International Highway Research

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International Highway Research

• Akram Ahmedi
• Head of International Group
• TRL Crowthorne, England

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Infrastructure
Anti-Skid
Surface Binder Courses
Base
Sub-Base
Capping
Capping
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FEHRL 1989 2006 Formed as the Forum of
European National Highway Research Laboratories.

• 17 years as the European Centre of Excellence
  in Road Research
• Currently 29 institutes all with a public
  service orientation.
• Engaged in research topics including road
  safety, materials, environmental issues,
  telematics and economic evaluation.
• Research capacity is provided by the national
  institutes

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Members of FEHRL
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National Institutes of FEHRL
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Reflecting Europes Road Needs
Research on road transport needs to reflect
national and regional differences
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• Through research collaboration, the objectives of
  FEHRL are
• To provide scientific input to European policy on
  highway engineering and road transport matters.
• To create and maintain an efficient and safe road
  network in Europe.
• To increase innovation in European road
  construction and road-using industries.
• To improve the energy efficiency of highway
  engineering and operations
• To protect the environment and improve quality of
  life.

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Strategic European Road Research Programme(SERRP)

• Road transport - the dominant mode of transport
  for goods and people in Europe for the
  foreseeable future.
• However, the influence of road transport on
  society and the environment is not totally
  beneficial.
• As a result, considerable work is needed to
  achieve a situation where road transport can meet
  societal needs without undue negative impact.
• At FEHRL, these considerations resulted in the
  Development of a rolling series of Strategic
  European Road Research Programmes

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Strategic European Road Research Programme(SERRP)

• These are operated on a five-year timeframe with
  a specific research agenda formulated for each
  period
• Currently, FEHRL is on the third Strategic
  European Road Research Programme (SERRP III) that
  sets out the road research needs for the years
  2002 2006.
• Research on every and all aspects of Road
  Infrastructure

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SERRP themes
PROJECT CASES
FORMAT
SAMARIS
N
INTRO
NR2C
TREE
SilVia
IMPLEMENTATION
DI SSEMINAT ION
Environment, Energy Resources
Safety Security
Mobility, Transport Infrastructure
Design Production
CLUSTERING
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• FEHRL projects
• Coordination of European Research for Advanced
  Transport Noise Mitigation (CALM)
• Setting up the agenda for future transport noise
  research and development. CALM II brings together
  the leading stakeholders from road, rail,
  aeronautic and maritime transport as well as
  health and socio-economic issues

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FEHRL projects Intelligent Route Guidance for
Heavy Vehicles (HEAVYROUTE) The project
will develop an advanced route guidance system
for HGVs as a tool for deriving the safest and
the most cost effective routes for road freight
transports through Europe. The guidance system
will take into account road user, vehicle
operating and environmental costs as well as
maintenance costs for the road owner/manager due
to deterioration of roads and bridges.
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FEHRL projects Information Network on Quiet
European Road Surface Technology (INQUEST) The
project will coordinate communication and
dissemination of past and present research
pertaining to guidance on the use of low-noise
technologies for road surfaces to European
countries with less access and experience in
applying knowledge in that field
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FEHRL projects

• INTRO
• INTRO aims to address the problems of road
  safety and capacity combining sensing
  technologies and local databases with real-time
  networking technologies.

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Skid Resistance
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Fires in tunnels
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Reinforced Soils / Embankments
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Low-cost surfacingsSouth East Asia
Community Access Project(SEACAP)- (AFCAP)
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Small structures
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Segregation of road users

• For efficiency
• safety
• Bus priority measures
• Cycle lanes
• Pedestrian footpaths

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Labour-based technology
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Asset Management / Maintenance
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Problems we face ?

• Maintenance Expenditure
• In many developing and emerging countries, actual
  expenditure on road preservation and maintenance
  is 25 of need

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Impact of Inappropriate Expenditure

• Every not spent on maintenance increases
  transport costs by 4

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Inadequate Maintenance
Increased road accidents, which account for a
LOSS of between 1 - 3 of GDP
High import and foreign exchange costs for
transport fuels, replacement vehicles and spare
parts
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Funding

• General revenue
• Tolls
• Shadow charges (the UK model)
• Road Funds (a favoured World Bank model)

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Optimising Total Costs
Total
Optimum
Road User
Cost
Road Works
Design Standards
Low
High
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HDM-4
Developed in Brazil India
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HAPMS Trunk Road Network - England

• NETWORK
• 8,500 km of strategic roads
• 2 of total road network
• TRAFFIC
• 30 of cars
• gt50 of heavy goods vehicles
• 150 billion veh.km
• ASSET VALUE
• 130 Billion
• Budget
• Total gt 7 billion
• Maintenance 1.4 billion

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HAPMS Overview
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Congestion Traffic Management

• Managing traffic flows and capacity
• Investigate causes of traffic flow break down
  (shock waves)
• Converting hard shoulders into extra lane
• Developed computer controlled traffic lights for
  city centres
• Developed mini-roundabout and off-side priority
  for roundabouts

TRL traffic management software used around
the world to alleviate congestion
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Investigations Risk Management

• Accident Investigation
• Rapid Response Units
• scan crash in 5 minutes, allowing roads to be
  reopened quickly

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Vehicle Safety

• Crash testing
• investigated the causes and consequences of
  accidents
• developed computer models of human injury

Vehicle test methods used throughout the world
to ensure future vehicles are safer for all
road users
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Safety

• Driver behaviour
• Investigated relationship between blood alcohol
  and risk of accidents
• Investigated relationship between speed and risk
  of accidents

Research drives government policy on speed
and drink driving Drink drive deaths reduced
(from 1,600/year to less than 500/year)
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Light rapid transit

• Sharing road space?
• Limited capacity of at-grade design
• Capacity can be increased through priority
  measures and segregation between junctions

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Structures

• New Structures designs
• New Materials
• Applications for new material in new bridges

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Infrastructure

• Bridge strengthening
• 40,000 masonry bridges retained on road network,
  able to take 40 tonne lorries
• designed and tested methods of strengthening
  masonry bridges

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Motorway overpasses
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New Innovative Bridges
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Roads of the FutureSERRP IV2007-2011
Smart Road
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Innovation and urban roads
M A K E - U P O F U R B A N R O A D W A Y S
Horizontal
GEOMETRICAL
DIMENSION
Vertical
TEMPORAL DIMENSION
Multi
Water
Noise today
ENVIRONMENTAL
Vibration tomorrow
DIMENSION
Recycling
by-products
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Low-noise pavements
Resilient wearing courses
Thin or very thin asphalt mixes

• Reduced thickness
• Gradation 0/6.3 gap graded 2/4
• Low sand content 20 to 30 passing 2mm
• High porosity 15 to 20 voids
• additives porous aggregates, rubber
• Mechanical strength polymer-modified binders

Resonant courses euphonic and ecotechnic
composite multilayer
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Urban road water catchment
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Air cleaning pollution abatement systems

• Passive systems such as plaster with titanium
  dioxide photocatalyst laid over a noise barrier
• Partially passive systems such as vacuum cleaners
  connected to a filtering vegetal bed
• Active systems such as vacuum cleaners equipped
  with high potential catalyst installed in tunnel
  or U (including artificial type) section.

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Air pollution control
Polluted air inlet
Cleaned air outlet
Catalyser
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Thank you for your attention

• Akram Ahmedi
• TRL
• Crowthorne, Wokingham
• England, UK
• ? mahmedi_at_trl.co.uk
• ? 44 (0)1344 770000