RoadWatch: Roundup

November 2020

Welcome to our monthly Austroads RoadWatch: Roundup for November. Discover our latest news, published reports, Guide updates, webinars and events.

2019-20: Austroads reflects on year of delivery and accomplishment

Austroads has published its Annual Report 2019–20 summarising the achievements of the 2016-2020 strategic plan and detailing the work undertaken during the 2019-20 year including our financial management and governance.

The 2016–2020 strategic plan delivered 164 projects, 575 publications and 107 webinars. In the four years of the plan Austroads invested more than $44.1 million in research, practitioners downloaded more than 1.35 million publications, and NEVDIS enabled more than 790 million transactions.

At a glance, in 2019-20 Austroads:

invested $10.5 million in research
managed 110 projects, completing 43 during the year
delivered webinars to 20,000 practitioners
produced 177 publications and facilitated 338,000 downloads
enabled 256 million driver licence and vehicle registration database transactions.

Download the 2019-20 Annual Report

Innovation and best practice in transport performance measurement

Austroads has published a research report which presents an improved set of performance indicators to better capture all road users and transport modes.

The report provides practical recommendations to establish or reinforce performance reporting practices of road transport agencies.

“The performance indicators developed by this research acknowledge broader modalities and customer needs such as mobility, resilience and liveability, while considering local specific factors and the availability of broader datasets to enable those indicators,” said Richard Delplace, Transport Network Operations Program Manager.

Austroads releases new priority data sets for road managers

Austroads has published new priority data sets for state and local government to enable harmonisation and collaboration across jurisdictional boundaries.

These subsets of the Road Asset Data Standard provide road asset managers with a clear indication of which parts of the standard are the most beneficial to align with.

Ross Guppy, Austroads’ Transport Infrastructure Program Manager, says the Road Asset Data Standard was developed to provide a common understanding and language for the collection of road related data in Australia and New Zealand.

Delivering safety for heavy vehicle licensing

A highly qualified consortium has been appointed to deliver the final stage of the National Heavy Vehicle Driver Competency Framework review and revision, which will produce improvements for heavy vehicle driver training and licensing systems across Australia.

The consortium, appointed by Austroads, will be led by the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport Australia (CILT-A), in collaboration with the Monash University Accident Research Centre (MUARC), the National Road Safety Partnerships Program and the National Truck Accident Research Centre.

The project objective is to deliver a harmonised Australian licence training and assessment framework, that produces safe and competent heavy vehicle drivers, as well as reflecting the current and future needs of heavy vehicles operators and the future freight task.

National temporary traffic management consultations: industry update

Following industry consultation undertaken in August 2020, Austroads has released responses to questions raised by industry representatives on the proposed temporary traffic management national training framework and prequalification scheme.

A prequalification industry consultative group and a registered training organisation working group will be convened later this month. These forums will enable more direct discussions between Austroads, its member agencies and industry representatives.

Austroads Guide to Traffic Management strategic review update

Austroads is undertaking a strategic review of the Guide to Traffic Management (AGTM) to reflect changes in priorities in road network management and operations.

The first phase of the review process surveyed practitioners about their interactions with the Guide. More than 160 responses were received, providing invaluable feedback about the current use of the Guide and how it may need to change in to the future.

Concurrently, Austroads has engaged with industry and subject matter experts to understand the drivers for change in the guidance. This information will be used to form a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) assessment for the Guide.

The second phase of the review will run from December 2020 to February 2021. In this phase the findings of the survey, consultation and SWOT assessment will inform the development of a new purpose, objectives and required changes for the Guide. Further consultation with industry will help to define the priorities for the Guide and how it will be used in the future.

The new guidance will provide nationally consistent, best-practice advice on transport network operations while reflecting Austroads values set out in the Austroads Strategic Plan 2020-2024.

World Road Association (PIARC) committee meetings

Communications Commission

In November, Geoff Allan, Austroads Chief Executive, was appointed to PIRAC's Communications Commission. The Commission is responsible for developing a rolling Communications and Marketing Plan to demonstrate the value of the organisation and
increase participation in its activities.

Disaster Management Technical Committee 1.5

PIARC's Technical Committee 1.5 - Disaster Management studies and disseminates information to support road administrations response to and recovery from large scale natural disasters, the consequences of which are significant.

The second meeting for the 2020-2023 cycle was held on-line at various times during September and October 2020.

Neil Fisher, the Journey Manager from Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency, attended the meetings virtually as the English-speaking Secretary.

Read Neil Fisher's report on the issues addressed and activities undertaken during the meetings.

Road Tunnels Technical Committee 4.4

PIARC's Technical Committee 4.4 focuses on road tunnels and aims to improve the quality and efficiency of road infrastructure through the effective management of assets in accordance with user expectations and government requirements.

The virtual meetings attended by 36 participants were held in October 2020 with the purpose to review progress of the Committee’s Works Program, discuss preparations for international seminars and the World Winter Service and Road Resilience Congress in Calgary 2022.

Read the summary of the meetings prepared by George Mavroyeni, Technical Director and Independent Reviewer for AECOM Australia.

IPWEA’s International Public Works Conference call for abstracts

The Conference Organising Committee invites submission of abstracts to be considered for presentation at the International Public Works Conference to be held from Sunday 15 – Thursday 19 August 2021 at the Adelaide Convention Centre.

Contributed papers are an integral part of the success of the Conference and the Committee is seeking papers and presentations that are topical, relevant, stimulating and will expand thinking on a variety of issues within the conference theme: Public Works for a Global Future.

The call for abstracts is open until 23 November 2020.

More information

Upcoming Austroads webinars

There is no charge for our webinars, but registration is essential. It will allow us to send you a link to the recording if you can’t make the live session.

Best-Practice Approaches to Road Freight and Communities | Register
Thursday, 26 November 2020, 1 pm AEDT
The freight industry is critical to the Australian and New Zealand economies. Register for this webinar in which we will share the best-practice strategies to communicate the significance and value of freight while understanding and addressing possible community concerns.

Improved Guidance on Interrupted Traffic Flow Theory | Register
Thursday, 3 December 2020, 1 pm AEDT
Broaden your knowledge of Interrupted Traffic Flow Theory and emerging best practice in the assessment of simple and complex traffic scenarios in Australia and New Zealand.

Development of Design Procedures for Lightly Bound Cemented Materials in Flexible Pavements | Register
Wednesday, 16 December 2020, 1 pm AEDT
Lightly bound cemented (LBC) materials have particular use in pavement rehabilitation and heavy patching. Hear about a new structural design method developed for pavements containing LBC materials as well as heavily bound cemented materials in the post fatigue cracking phase of life.

Innovation and Best Practice in Performance Measurement and Transport Outcomes | Register
Thursday, 25 February 2021, 1 pm AEDT
Broaden your knowledge of current performance reporting practices used nationally and internationally and hear about the recommendations to support consistent and commonly agreed performance indicators (revised NPIs) for urban road-based transport performance measurement.

Latest webinar recordings

View Austroads past webinars.

BITRE: Road deaths Australia

This monthly bulletin contains current counts and summaries of road crash deaths and fatal road crashes in Australia. It is 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.

You can also view monthly updated road safety statistics and an Australian Road Deaths Database.

New CPEE short course "Understanding test results and compliance"

This course by live webinar is presented in two half-day packages of two sessions each. The course is primarily concerned with providing delegates with the knowledge and practical understanding to enable evaluation of NATA endorsed test certificates, and to determine ‘how real are they?’.…. the fundamentals of/ measurement uncertainty/ calibration/ metrological traceability and sampling uncertainty are introduced.

For more information, visit the CPEE website.

Upcoming industry events

Event organisers are carefully reviewing their arrangements to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. Please be aware that details may change at short notice.

2020 SPARC Hub Smart Pavements Virtual Workshop (online), 19-20 November 2020

2021 Transportation Research Board (TRB) Annual Meeting (online), January 2021

IABSE Congress, Christchurch, 3-5 February 2021

17th ITS Asia Pacific Forum, Brisbane, 12-15 April 2021

Australasian Tunnelling Conference, Melbourne, May 2021

AITPM National Traffic and Transport Conference, Brisbane, 27-30 July 2021

AAPA 2021 International Flexible Pavements Symposium "Roads going full circle" (online), 3-6 August 2021

IPWEA International Public Works Conference, Adelaide, 15-19 August 2021

2021 Australasian Road Safety Conference, Melbourne, 28-30 September 2021