Austroads: Transport Research and Trends

The National Walking and Cycling Participation Survey is a survey of the Australian community to understand their participation in walking and cycling. The survey has been run every two years since 2011.

Until 2019 the survey was managed by Austroads. In 2021, Cycling and Walking Australia and New Zealand (CWANZ) took over the coordination of the survey, adding walking to get a baseline on the level of participation for walking across Australia.

In this webinar, CWANZ presented the 2023 National Walking and Cycling Participation Survey, covered its methodology and provided a high-level overview of the results. Presenters also spoke about how the data is used in different states.

Speakers were Cameron Munro, CDM Research, Fiona Goodbody, Department of Transport, Western Australia and Dr Tepi Mclaughlin from University of Western Australia.

Austroads has completed a project to replace the obsolete gyratory compactors used in design and quality control testing of asphalt mixes and update its Guide to Pavement Technology Part 4B: Asphalt.

Austroads asphalt mix design procedure currently relies on Gyropac compaction for volumetric mix design. The discontinuation of the Gyropac compactor has resulted in a significant gap in the Austroads asphalt mix design procedure and created a need for a replacement.

The Austroads Asphalt Research Technical Group has identified the Superpave™ gyratory compactor as the most likely replacement for this gap.

The project team undertook a comprehensive literature review and testing of asphalt mixes to understand the relationship between compaction in Gyropac, Servopac (setup to AS/NZS) and Superpave™ gyratory compactors to allow the adoption of the Superpave™ standard gyratory settings in the Austroads mix design procedure.

This webinar, presented by Dr Bevan Sullivan and Sean Dorahy, provided a detailed overview of the project, including the findings of the literature review and test data. There were question and answer opportunities during the session.

Austroads has completed its update of Section 3: Inspection, Testing, Monitoring and Reporting of the Guide to Bridge Technology Part 7: Maintenance and Management of Existing Bridges.

The project involved taking a fresh look at the inspection process to provide a flexible framework from which users of the Guide can develop and improve their own inspection processes.

The project team undertook an assessment of Australian and New Zealand jurisdictions, as well as some international organisations. The assessment included reviewing the processes and practices and the uses of inspection data collected at each inspection level. This was followed up with a workshop with each individual jurisdiction.

Practices varied across the jurisdictions from basic to advanced levels in terms of programming, data collection, and inspection processes. Similar observations were also made of the international practices assessed. The current practices were also assessed against the existing documentation to quantify gaps within the existing documentation.

With the current range of complexities in systems, data requirements and processes, coupled with the intention of some jurisdictions to change existing practices, it was concluded that a flexible approach is needed within the revised inspection framework to enable varying jurisdictional needs to be accommodated. The fundamentals such as defining inspection types, components and component numbering are documented as a single approach, whilst for other sections, a risk-based framework will be adopted to allow flexibility, such as in assigning inspection timings.

Key updates to the Guide include:

• Condition rating vs defect mapping, allowing flexibility to adopt positions between the two processes.
• Standardisation of bridge and culvert definition.
• A ‘Rosetta stone’ of bridge componentisation, describing the nuances of the different jurisdictions.
• Standardisation of component rating descriptors.
• Reaffirming and refining inspection levels and inspection frequencies.
• Audit, quality control and inspector training.

The webinar will be presented by Andy Ng and Paul Cannons.

This webinar presents the work involved in developing a standardised comparative risk assessment method for assessing life safety risk of dangerous goods being routed through the tunnel or via an alternative surface route. The project was conceived to focus on new road tunnel projects, but the methodology developed could also be used for comparative assessment of alternative surface routes.

Dangerous goods are a wide variety of substances and objects that pose acute risks to people, property, and the environment due to their chemical or physical characteristics. The transport by road of such goods is necessary to achieve broad societal benefits, yet such transport has inherent risk of significant events adversely affecting people (road users, adjacent populations, and responders) and the environment.

The webinar describes the proposed methodology as well as providing a case study application of the methodology to aid practitioners. The session provides a summary of the legal context for undertaking such assessments and the responsibilities that lie with the various stakeholder parties. The authors also present the broader context in which the life safety assessment results should be considered and the other decision-making factors that should be applied.

The webinar is presented by Dr Conrad Stacey and Nigel Casey.

This webinar is hosted with the Digital Atlas of Australia Team and Geoscience Australia. In this session we explore how the Digital Atlas is transforming the way we access and use location data. The team discusses the National Roads dataset – a comprehensive dataset on Australia’s roads, now freely accessible to the public.

The team also talks about the value and insights driven by integrating a national, reliable view of Australia's road networks with other trusted location data.

Over the last decade there has been a trend by a number of governments to invest more heavily in transport infrastructure and systems, and to accelerate programs of work. This has been a response to various ‘burning platforms’ including transport congestion in our major urban areas, fast growing populations, extreme events like flooding, bushfires and earthquakes, and job creation to support economic growth.

While there is an extensive range of advice on project management, there is little written up on how to successfully set-up and accelerate programs of work using the best of project management and governance techniques, particularly in the context of Australian and New Zealand. The Austroads recently complete project aimed to fill this gap by highlighting key things to consider for programs generally up to $500 million from the experience of over 50 experts. A number of case studies are presented to illustrate best practice. This also includes how best practice can be amplified and a culture of continuous improvement can be best established and maintained.

Not surprisingly, the report outlines how successful delivery of accelerated programs is underpinned by sound initial planning, strong governance and leadership, role clarity and an understanding across the team of the importance of the work. Particularly in pressure situations to make ‘things happen’, these things can be forgotten about or not given enough thought and resource. The case studies demonstrate how programs can be accelerated and robust prioritisation, approval and procurement process can still be followed. It just takes a clear focus on the desired outcomes and a strong mandate.

This webinar is presented by Duminda Wijayasinghe, David Silvester and Ray Paterson.

This webinar presents the results of the Austroads project that developed guidelines for incident response vehicles and truck-mounted attenuators. The project was a collaboration between Austroads, iMOVE, Queensland University of Technology and Deakin University.

Two sets of guidelines have been developed as part of the project. The first set provides information on models/types and design specifications of incident response vehicles. The guidance focuses on three vehicle types: tow trucks, truck-mounted attenuators (TMAs) and utility vehicles. In general, the design considerations are separated into three stages: determining models and general specifications, determining additional features and equipment, and determining markings, signs and other identification measures to ensure visibility and identifiability of the incident response vehicles.

The second set provides guidance on when and how TMAs and other attenuator vehicles should be used in incident response scenarios. The use of TMAs for incident response often requires departures from the established guidelines for TMA use, which are generally developed around planned operations (i.e. roadworks and maintenance activities). These issues are addressed alongside related considerations around broader temporary traffic management pertaining to incident response specifically.

In the webinar, presenters Narelle Haworth, Ashim Debnath and Drew Gaynor, provide an overview of the project, including the findings of the literature review, results of the stakeholder consultations and guideline development.

The United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030 has set the ambitious global target to halve road traffic fatalities and injuries by 2030. Some jurisdictions have set even more ambitious targets by setting a date for achieving zero road trauma, such as by 2050.

While there is a growing body of evidence around what initiatives are effective in reducing road crashes and injuries, what is missing is how to prioritise these measures and a lack of tangible planning frameworks to assist countries to link near- and long-term targets with day-to-day operations.

This webinar explores how to use backcasting, a vision-based planning approach, to determine what the metrics of a safe road system should look like in order to achieve zero road trauma and how the current road system is tracking towards this desired state and how jurisdictions can utilise this approach to develop strategies to achieve their near- and long-term targets.

The webinar is presented by Jessica Truong, the winner of the Women in Road Safety Award presented by Austroads at the 2023 Australasian Road Safety Conference.

Driver licensing legislation and regulation is the responsibility of each of Australia’s 8 states and territories. However, there is a commitment by all jurisdictional regulators to harmonised practices with minimum licensing standards. Under the Austroads registration and licensing taskforce, states and territories agree periodic programs of work to improve licensing practice which recognises emerging research and trends and supports movement towards increasing road safety.

To guide the development of licensing practice in Australia all states and territories have agreed to the five principles of aspirational intent to guide and inform their licensing policy and work programs. This webinar outlines these five principles and describes some of the work currently underway in support of these principles.

The webinar is presented by Judy Oswin who has worked on driver licensing policy as both a state regulator and consultant for over 20 years.

Australia’s Transport Ministers have agreed in-principle to an improved, nationally‑consistent approach to the training and licence progression of heavy vehicle drivers, that improves road safety and productivity.

The in-principle changes were approved by infrastructure and transport ministers in December 2023 through the agreement by the Infrastructure and Transport Ministers Meeting (ITMM) to endorse the National Heavy Vehicle Driver Competency Framework Decision Regulation Impact Statement (Decision RIS).

The changes are designed to increase the safety and job‑readiness of heavy vehicle drivers.

Austroads will develop best-practice standards and training material to support consistent delivery of the enhanced heavy vehicle competencies and assessments.

Austroads will work with each state and territory government and the different industries to fully scope the implementation program, identify policy, service and stakeholder issues and options, and seek to collaboratively develop a coordinated plan to deliver the anticipated safety and productivity benefits of the reform.

In this webinar, Paul Davies, Austroads General Manager Programs, explains the changes in detail.