Austroads: Transport Research and Trends

Supplements have provided important additional guidance to the Austroads Guide to Road Design (Guide). But there are questions about their use. Are these supplements needed? What should they contain? Should the information in the agency supplements be included in the Guide? These questions were addressed in a recently completed Austroads project that undertook a detailed review of jurisdictional supplements to the Guide.

This webinar describes the classification of material in the jurisdictional supplements to establish guidance that could be moved into the Guide.

The sessions focuses on a cross-jurisdictional platform for managing supplements within a jurisdiction and moving information from supplements to the Guide. The platform was developed with the input from the Project Control Group and the Road Design Task Force represented by Australian and New Zealand road agencies, and the Australian Local Government Association.

The platform uses a ‘push-pull” approach where Austroads looks to ‘pull’ information from the supplements, and the road agencies look for a means to ‘push’ information into the Guide. This approach aims to assist in minimising supplement content and harmonising material in the Guide.

The webinar was presented by Dr Rod Troutbeck, Dr Hafez Alavi, Mark Lenske and Phil Rosser.

The Design Vehicles and Turning Path Templates Guide has been restructured as part of the update of the Guide to Road Design Part 4. This webinar, presented by Noel O’Callaghan and Malcolm Mak, is the fourth session in a four-part series to provide an overview of the update.

The session focuses on new guidance added to the Design Vehicles and Turning Path Templates Guide covering design vehicles versus checking vehicles, performance-based standards, clearances between swept paths, software parameters and a new design vehicle for a passenger vehicle towing a trailer.

Austroads’ recent project has updated the Guide to Road Design (AGRD) Part 4 series. This webinar is the third in a four-part series to provide an overview of the project, including the aim, research background, methodology and outcomes.

This session, presented by Noel O’Callaghan and Malcolm Mak, explains how to implement the changes in AGRD parts 4B and 4C, including mini and radial roundabouts, cyclist treatments, ramp cross section, entry and exit ramps, sight distance, grade separated intersections.

In this episode, Dr Tana Tan and Dr Mario Mongiardini are joined by Jason MacPherson (who moderates the live Q+A) to provide a detailed overview of the findings of Austroads' recent research report, Motorcycle Rider Perceptive Countermeasures. 

Listen, subscribe and head to the Austroads website to find out about how you can register to come to one of our webinars live. Registration is free. 

Austroads’ recent project has updated the Guide to Road Design (AGRD) Part 4 series. This webinar is the second in a four-part series to provide an overview of the project, including the aim, research background, methodology and outcomes.

This session explains how to implement the changes in the AGRD parts 4 and 4A, including pedestrian and railway crossings, horizontal alignment, sight distance, auxiliary lanes, truck acceleration lanes, right turn and left turn treatments.

The webinar is presented by Noel O’Callaghan and Malcolm Mak.

Austroads’ recent project has updated the Guide to Road Design (AGRD) Part 4 series. This webinar is the first in a four-part series to provide an overview of the project, including the aim, research background, methodology and outcomes.

The session outlines the new concepts and content that have been included in AGRD parts 4, 4A, 4B, 4C and the Austroads Design Vehicles and Turning Path Templates Guide.

The webinar is presented by Noel O’Callaghan and Malcolm Mak.

This webinar is beneficial to consultants who may be interested in tendering for Austroads projects. The session covers new Austroads projects lined up for the 2023-24 financial year, Austroads process around research data collection and what is required to become a successful tenderer.

To find information about Austroads' current tenders, visit the tenders webpage. On that page, you can also subscribe to our Tenders newsletter to receive alerts when a new project is advertised.

In response to feedback provided by industry and stakeholders, Austroads has reviewed its Guide to Road Design Part 5: Drainage – General and Hydrology Considerations.

The improved guidance responds to the implications for road authority and consulting engineering practices arising from the 2019 update of the Australian Rainfall and Runoff document.

This is the second webinar in a two-webinar series, and it covers the improvements made to the Regional Flood Frequency Estimation (RFFE) method.

The following is discussed in the session:

• Background to the RFFE method
• Recent improvements to the RFFE method
• Worked examples
• Limitations of RFFE and how to assess the quality of the answers produced

The webinar is presented by WMAwater’s Managing Director Mark Babister and William Weeks, currently a private consultant and former Director - Hydraulics and Flooding for the Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads.

In response to feedback provided by industry and stakeholders, Austroads has reviewed its Guide to Road Design Part 5: Drainage – General and Hydrology Considerations.

The improved guidance responds to the implications for road authority and consulting engineering practices arising from the 2019 update of the Australian Rainfall and Runoff document.

This webinar is the first in a two-webinar series and it provides an update on the changes to the Austroads Guide to Road Design Part 5. The session focuses on Section 6 and covers the other changes. The following is covered in the session:

• Change in terminology – from average recurrence interval (ARI) to annual exceedance probability (AEP)
• Why Rational Method is no longer suitable for most cross-drainage applications
• What Rational Method is suited for (primarily longitudinal road drainage)
• An introduction to alternative flow estimation techniques (incl. regional flood frequency estimation (RFFE))
• Rare and extreme events
• Flood impacts/tunnel portals
• Safety in design
• Joint probability and uncertainty

The webinar is presented by WMAwater’s Managing Director Mark Babister and William Weeks, currently a private consultant and former Director – Hydraulics and Flooding for the Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads.

Austroads has updated the Guide to Road Design Part 6: Roadside Design, Safety and Barriers (AGRD Part 6) introducing new sections on the fundamentals of safety barrier systems and design advice for other road safety devices.

This webinar, presented by Dr Rod Troutbeck and Richard Fanning, focuses on the updated Section 6 providing an overview of the process to design the installation of a safety barrier.

The session describes the actions for defining the context of the installation including choosing an appropriate containment level. It also outlines the preliminary design tasks of selecting a barrier and defining its lateral and longitudinal position.

The aspects of detailed design are also described, including the installation refinements, selecting the appropriate terminal or transition and the structural design of a proposed barrier. Finally, the webinar briefly describes the documentation of the design.