the BIM Environment and Minimum Levels of Componentisation for Road Infrastructure Assets, has helped informed the development of the guidelines.