Skip to main content

International Safer Roads Conference focus on highway maintenance funding

UK road planners and engineers attending next month’s International Safer Roads Conference will find out how to avoid losing part of their highway maintenance funding from the British Government. In the Department of Transport document, ‘Gearing up for efficient highway delivery and funding’, Robert Goodwill, MP, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport, warns that local authorities will be incentivised to take up asset management to make the most from allocated resources.
April 30, 2014 Read time: 3 mins
UK road planUK road planners and engineers attending next month’s International Safer Roads Conference will find out how to avoid losing part of their highway maintenance funding from the British Government.

In the Department of Transport document, ‘Gearing up for efficient highway delivery and funding’, Robert Goodwill, MP, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport, warns that local authorities will be incentivised to take up asset management to make the most from allocated resources.

It is proposed that every highway authority will receive baseline funding, with additional funds, as much as 10%, for those with an asset management strategy in place.

The Roads Minister will be addressing the Conference, which is being held in Cheltenham, western England, from the 18 – 21 May 2014. UK delegates will be able to share best practice to help prepare a strategy to avoid losing any vital funding.
The underlying theme of the Conference is ‘saving lives through safer roads’ and delegates are travelling from around the world to share their experience and knowledge.

Dr Chris Kennedy, chairman of the organising committee, says they will be discussing the ever-changing issues of climate change and increasing traffic flows, as well as how types of vehicles place more pressure on existing materials and practices.

“The papers being presented also look at how to achieve more for less in what are challenging times”, he explained.

The 4th International Safer Roads Conference is co-sponsored by the Chartered Institute of Highways and Transportation, 1009 New Zealand Transport Agency and 3312 WDM Limited. Delegates will consist of engineers, practitioners, policy makers and other professionals from central and local governments, academics from universities and research organisations, consultants and contractors.

Dr Kennedy says the Conference will help encourage authorities to become more innovative to achieve best value in road and runway safety maintenance and practices.

“Studies have shown that driver behaviour can be linked with the road environment to produce innovative ways to reduce accident rates and these changes also need to use the appropriate surface materials.

“Many countries have been showing reductions in headline numbers of killed and seriously injured, but as the opening keynote speaker from the Dutch Institute of Road Safety will be discussing, these headline figures often fail to show that the number of vulnerable users continues to rise,” he said. “No country can afford to be complacent about its road safety record.”

Full details of the Conference can be found on %$Linker: 2 External <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 0 0 0 oLinkExternal www.saferroads.org.uk Visite Safe Roads website false http://www.saferroads.org.uk/ false false%>

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • IRF Supports Capacity Building for Performance-Based Road Contracts
    December 23, 2014
    For 10 days in October, more than 40 highway engineering professionals from 14 different countries congregated in Orlando, Florida, USA. With lecturers from The Netherlands, Finland, New Zealand, Canada and the US the group discussed the specifics about how to effectively write, implement and enforce performance-based contracts.
  • IRF’s global road awards open
    June 13, 2013
    The International Road Federation is inviting entries for its Global Road Achievement Awards (GRAA) programme. According to the IRF, this competition is intended to highlight innovative road projects and individuals that raise the profile of roads in worldwide social and economic development. The awards provide an important route for promoting road industry innovation and achievements receive worldwide publicity. Winners will receive a crystal trophy at the 17th IRF World Meeting & Exhibition in Riyadh late
  • Don't miss the Intelligent Infrastructure Award at Highways UK
    August 10, 2016
    The deadline is fast approaching to submit a product for consideration in the Intelligent Infrastructure Hub at the Highways UK event in November. Highways UK is for people and organisations involved in - and passionate about - the planning, development, management and maintenance of the UK's roads. Last year the event, held in London, attracted 1,500 delegates. This year’s event from 16-17 November at the NEC in Birmingham is expected to have 2,500 attendees. An important part of Highways UK's remit
  • One direction, a shared journey
    May 23, 2018
    The world in which we work is changing at a rapid pace; we have seen developments in road safety that we could only dream about 5-10 years ago. Despite these changes, global casualty figures remain high; the only way that we can affect change is by working together through international collaboration. Together we hold the power to reduce the threat to life from road collisions. We should be proud of our road safety heritage and of our achievements to date. This is at the very core of what this conference