Austroads: Transport Research and Trends

For decades, Austroads Guide to Road Design (AGRD) has served as a critical resource for practitioners involved in road planning, design and engineering. Austroads recently completed a strategic review of road design guidance, identifying strategies to sustainably maintain the AGRD as the pre-eminent road design guide in Australia and New Zealand.

Through an online survey and face-to-face interviews, the project team identified opinions and possible strategic actions from users of the AGRD, stakeholders in road design practice and international experts. This webinar describes what the review learned, and the nature of actions proposed to realise identified opportunities.

Webinar presenters, Andrew Somers and Dr Rod Troutbeck, report on the findings of the engagement with the AGRD’s users and non-users. Provided feedback identified that road design must be context-sensitive and Austroads’ road design guidance needs to cover the range of contexts and the application of judgement is a critical part of context-sensitive designs and solutions.

The presenters also explore how changes to structure and content might allow the AGRD to:

• better cover urban environments
• integrate guidance for planning and design
• more effectively promote context-sensitive design practices
• establish clearer links to supporting evidence.