NEWSLETTER N°99
September 2021

In addition to our World Congresses (World Road Congresses and World Winter Service and Road Resilience Congresses) which are held every four years, PIARC brings together international experts on a regular basis in seminars and workshops to help the Association's members achieve their goals and identify best practices.

Most of the events that we have planned over the next months will take place online, but they are organised in coordination with partner countries. We are very thankful to them. For example, PIARC organises a seminar on climate change adaptation and resilience of road networks (in low- and middle-income countries) in November, together with the Uganda National Roads authority. This is a very topical issue, as we all know. [...]

>> Read more

Ready? A new series of PIARC events has already started! 

PIARC is organizing numerous international events to share knowledge on roads and road transport at the international level over the coming months. 

Some of the upcoming events and seminars in October 2021 are:

• Virtual International Seminar "New Energy Carriers in Road Tunnels" – 20-21 October 
• PIARC International Seminar "Environmental Sustainability of Road Transport: Air Pollution, Noise and Relationship with Energy Transition and Climate Change" – 20-22 October 
• PIARC International Seminar "Bridge management" – 20-22 October 
• PIARC International workshop "Connected and Autonomous Vehicles, a Pathway towards a Safer Future" – 27-28 October 

>> Find them all here

Are you an expert in road tunnels? You still have time to submit your 300-word abstract. Deadline until 10 October 2021! 

PIARC and the Spanish National Committee (ATC) will jointly organize the 2nd International Conference on Road Tunnel Operations and Safety and the 8th Spanish Symposium in Granada (Spain), October 25-28, 2022. Nearly 1,000 road tunnel professionals from around the world are expected to attend and generate a global debate on the subject.

We encourage you to participate by submitting your 300-word abstracts in English, French or Spanish. The deadline is now extended until October 10!

>> Read more and submit your abstract!

Continue learning with PIARC! Two successful online seminars took place in September 

September 2021

• An international seminar on the “Use of recycled materials in pavements” was organised together with the Argentine Roads Association. It took place virtually from September 20th to 22nd with over 1.600 registered participants. More than 15 experts from around the world presented various experiences, with different cases studies, on the reuse of recycled materials in pavements.
• A virtual workshop was held on September 23 from Lisbon to deepen the understanding of "Road related data and how to use it". The event addressed the new, future and emerging data collection and analysis methods used worldwide and explored, the different scenarios and business models which are being or can be adopted by road administrations. It was a great success with almost 300 participants, joining the event from 70 different countries.

>> Access the proceedings of the PIARC seminars. Many more coming soon!

PIARC extends the collaboration with two of its partners 

PIARC and TRB (USA’s Transportation Research Board) decided to renew their partnership. We have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to reinforce and continue the fruitful collaboration on July 2021. Within the framework of the partnership, several webinars have been organised, and more are planned.

Also, another Memorandum of Understanding has been renewed between PIARC and NVF - Nordisk Vejforum. It’s aim is to promote the cooperation between the two associations in undertaking their respective tasks, sharing their experiences, knowledge and results.

>>Find out more about PIARC Partnerships

The Austrian PIARC National Committee launches new guidelines for Planning, Construction, and Maintenance of Roads 

The Austrian Research Association for Roads, Railways and Transport (FSV), PIARC’s Austrian National Committee, continues developing guidelines, providing for state-of-the-art planning, construction, and maintenance of roads. The latest studies focus on:

• Tunnel lighting 
• Tunnel equipment 
• Health and Safety on Tunnel Sites 
• Earthworks 
• Corrosion Protection 

>> Check them out here, some of them are also available in English

Road Conference 2021, in Slovakia 

29 – 30 June 2021, Bratislava (Slovakia)

This event was organised by the Slovak Road Association, PIARC’s Slovak National Committee. The conference counted with the participation of the Minister of Transport and Construction, Mr. Andrej Doležal and the contributions from ministry delegates, construction organizations and road infrastructure.

Almost 200 experts from Slovakia and the Czech Republic participated in the event. PIARC President, Claude Van Rooten, also presented PIARC's objectives and achievements, which was met with great interest.

>> More information about PIARC’s Slovak National Committee

Routes/Roads Magazine 389 

Routes/Roads 389, published in early July 2021, addresses the important issue of road network resilience and how it should be taken into account in infrastructure design. The subject is addressed through a wide range of examples from various fields of road engineering: design and management of the networks themselves, bridges, tunnels, geotechnics, from countries with very different climatic and geographical conditions. 

>> Read it here

Improving Road Tunnel Resilience, Considering Safety and Availability - PIARC Literature Review 

“The ability to prepare and plan for, absorb, recover from, or more successfully adapt to actual or potential negative effects of events or developments affecting the availability of a road tunnel. In this context, an acceptable safety level is a mandatory constraint for the availability of the road tunnel”. This is the definition for resilience in the context of tunnels that the Working Group chose. Topics such as [...]

>> Read it here

General Concept and Requirements for Asset Management Training Courses 

The most important target group for Asset Management education are senior and project management level staff. However, Asset Management has also become more and more interesting to people who are not working in road authorities and who are not directly concerned with the management of road infrastructure. During the cycle 2016-2019, members of WG D.1.2 created [...]

>>Read it here