Austroads: Transport Research and Trends

This project involved the development of a guideline for bridge owners on managing the risk of bridge flooding, scour and resilience due to floods and an update to the Austroads Guide to Bridge Technology Part 8: Hydraulic Design of Waterway Structures (AGBT08) .

The guideline provides a framework for managing risks to bridge infrastructure caused by floods, focusing on improving resilience, operational performance safety. It aims to equip engineers, asset managers, and decision-makers with strategies to address flood-related challenges, particularly those associated with scour and structural vulnerability. The guideline highlights proactive measures such as pre-flood inspections, prioritising critical bridges, and real-time monitoring during floods. Post-flood recovery focuses on condition assessments, load testing, and criteria for safe reopening.

AGBT08 was updated to incorporate updated design related knowledge and guidance on hydrology and hydraulics in alignment with Australian Rainfall and Runoff 2019.

Extreme weather events including torrential rain, flooding, landslides, heat waves and bushfires, as well as longer term changes such as increasing temperatures and sea level rise, take a dramatic toll on our transport infrastructure and the functioning of our road infrastructure networks.

This webinar introduced the findings of the Austroads research project ESC6516 Research Climate Change and Natural Hazards Resilience Needs and Guidance Approaches. The project considered resilience across the full transport system lifecycle – Policy, Strategy and Planning, Business Case & Investment, Design and Construction, Network Operations, Maintenance and Renewals, and Monitoring and Evaluation.

Through stakeholder consultation and a global literature review, the report sets out a series of recommendations for the strategic development of Austroads guidance to holistically improve the resilience of the land transport system to climate change and natural hazards (CCNH).

The webinar shared the projects recommendations on:

• the definition of a resilient transport system
• foundational gaps to achieving transport system resilience
• the model and roadmap for Austroads’ guidance development to address these gaps.

Whether you’re new to CCNH resilience or working to embed it within any part of the transport system lifecycle, this webinar will help you understand how Austroads approach to guidance development will support the development of a resilient transport system.

Austroads Guide to Pavement Technology Part 2: Pavement Structural Design is the primary reference for designing new sealed road pavements in Australia and New Zealand and has recently been updated. Since its last major update in 2017, Austroads has completed several research projects. The latest edition of Part 2 incorporates new research findings and provides a general update.

This Austroads project has investigated methods for engineers to design more efficient and cost-effective road rehabilitation treatments by estimating the remaining fatigue life of existing asphalt.

Current design practice assumes existing asphalt layers have no remaining life, even when uncracked. Lower rehabilitation costs will result if design methods are improved to utilise the remaining life of existing uncracked asphalt.

In this webinar, the presenters:

• outline the outcomes of the project, including field and laboratory investigations on the Western Freeway in Victoria
• discuss the methods tested to estimate the remaining fatigue life of asphalt
• present the new framework for rehabilitation design to validate with future research.

This approach supports more targeted treatments, improved road performance, and long-term savings. The session is relevant for pavement engineers, asset managers, designers, and those involved in planning and delivering road rehabilitation programs.

The Austroads Guide to Pavement Technology provides informative guidance on different pavement types and the optimal conditions they are suited to throughout Australia and New Zealand. In addition, the Guide provides in-depth analysis and technical advice on the construction, maintenance, and performance of road pavement surfaces.

A project has been conducted to update the following Guides to achieve consistency with the various other parts of the Guide and other Austroads publications, such as Austroads Test Methods and Work Tips, that have been subject to changes in their most recent editions. These parts provide informative guidance regarding pavement technology, selection of pavement surfacing and an overview of the criteria by which pavement materials are used:

• Guide to Pavement Technology Part 1: Introduction to Pavement Technology
• Guide to Pavement Technology Part 3: Pavement Surfacings
• Guide to Pavement Technology Part 4: Pavement Materials

This webinar described the review process and stakeholder consultations undertaken to update the Guides, and discussed the major changes that have been made to the Guides. This update process ensures the Guides are maintained as a relevant and contemporary source of knowledge, which provide quality information and guidance to all those working with pavements across Australia and New Zealand.

The Austroads Guide to Pavement Technology Part 4B: Asphalt provides comprehensive guidance for the selection of constituent materials, mix design, testing, manufacture and placement of commonly used asphalt mix types in Australia and New Zealand. The Guide was first published by Austroads in 2007, followed by a major revision in 2014. The most recent edition presented in this webinar captures the major advancements in asphalt technology over the past decade. 

This webinar goes through the major changes to the Guide, including any new content not previously included in Part 4B: Asphalt. It will be especially relevant to anyone involved in the asphalt industry, including designers, road managers, asphalt suppliers and contractors.

How are Australians walking and cycling in 2025? The National Walking and Cycling Participation Survey is Australia’s most comprehensive source of data on how people move through their communities. Conducted every two years since 2011 and commissioned by Cycling and Walking Australia and New Zealand (CWANZ), the 2025 survey was delivered by Painted Dog Research and captures a nationally representative view of walking, cycling, and emerging micromobility behaviours.

This year’s study engaged over 12,000 Australians through a dual-mode approach (online and phone) and included several methodological enhancements. It sheds light on how often people walk or cycle, for what purposes, and how this is evolving - including increased use of e-bikes, e-scooters, and other rideables.

In this webinar, the Painted Dog team walks through the key findings from the 2025 survey across Australia and each state/territory.

Calvin Lim from Painted Dog Research presents the results from the research, alongside representatives from CWANZ. The session also includes a Q&A Panel discussion featuring Michelle Prior, Chair of CWANZ, Kirsty Kelly, CEO of Transport Professionals Association and Dr Ingrid Johnston, CEO of Australasian College of Road Safety.

As transport systems grow more complex and interconnected, the ability to manage both planned and unplanned Intelligent Transport System (ITS) outages is essential to keeping people and goods moving safely. This webinar presents findings from an Austroads project focused on strengthening the resilience of Transport Management Centres (TMCs) in the face of ITS disruptions.

The research involved consultation with transport agencies across Australia and New Zealand, and a review of local and international practices. Drawing on operational insights, shared challenges, and real-world examples, the project developed the TMC Response to ITS Outages Framework, which is a practical tool to support structured planning, response, and recovery for ITS disruptions.

This session covers:

• key themes from agency consultation and operational research
• real-world case studies highlighting how agencies have responded to ITS outages
• the Framework and its components, from business continuity to recovery
• how it supports readiness for both planned (e.g. maintenance) and unplanned (e.g. system failure, cyberattack) outages
• tools including risk matrices, training approaches, and standards alignment.

This webinar is relevant for a range of road/transport agency staff, including TMC managers and operators, ITS and IT managers, along with resilience planners and those involved in responding to ITS outages.

Austroads' Bridge Assessment Guideline: Heavy Vehicles emphasises risk-informed decision-making for the asset management of road bridges and the management of heavy vehicle access. The emphasis on decision-making, rather than focussing only on the calculation of rating factors or assessment ratios, reflects the multitude of considerations faced by road agencies when making decisions concerning bridges.

The Guideline provides assessors and road agencies with a framework to reduce conservatism in the assessment of road bridges for heavy vehicle access, particularly for bridges that do not meet the requirements of AS 5100:2017 or the NZ bridge manual. Where assessments indicate unsatisfactory performance despite in-field evidence to the contrary, the Guideline offers bridge-specific advice for explaining the plausibility check prescribed in ISO 13822:2010 consistent with fundamental engineering principles.

In line with its focus on heavy vehicles, the Guideline provides advice and techniques for managing access by these vehicles over bridges. It distinguishes between bridge assessment, which is focused on structural performance, and heavy vehicle access management as related but distinct activities.

The webinar outlined the decision making framework as well as provided an overview of the Guideline’s contents.

The Austroads Bridge Awards celebrate outstanding achievement in bridge design, management and delivery across Australia and New Zealand. Recognising innovation, technical excellence and collaboration, the Awards highlight projects that address complex engineering challenges while contributing to safer, stronger and more connected communities.

This was the first of two webinars showcasing the 2025 Award winners. Presenters shared insights into the design, delivery and outcomes of their projects and answered audience questions.

This session covered:

• Excellence in Sustainability – Victoria Bridge Refurbishment QLD, submitted by Arup, Brisbane City Council, Nick Stevens Consulting, ACCIONA and Freyssinet Australia
• Excellence in Innovation – Kangaroo Point Bridge, submitted by BESIX Watpac and Brisbane City Council
• Excellence in Asset Management and Maintenance – Manganuku Bridge Strengthening, submitted by Beca, NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi, Contech, Optimech International Ltd and Eastbridge Ltd.