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 Geneva to work on the EU funded project “Safer Africa”
    January 30, 2017
    The Safer Africa project - funded under the EU Horizon2020 Programme - aims at establishing a Dialogue Platform between Africa and Europe focused on road safety and traffic management issues. It will represent a high-level body with the main objective of providing recommendations to update the African Road Safety Action Plan and the African Road Safety Charter, as well as fostering the adoption of specific initiatives, properly funded. The involvement of development banks will ensure the identification
  • Innovation awards programme announced for Conexpo 2014
    January 28, 2014
    The Conexpo 2014 exhibition is launching its Innovation Awards programme to recognise the best product innovation and engineering. The winners are to be announced at the show and industry participants are being invited to vote online. The awards are intended to spotlight the achievements of show exhibitors in the areas of earthmoving, lifting, road building, compaction and concrete. Industry professionals can vote online to determine the winners. Voters who register have the chance to win a new Microsoft Su
  • IRF to hold four regional congresses in 2014
    March 28, 2014
    In 2013, IRF members launched three new regional affairs Committees covering Latin America & the Caribbean, the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa, each tasked with connecting with IRF members active in these regions and developing bespoke capacity building programs that leverage IRF know-how. IRF is also strengthening its program of operations in the Asia Pacific region following renewed interested expressed by senior government officials during the recent IRF World Meeting.
  • IRF Geneva promotes certified road programme training
    February 26, 2015
    The IRF Geneva is promoting its Senior Road Executives Programme. This is part of a strategy that has seen the IRF helping deliver certified professional training for the last 20 years. The Senior Road Executives Programme (SRE) provides continuing professional development for those working in the road sector. By so doing, this strategy has contributed to the dissemination of knowledge and expertise throughout the world. Using an inter-disciplinary approach, the programme is designed to advance the understa