Transcript PIARC World Roads Conference

23rd World Road Congress
Fact Sheet
• 100th anniversary of PIARC
• 126 countries, 34 African countries
• More than 5000 delegates & exhibitors, 48 South
Africans
• More than 200 exhibitions, 16 national pavilions
(including SA)
• 80 Ministers of Transport (including SA)
• 3 plenary sessions (opening, Ministers’ & closing
sessions)
• 4 strategic direction sessions
• 18 PIARC committee feedback sessions
• 19 special sessions
• 5 workshops
• 48 half-day sessions = 24 full-day equivalents in
3.5 days
• 16 technical visits during Congress
• 1 social event (gala diner)
Subjects
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Sustainable development
Disaster mitigation
Urban intermodality
Road safety
Management of congestion
Evolution of road
administrations
Governance & integrity
Safety in road tunnels
Vulnerability of road systems
to climate change
Network operations
Road system economics
Airfield pavements
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Risk management
Road asset management
Road maintenance
Mobility for vulnerable users
Vehicle-road interaction
Responding to HR challenges
Earthworks, drainage &
subgrade
Rural roads & accessibility
Bridges & related structures
Road pavements
Integrated urban transport
Freight transport &
intermodality
The choice for Sustainable Development
“The choice for sustainable development has been part
of the very make-up of the French government since
May 2007, when road issues were delegated to the
Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and
Spatial Planning … We must satisfy the legitimate
aspirations of populations concerning mobility and
quality of life, without further thwarting the planet’s
potential and without reaching the stage of exhausting
our resources, rendering every sort of development
impossible for generations to come.”
Jean-Louis Borloo, Ministre d’État
Some Facts – Gore-y details
• Over the last 10 years, climatic catastrophes
have caused 0.9 million deaths, disrupted 2.6
billion people and financial losses exceeding
$210 billion
• Highest ever recorded average temperature in
France in 2006
• By 2050, 40% reduction in ice barrier, causing
sea level rise that will affect 1.2 billion people
and create 200 million climatic refugees
• Required to reduce CO2 emissions by 20%,
compared to 2002 benchmark, within 10 years
Changing road user behaviour
• Raising of transport costs (taxation & tolls)
– Encourage users to use road space more rationally
– Promote a rebalance towards less polluting modes of
transport
– Significantly improve alternative choices and render
them attractive to users
– Urban tolls found to be an effective means to reduce
congestion and pollution
– Accepted that raising road charges may have
undesired consequences on a country’s economic
and social fabric
Actions by decision makers
• Appropriately respond to four key challenges:
the environment & climate change, congestion,
access & mobility, and safety
• Curb transport consumption:
– Promote other modes of transport & implement
efficient inter-modal facilities
– Use electronic toll collection systems
– Information systems (ITS) to optimise the usage of
existing infrastructure
• Additional line item in tender to assess
environmental damage caused by proposed
construction methods/materials (e.g. $/tCO )
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Adaptation of technologies
• Shift in focus: resistance of structures 
sustainability of engineering structures
• Reduce CO2 emissions and energy consumption:
– Warm, half-warm & cold processes
• Recycling
– Use up to 60% of recycled asphalt (50% on A28) with
new plant at a production rate of 300t/h
– Re-use of existing pavement materials
– Incorporation of building rubble & industrial by-products
Technical Innovation
• “Green” technologies
– Making use of natural raw materials that are
renewable:
• Bio-fluxes to reduce viscosity of bitumen (by-products of
renewable natural fats that polymerises with bitumen)
• Bio-cleaners with superior solvent power to protect/clean
equipment (replace fuel oil type products)
• Bio-emulsifiers
• Bio-road markers
• Bio-binders
• Bio-fuels
– “De-polluting” roads:
• “Active Asphalt”: surfacings which induce a negative charge
and thus able to attract suspended particulate matter
• Photocatalystic coatings (TiO2) which neutralise NOx
Reduction in Future Costs
• Preservation of infrastructure:
– Greater focus on maintenance
– Proper management of assets
• Long-life pavements:
– Concrete solutions
– High-Modulus Asphalt (HiMA)
Concluding Remarks
• From an industry point of view, sustainable
development should not be perceived as a new
series of constraints hampering our activities but
rather as a broadening of our field activities
and development
• Sustainable development rapidly becoming a
new multi-billion industry with innovation being a
major catalyst
• 1908-2007: “the Oil Age” – next 100 years?