RoadWatch: Roundup
April 2022
Welcome to our monthly Austroads RoadWatch: Roundup for April. Discover our latest news, published reports, Guide updates, webinars and events.
Incorporating sustainability in the Guide to Road Tunnels
Austroads has published a report that forms the basis for the changes to the Guide to Road Tunnels to incorporate guidance on sustainability.
Road tunnels are an important element of the transport infrastructure. Requiring significant resources and energy, they are potentially a major source of greenhouse gas emissions and environmental pollution.
“Sustainability is particularly important for road tunnels as they have a substantially higher carbon footprint than surface roads both during their construction and through their operating life,” said Ross Guppy, Austroads Transport Infrastructure Program Manager.
The updates will provide owners, operators, designers and those constructing tunnels with contemporary advice on how to ensure that issues related to the social, economic and environmental pillars of sustainability are addressed throughout the life cycle of tunnels.
Read more | Download the report
Machine-learning decision-support tools for pavement asset management
Can artificial intelligence and machine learning help road managers to manage pavement assets? Austroads is funding a project that investigates this very question.
Ross Guppy, Austroads Transport Infrastructure Program Manager, says it’s a complex and difficult question to answer but one where the early results are looking promising.
This project aims to explore new use-cases for AI and/or ML, by providing decision-support to pavement asset managers. Decision-support means that rather than seeking to automate a process, we aim to develop software tools that help human experts make decisions, either by reducing the labour involved and/or providing additional insight to improve decisions and outcomes.
Updates to the Guide to Project Delivery focus on improving efficiencies and reducing costs
Austroads has updated parts 2 and 3 of the Guide to Project Delivery to improve efficiencies and reduce costs for transport agencies in the project delivery stage.
Informed by the feedback from practitioners and the review of international, national and local infrastructure projects, the updates enhance guidance about project planning and project controls providing most current industry best practice and techniques.
“Project delivery practices and concepts have progressed since these guides were originally published. The focus of this project was on assessing common challenges and reviewing new and emerging methodologies and how they can be applied to improve quality outputs and value for money for project delivery,” said Ross Guppy Austroads’ Transport Infrastructure Program Manager.
Download Guide to Project Delivery Part 2: Planning and Control
Download Guide to Project Delivery Part 3: Contract Management
Movement and Place Community of Practice event
The Department of Planning and Environment in partnership with Transport for NSW is hosting the first NSW Movement and Place Community of Practice.
Movement and Place is a cross-government framework for a ‘place-based’ approach to the planning, design and delivery of roads and streets across NSW. To support the implementation of Movement and Place, a bi-monthly Community of Practice has been established with the first event to be held on Friday 29 April 2022.
The event is a great opportunity to learn more about how Movement and Place can help plan for better community outcomes. Guest speakers will present on projects from across NSW and look at some practical applications of the NSW Movement and Place Framework.
The event can be attended in person or online by practitioners from all levels of government and by industry professionals who plan, design, deliver and manage public space and movement systems.
Date and time: 29 April 2022, 12-2 pm AEST
Event location: Parramatta Square Business & Events Centre – 12 Darcy Street, Parramatta
Register for in-person or online attendance
Visit the Movement and Place website
Join LinkedIn Discussion Group for Movement and Place practitioners in NSW
PIARC is calling for proposals for its social equity and social accessibility of transport systems special project
PIARC has established a Special Projects mechanism to enable it to respond to emerging issues and priorities identified by its members outside the usual four-year Technical Committee cycle. This year, PIARC Special project will cover the issue of social equity and social accessibility on the road sector.
The work to be conducted should address the notions of social equity (are all segments of the population served fairly) and social accessibility (are all geographic areas accessible to all who need it in an affordable way) applied to road infrastructure and road transport.
This research will seek to capture and analyse the current status quo in terms of how road authorities are currently managing accessibility of their road infrastructure, whilst implementing this in the most socially equitable manner possible. Through the analysis process, the research will identify significant observation and develop a best practice guideline based on these observations.
Deadline for submission of proposals has been extended to 6 May, 2022.
For more information, please visit the PIARC website.
Upcoming Austroads webinars
There is no charge for our webinars, but registration is essential. If you can’t make the live session, register and we will send you a link to the recording.
Use of Road-grade Recycled Plastics for Sustainable Asphalt Pavements Part 3: Performance Outcomes | Register
Thursday, 19 May 2022, 1 pm AEST
This 90-minute session is a continuation of a series of webinars about the use of recycled plastics in asphalt pavements. It will cover the results of the multi-faceted laboratory investigation on bitumen and asphalt modified with recycled plastics and provide a potential framework for introducing the use of recycled plastics into current policies and specifications.
Recent webinar recordings
Guide to Project Delivery Parts 2 and 3 Update
Perceptual Countermeasure Treatments to Reduce Crash Risks in Tunnels
Proposed Signage for Low and Zero Emission Vehicles and Associated Infrastructure
BITRE research
BITRE’s monthly bulletin contains current counts and summaries of road crash deaths and fatal road crashes in Australia. 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.
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.
Movement and Place Community of Practice, Sydney and online, 29 April 2022
IPWEA International Public Works Conference, Adelaide, 1-5 May 2022
ASCP Forum – Innovation, Sustainability, Low Carbon Concretes: How can we achieve in Pavement, 31 May 2022
MEGATRANS: Reimagining the supply chain, Melbourne, 24-26 August 2022
2022 Australasian Road Safety Conference (ARSC 2022), Ōtautahi Christchurch, New Zealand, 28-30 September 2022
Austroads Bridge Conference 2022, Adelaide, 15-18 November 2022
