The 28th to 31st of January 2008 the Norwegian Public Roads Administration (NPRA) will arrange a winter conference – Winter days 2008. The conference is a cooperation between road authorities, contractors, equipment suppliers, research institutes and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). The conference will be held at Beitostølen, which is situated high up in the mountains in southern Norway. It will include seminars, exhibitions and demonstrations of winter maintenance equipment. The conference language will be Norwegian, and Nordic speaking specialists in winter maintenance are very welcome to participate in the conference. More information will follow in the next edition of Nordic Road and Transport Research.
Already in 1994 the development of the application LABSYS started within the Norwegian Public Roads Administration (NPRA). The purpose was to assure the quality of calculations and standardize the control data documentation from road construction.
Since then the solution has been the object of further development and improvement. Today LABSYS appears as a useful and user-friendly system with a modern web interface.
The program contains modules for asphalt, concrete, rock and geotechnics. Additionally it also includes modules for administration and for laboratory journals.
To provide suppliers the possibility of quick and simple exchange of control data with NPRA, the LABSYS web application is made accessible to external suppliers and contractors including the possibility of exchanging of analyses -– and receive data from spot tests and production control. NPRA has granted Ciber Norway the right to sell LABSYS web to NPRAs external partners. Ciber Norway is also responsible for maintaining the system.
LABSYS web gives the contractors and suppliers the possibility of running the system locally or using CiberIBER as an Application Software Provider.
Further development of the application is managed through a mutual agreement between Ciber Norway and NPRA, Technology Department, Directorate of Roads. In the near future new modules for inspection plan and adaptation to triaxial- and oedometer testing equipment will be developed.
Environmental Prize for the Danish Road Directorate
In Nordic no 1/2006, The Danish Road Directorate wrote the article “Soil Stabilisation with Lime for Road Construction”. Road construction on weak soils with poor bearing capacity is in Denmark normally solved by excavation and replacement with better quality materials. This results in subbase layers with rather large thicknesses and total pavement thickness above the subgrade up to 110–120 cm.
When stabilising wet clayey soils with pulverized quicklime it is possible to obtain a considerable increase in the bearing capacity. Thus, the total pavement thickness can be reduced considerably.
The saving of raw materials is obtained by a reduction of the thickness of the frost protection layer, so that smaller amounts of sand and gravel are used. The total environmental load is reduced, as the requirement for excavation and transportation of materials is lowered. Thus, there is a reduction in CO2 emissions and wear on the roads due to heavy truck traffic.
This has now resulted in the fact that the Nordic Road Federation has awarded an environmental prize to the Danish Road Directorate on the grounds that the use of soil stabilisation with lime gives a considerably lower environmental load and society obtains a higher standard road at lower cost. The positive results of the project have also led to the inclusion of lime-stabilisation as a standard tool for future projects and certainly also are of interest for road projects other than those carried out by the Danish Road Directorate.
The Swedish Vehicle and Traffic Safety Research is Saving Thousands of Lives
In the last fifty years, Sweden has staked a great deal of research into vehicle and traffic safety. VTI is one of the research environments that have received most of the funding. The venture has saved both thousands of lives and many billions according to a new report from VINNOVA (Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems). The result shows that Sweden, thanks to research, saves 481 lives a year, which corresponds to some SEK 8.4 billion.
Traffic accidents are an enormous problem for society. Only in Sweden, traffic accidents cost society some SEK 30 billion a year (2005). At the same time, Sweden is today one of the world's leading countries when it comes to vehicle and traffic safety. Sweden has reduced the number of deaths in traffic accidents from 1,307 a year in 1970 to 440 a year in 2005, while the amount of traffic has more than doubled over the period.
In case studies the VINNOVA report examines the effects of five important research areas: speed curbing measures in towns or built up areas, improved safety for children in cars, better protection against neck injuries in new cars, side collision protection and more effective police surveillance. In total, public financing totalled SEK 440 million in 1974–2004. This is to be compared with net benefits of around SEK 20 billion which the above-named research areas are calculated to have contributed.
The Swedish vehicle and traffic safety research has been analysed by the Transportøkonomisk institutt (TØI) (Institute of Transport Economics) and the independant Møreforskning Molde (MFM) research institute in Norway.
The complete report, written in Norwegian, can be found on Vinnova.
Road Safety on Four Continents
Together with the Ministry of Transport, Thailand, VTI will organize the 14th International Conference on Road Safety to be held in Bangkok, Thailand, on 14-16 November 2007.
The conference is organized by active support of GRSP (Global Road Safety Partnership), FERSI (Forum of European Road Safety Research Institutes), TRB (Transportation Research Board) and ECTRI (European Conference of Transport Research Institutes). The host organization in Thailand includes the Transport Safety Planning Bureau in the Office of Transport and Traffic Policy and Planning (OTP).
The main objective of the conference is to explore emerging research and developments in the area of road safety. Special emphasis will be towards the application of research and to involve developing countries and countries in transition both as presenters and as delegates. A principle theme is the pros and cons of applied research done in the north to problems in the south.
The conference will include technical sessions with oral paper presentations by keynote speakers and authors, and poster sessions. Some keynote speakers have been invited to deliver keynote speeches and the preliminary programme includes Margie Peden (WHO), Hans-Joachim Vollpracht (World Road Association), Alexander Roehrl (UN) and representatives of organizations like OECD, ECTRI, GRSP, Shell Company and others. The conference is expected to be a true global event in road safety where experts will meet to exchange experiences and findings in the area.
Registration is now open and can be made, before November 1st 2007, on the web site. On the web site you can also find the preliminary programme and other information.
Contact: Kent Gustafson, chairman of the organizing committee.
