Report 2 December February 2014 Nina Ambro Knutsen, NVF-representative The World Road Association (PIARC) Paris, France

Transcription

1 Winter in Andorra (photo: Tomonobu Tanino) Report 2 December February 2014 Nina Ambro Knutsen, NVF-representative The World Road Association (PIARC) Paris, France 1

2 Introduction The past three months have gone by incredibly quickly. It is 3 rd March 2014 already (Paris has even given us a taste of what spring will be like!), but I would like to take this opportunity to wish all NVF members a very Happy New Year! The 14 th Winter Road Congress in Andorra The main reason the past three months have gone by so quickly is the preparations for the PIARC Winter Road Congress, including the meetings of the Executive Committee and several Technical Committees. The Principality of Andorra welcomed over 850 Congress participants for the 14th International Winter Road Congress on Tuesday 4 th February It was the biggest Congress that the Principality had organised to date and they pulled it off beautifully giving all the participants four days filled with professional development, cultural experiences and new colleagues and friends. The Congress was officially opened Tuesday 4 th February by the Mayor of Andorra de la Vella, Rosa Ferrer, Andorra s head of government, Antoni Martí, Minister of Economy and territorial planning in Andorra, Jordi Alcobé, and President of the World Road Association, Oscar debuen. After the opening session the participants were invited outside for the Opening Ceremony. The young and talented dancers from the dance company Líquid Dansa had taken their inspiration from the Conservacio i Explotacio de Carreteres (COEX) team who work so hard to keep the roads of Andorra open during winter time. The dancers put on an energetic show, marking the beginning of an eventful four days consisting of 140 presentations, 6 technical visits, 4500 square metres of exhibition area, social events and even a World Championship! The main theme of this congress, Winter roads in times of crisis, focuses on winter road management in a time where limited budgets and impacts of climate change are being felt by the road sector. This was also the topic for the Round table Tuesday afternoon, where ministers and Road Directors got together to discuss upcoming challenges and solutions. Taking part in the round table were: Andorra s minister of Economy and Territorial planning, Jordi Alcobé; Spain s Minister of Development, Ana Pastor; Deputy Transport Minister, Hyung Koo Yeo (Republic of Korea); Director of Infrastructure and Technologies, Anne Marie Leclerc (Canada-Quebec); Road Maintenance Director, Jukka Karjalainen (Finland), Transport Infrastructure Director, Christophe Saintaillan (France), and Special Minister of Japan s Ministry of Land Planning, Shigeru Kikukawa. The round table participants discussed the need to improve communications and user response, and that there is a need to use resources more efficiently. The keynote speech was given by Météo France s Research Scientist Aurélien Ribes. In his presentation, he gave an overview of different scenarios of climate change from very sever changes to less sever changes. All the scenarios, however, indicate rising temperatures and more periods of heavy rain fall, underlining the very real challenges our sector will face in the time to come. 2

3 Opening of the 14 th Winter Road Congress (photo: Tomonobu Tanino) Tuesday afternoon also marked the beginning of the many Technical Sessions a total of 38 sessions on 8 different topics: Winter Roads and climate change, Winter roads in the context of budgetary constraints, Extreme winter events, Winter road management, The operational approach, equipment, and materials for winter roads, Road users during winter conditions, Road tunnels during winter conditions, and Road bridges during winter conditions. PIARC Technical Committees 2.4 Winter Service, 3.3 Road Tunnels Operations, and 4.3 Road Bridges have been crucial in the preparations and the executions of the Technical Sessions, contributing with presentations, chairing and co-chairing of sessions. On Wednesday nearly 600 people braved the cold at the Grandvalira Circuit, situated 2200 metres above sea level, to watch the finalists go head to head in the 2 nd World Snow Plough Championship. Ten competitors from six countries had qualified for the finale through Tuesday s preliminary tests. In the championship, the contestants are tested on their driving skills with different manoeuvres, such as slalom, stops, ramps, obstacles and accuracy exercises, as well as technical know-how. It was Bertran Lestang from Andorra who managed to plough his way to the top. The first runner up, Jonathan Díaz, also represented the host country Andorra, while France s Pierre Theninge came in third. There were also several Technical visits offered during the congress. The first took place on Wednesday. Small groups of Congress participants were shown around the Traffic Management and Information Centre and the Tunnel Control Centre. The participants could also visit the Envalira tunnel, with and altitude 2050 metres the highest of the major tunnels in Europe. This Important link between Andorra and France provided when it opened in 2002, a safer and more direct link between the two countries than the Envalira port that has maximum altitude of 2408 metres. The Gala dinner Thursday night provided yet another memorable event for the participants. Renowned chef Nandu Jubany and his team provided the Congress participants with inventive, surprising and outstanding food for the several hundred diners a truly impressive achievement! 3

4 Technical visit during the Andorra Winter Road Congress (photo: Tomonobu Tanino) The Exhibition hall was also a great success, with over a 64 organisations and a 100 brands showing the latest developments in the sector, were represented. Over the course of the four days, 2000 people visited the exhibition. The Exhibition hall was also the venue for the posters session Thursday and Friday. These sessions gave participants the opportunity to meet speakers in a more direct way, to discuss common challenges and to get new ideas. At the closing ceremony, Mayor of Gdansk, Pawel Adamovicz, and The Polish Road Administration invited the participants to Gdansk, the location of the 15 th International Winter Road Congress in The Polish organisers also met with the Andorra organising committee Thursday to learn from the experience of the Andorrans. And they better get started on the preparations for the Andorra Congress will be a tough act to follow! Meetings of the Commissions During the Andorra Winter Road Congress, the Strategic Planning Commission and the Executive Committee also held meetings. For the Strategic Planning commission (SPC), the progress of all the Technical Committees (TCs) in this cycle is still the one of the most important issues. All the TCs handed in a table of Contents for their final Technical reports by the end of the year, and most are up to speed with their task ahead. The SPC is also focusing on the next cycle, with a sub-group led by Sweden s Torbjörn Sunesson. The Executive Committee (ExCom) were informed about the progress of this Cycles work and also turned their attention to Seoul World Road Congress, and even the call for candidacies for The World Road Congress in

5 The Communications Commission are preparing for their next in-person meeting which will take place in Madrid in mid-march. One of the important things on the agenda is a survey of Young Professionals conducted last autumn. NVF members were important contributors in the survey. Congresses and seminars The past winter months have been quiet with regards to seminars, but this is to be expected from the season. There are a few seminars coming up this spring and early summer 2014, but it will not be as busy as last autumn. Upcoming PIARC seminars, spring & summer 2014 Conference title PIARC International Seminar, "Pavements conditions monitoring" (Technical Committee 4.2) PIARC International Seminar, "Road Infrastructure Management: Current Practice and Development Prospective" (Technical Committee 4.1) PIARC International Seminar, "Road Sustainability and Green Technology (Technical Committee 1.3) PIARC International Seminar "Earthworks and pavements in arid and semi-arid zones" (Technical Committee 4.4) Dates and venues March 2014, Beijing (China) 31. March 2. April 2014, Cancún (Mexico) April 2014, Bali (Indonesia) June 2014, Rabat (Morocco) More information on these seminars can be found online, or by contacting NVFs representative (see contact information at the end of this report). Next World Road Congress SEOUL 2015 Preparations are already underway for the next world Congress. The call for individual papers will be going out in April I will have more on this in the next report. Routes/Roads A new issue of Routes/Roads was published in January, and this issue was dedicated to the Winter Road Congress in Andorra in February. All the Congress participants received a copy. Articles include The effect of climate change on winter service in Germany by Peter Hoffmann et al, Improving the resilience of United Kingdom s road network to the impact of severe winter weather by Matthew Lugg, and Traffic ability of heavy vehicles on an incline by Torgeir Vaa and Per Brandli. This edition of Routes/Roads also looked at the many postal stamps that have been produced in connection to the PIARC World Congresses, and this year s Winter Road Congress is no exception a 0,38 stamp featuring the Congress logo will be issued by the Principality of Andorra! 5

6 Technical reports Between 1 st December and the end February, one Technical Report has been published: Impacts of changes in winter severity on winter maintenance Data from the past years indicate a significant evolution and change in temperature profiles, precipitation, and generally deviation from traditional seasonal cycles. For example snow events became more intense and sudden, and forecasts are getting more difficult. Based on Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) scenarios, analyses are made for some regions showing that some significant changes are to be expected, specifically for winter months. Impacts of these changes on winter maintenance are analyzed through some indicators such as deicer consumption, manpower, and costs. Finally a section of the report deals with the impact on the road infrastructures, specifically that of frost/thaw cycles. Coming soon: Alternative solutions for fossil fuels for the road system This report looks at the technologies available to generate energy in the highway context and also qualitatively assesses the opportunity to reduce the energy used by existing highways infrastructure. Case studies related to some potential technologies and techniques are presented: thermal collection, photovoltaic collection, wind microgeneration, water microgeneration, efficient use of new materials. There exists a variety of different ways in which energy can be generated by innovative use of the existing highway infrastructure and land holdings associated with highways. There are however also barriers to implementation which are identified by the report. NVF s representative in PIARC contact information If you have any questions or would like more information on the progress of the work of the Technical committees, contributions to Routes/Roads or any other topics, please don t hesitate to contact me! My address is: nina.knutsen@piarc.org 6