Austroads: Transport Research and Trends

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, covers the new structure of AGRD Part 6 and new information included as part of the current guide update focusing on the following sections:

• Section 4: Treatment Options, including options for consideration for a number of relatively common hazards
• Section 5: Fundamentals of Safety Barrier Systems, including information to assist users to make informed decisions when selecting a barrier system for a particular site
• Section 6: Road Safety Barriers, including design process.

The webinar also provides details and the research background to a number of new concepts and processes that have been included in AGRD Part 6. These include barrier flexibility as a measure of their performance, the use of working width rather than deflection, the need to choose an appropriate containment level, the use of a new concept of the departure points of redirection, the placement of barriers behind kerbs, a revised method to calculate the length of need, the need to install barriers in appropriate soils and the orientation of barriers on superelevated roadways.

Road users are increasingly recognising the value of data for improved mobility and safety. Austroads Cloud Connected Road User (CCRU) project studied how agencies can support cloud-connected road users through data from portable and fixed in-vehicle devices to assist with trip planning, and warning and advice when travelling. The project examined various CCRU data provision methods and practices in the EU, USA, Australia, and New Zealand to provide agencies with guidance on how to manage, enhance, and deliver data to CCRUs.

This webinar, presented by Vibeke Matthews and David Yee, provides an overview of the various business models that may be used by agencies to support the CCRU ecosystem. It addresses the potential range of agency involvement across the key roles of CCRU data gatherer, data provider and data presenter that may be employed depending on the business model adopted for each data type.

The webinar also offers advice on how to manage the six key data function areas that are critical to supporting CCRUs. These include managing data foundations, governing data, planning and designing data, enabling and maintaining data, using data; and, if presenting data directly to road users, managing road user apps and websites. The outputs of this project will form the foundation of data support requirements for future CAVs.

This webinar, presented by Austroads Temporary Traffic Management Project Manager Chris Koniditsiotis and AITDSA Workstream Manager Gavin Hill, is an overview of the Austroads Innovative Temporary Traffic Management Device and Solution Assessment (AITDSA) scheme (commencing 1 July 2022).

AITDSA provides a way for innovative devices and solutions used for temporary traffic management to be assessed and recognised by Austroads members throughout Australia and New Zealand.

AITDSA responds to the emergence of new technologies, innovative solutions, and devices that can be used to improve safety at mobile and static work sites that perform a diverse range of functions, including:

• regulating traffic (i.e., to assign priority and indicate regulations in force)
• informing motorists of hazards or regulatory controls ahead
• warning of temporary hazards that could endanger motorists or workers and plant engaged in work on the road.

This webinar introduces Austroads new projects lined up for the 2022-23 financial year.

The session is most beneficial to consultants who may be interested in tendering for Austroads projects.

Upcoming projects focus on road network resilience, pavement design, movement and place, cycling and micromobility, future freight vehicles, road design, driver licensing, climate change risk assessment, automated and electric vehicle data exchange and provision.

Austroads Project APT6305 Use of Road-grade Recycled Plastics for Sustainable Asphalt Pavements is investigating the use of recycled plastics in asphalt. The project is almost completed with results to date provided in three published reports.

The first report examined the use of road-grade recycled plastics in asphalt pavements and investigated the most suitable types of recycled plastics for incorporation into asphalt.

The second report provided a comprehensive overview of the development of various testing frameworks for the characterisation of road-grade recycled plastic, the incorporation of recycled plastics in bitumen and asphalt and the study of possible emissions and microplastics release.

The third report, the most comprehensive so far, presents the results of the experimental investigation on recycled plastics in asphalt and bitumen by focusing on the asphalt and bitumen properties, microplastics and emissions.

This webinar presents the outcomes of the project to date and covers the results of the multi-faceted (i.e. performance and environmental testing) laboratory investigation on bitumen and asphalt modified with recycled plastics. The session provides details on a potential framework for introducing the use of recycled plastics into current policies and specifications.

Webinar presenters are Andrew Papacostas from Department of Transport Victoria, Associate Professor Filippo Giustozzi from RMIT University and his team, including Dr Marie Enfrin, Yeong Jia Boom, and Dr Dai Lu Xuan.

Two parts of the Austroads Guide to Project Delivery – Part 2: Planning and Control and Part 3: Contract Management – have been reviewed and updated to assist road-based infrastructure delivery units of transport agencies to improve efficiencies and reduce costs in the project delivery stage.

In this webinar Colin MacKay, Nigel Powers and Karen Cogo present the updated guides which focus on new industry best practice and techniques that have become available since the Guide to Project Delivery was published in 2014, including lean construction and digital engineering.

Road tunnels are major pieces of infrastructure across the road network, and the number of tunnels is expected to increase in the coming years. Although they are relatively safe, a significant number of crashes occur on the approaches to and within tunnels.

Austroads commissioned the University of New South Wales, Research Centre for Integrated Transport Innovation (rCITI) to investigate and evaluate the application of low-cost perceptual countermeasure (PCM) treatments in road tunnel environments as a means of improving driver speed behaviour, alertness and lane discipline, thereby reducing crash risk. The project involved two key research activities.

Research Activity 1 involved a systematic literature review and stakeholder consultation. Based on the outputs of these activities, three PCM treatments were selected for evaluation in a virtual reality driving simulator: Striped Wall Pattern; Rumble Strips (Edgeline and Centreline); and Pacemaker Lighting.

Research Activity 2 involved an experimental study conducted in the virtual reality driving simulator, located at rCITI. The virtual 3D environment for the driving simulator was based on the cross-sectional layout and alignments of the Sydney Harbour Tunnel. Driving performance data as well as subjective feedback from participants relating to their interaction with the PCM treatments were collected and analysed.

This webinar provides an overview of the two research activities and the key findings deriving from them. It is presented by Professor Michael Regan, Julius Secadiningrat, Dr. Prasannah Prabhakharan, and Mitchell Cunningham.

Austroads has published a report proposing a set of symbols for low and zero emission vehicles (LZEVs) and associated charging or refuelling infrastructure to be used on road signs and for road marking in Australia and New Zealand. The proposal forms a basis for testing and standardisation of the symbols (according to the Australian Standards) and their adoption in the Australian Road Rules and signage manuals.

The background of this work is that with the uptake of low and zero emission vehicles, consistent signage for electric-powered vehicle parking and charging is required. New Zealand has rolled out charging signage nationwide. However, in Australia there are currently no standardised low and zero emission vehicle symbols or signs.

This webinar, presented by Dr Robert Kochhan, Paul Hayes and Dr Clarissa Han, provides an overview of the report and the proposed symbols for the following five categories:

• Electric-powered vehicle
• Electric-powered vehicle being charged
• Charging station for electric-powered vehicles
• Hydrogen fuel-cell powered vehicle and associated refuelling infrastructure
• Access to lanes and roadways designated for electric-powered vehicles and hydrogen fuel-cell powered vehicles.

Physical road infrastructure such as pavement markings and signals may have an important role to play to support the uptake of automated vehicles (AVs). Austroads has recently completed a project to provide road agencies with clear advice on investing in physical infrastructure to support the operation of AVs.

This webinar, presented by Andrew Somers, Simon Xue and Elnaz Irannezhad, provides a detailed overview of the advice that addresses which infrastructure types should be prioritised for investment, as well as the timing and scale for that investment.

The advice has been developed against a backdrop of significant uncertainty around the future of AVs. These uncertainties include the year high-level AVs will become market-ready and the level of reliance of future AVs on physical infrastructures. To inform the development of the advice, the project first undertook an uptake forecast, an infrastructure assessment and economic analysis.

Having accounted for the various uncertainties of future AVs, the project has found the greatest return can be achieved by investments that will:

• support current lower capability AVs
• offer some advantages for human drivers
• be strategically relevant to future higher-level AVs.

This webinar, presented by Dr Negin Zhalehjoo, Andrew Papacostas and Dr Didier Bodin, focuses on the outcomes of an Austroads research project “Laboratory Fatigue Characterisation of Foamed Bitumen Stabilised (FBS) Materials”. The objective of this project was to develop a laboratory fatigue relationship to predict the performance of FBS materials to be used for future pavement design of FBS materials. Extensive laboratory experiments were undertaken during the project, including indirect tensile testing and flexural testing on laboratory prepared and cured FBS specimens.

The webinar covers the following key topics:

• A summary of the testing program and procedures to measure and analyse the fatigue life of FBS specimens.
• The results of indirect tensile testing and flexural testing to determine the modulus, strength, and fatigue characteristics of FBS materials.
• The development of a new laboratory fatigue relationship for FBS materials as well as the discussion on the potential link between the fatigue performance of the FBS mixes and the mix properties.
• The comparison between the fatigue life predictions from the Shell asphalt laboratory fatigue relationship against the predictions using the developed presumptive fatigue relationship in this project.