The project aims to bring about real operational change in the construction and maintenance of rural roads across the Northern Periphery through a combination of consultancy services, demonstration projects and education. ROADEX developed services (strategies) and products (technologies) will be used on local roads by local Partners supported by a ... More...

The project aims to bring about real operational change in the construction and maintenance of rural roads across the Northern Periphery through a combination of consultancy services, demonstration projects and education. ROADEX developed services (strategies) and products (technologies) will be used on local roads by local Partners supported by a ROADEX consultancy service and knowledge centre”. Joint research and development will also continue into the effects of climate change, road widening and health issues arising from poorly constructed roads.

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The overall objective of the project is to effect a change, a ‘tipping point’, in the culture of road construction and maintenance in the Northern periphery by physically implementing the ROADEX technical reports on the road networks of the Partner areas. The ROADEX project has been acknowledged to be the leading innovator of low volum... More...

The overall objective of the project is to effect a change, a ‘tipping point’, in the culture of road construction and maintenance in the Northern periphery by physically implementing the ROADEX technical reports on the road networks of the Partner areas.

The ROADEX project has been acknowledged to be the leading innovator of low volume road management technologies in the Northern Periphery.The ground breaking technologies developed by the Project have been shown to be cost effective and money-saving where they have been used. This will be a major exercise, using live road schemes across the Partner districts, and will be tackled through 4 interlinked strands:

1. the establishment of a ROADEX consultancy service and knowledge centre;
2. the execution of local demonstration projects;
3. education of workforces through e-learning package
4. continuing research into areas of common concern.

The new “ROADEX consultancy service” will be central to this effort and to the success of the enterprise. The Consultancy, aided by the local ROADEX Partners, will guide, empower and support the local district offices to enable them to take up the challenges in adopting the new technologies and give them the confidence to use them on their local roads networks. This will involve teaching, promoting, understanding, sharing, and implementing the new technologies. Consultancy services will include guidance on initial surveys and interpretation, assistance with design, new technology applications, case studies, monitoring systems, reporting, and sharing the feedback with others. Training and support will additionally be given through a new Knowledge Centre, an extended e-learning system and continuing joint research. The Knowledge Centre will also be open for use as a knowledge bank for related existing knowledge within organisations that can be shared with others.

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Everyday use of the developed ROADEX knowledge and innovation across the ROADEX partner areas; Increased knowledge and awareness of ROADEX in the NPP area and the EU generally; Policy change in the construction and maintenance of rural roads across the Northern Periphery; A new pan-regional consultancy service of ROADEX experts to give advice on... More...

• Everyday use of the developed ROADEX knowledge and innovation across the ROADEX partner areas;
• Increased knowledge and awareness of ROADEX in the NPP area and the EU generally;
• Policy change in the construction and maintenance of rural roads across the Northern Periphery;
• A new pan-regional consultancy service of ROADEX experts to give advice on suitable ROADEX management strategies and methods of construction to local design teams, consultants and contractors. This service will directly empower local engineers and technicians to apply ROADEX experiences locally and give them the necessary connections to the ROADEX experts.
• A new ROADEX “knowledge centre” of technical reports, case studies, research papers, contact details for Partner experts, together with feedback from the ROADEX demonstration projects.  This knowledge base will be a web-based service available to all Partners and target groups in the engineering industry - consultancies and contractors and academic institutions - with advice on all matters connected to ROADEX.
• An extended e-learning system of ROADEX reports and outputs, most notably the new drainage guidelines, the construction and maintenance of roads over peat, and the environmental considerations of road works. This product will be used by the partners and the target groups.
• New knowledge on climate change adaptation, road widening and the health issues that can arise from poorly constructed roads.

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Appointment of Consultant Issue of Tender Documents, 10 July 2009 Interviews, Arlanda Airport, Stockholm, 28 August, 2009 Award to Roadscanners Oy, 14 September, 2009 Steering Committee meeting SC meeting, Luleå, 5-6 November 2009 2nd SC meeting, Westport, 6-7 May 2010. Cancelled due to ash cloud Alternative “Business me... More...

Appointment of Consultant

• Issue of Tender Documents,  10 July 2009
• Interviews, Arlanda Airport, Stockholm, 28 August, 2009
• Award to Roadscanners Oy, 14 September, 2009 

Steering Committee meeting

• SC meeting, Luleå, 5-6 November 2009
• 2^nd SC meeting, Westport, 6-7 May 2010.  Cancelled due to ash cloud
• Alternative “Business meeting”, Copenhagen, 16-17 June 2010
• 3^rd SC meeting, Westport, 1-2 November 2010

Conferences/seminars

• ESME 2009. Euroscience Mediterranean Event 2009. October 15-19, 2009, Athens, Greece
• LAVA09,  NPP Annual Conference 2009, Reykjavik, 10 November 2009
• CPDC lecture, Inverness, 10 November 2009, “Sharing roads information across the European Northern Periphery”,
• TRB 2010, 89^th Annual Meeting, 10-14 January, 2010, Washington, DC,
• Transportforum, Linköping, 13 January 2010, Johan Granlund presents ROADEX method
• Winter Road Conference, Lahti, 28 January 2010, Timo Saarenketo presents CTI technique and spring thaw weakening
• PIARC Conference, Quebec, 8-11 February 2010, ROADEX at Swedish Road Administration booth
• Integrated road structural asset management seminar, Saskatchewan, 11 February 2010, Timo Saarenketo presents how ROADEX TPC technology is being used in the NPP area.
• Timber Transport Forum, 11 March 2010, Ron Munro presents ROADEX to audience of Scottish timber industry representatives
• HVTT11 symposium in Melbourne, 14 March 2010, Johan Granlund presents ROADEX vibration research
• TPCS meeting, Mosstodloch, 15 April 2010, ROADEX forest road technologies presented to visitingSkogforsk group
• NPP meeting climate change cluster meeting, Copenahgen, 11 May 2010
• Meeting with Kies Aliof of African Development Bank, Tunis, 18 May 2010, T Saarenketo presents ROADEX methods
• Briefing to Savo-Karjala Ely-keskus, Kuopio 20 May 2010, T Saarenketo presents the ROADEX project and its results
• Briefing to Czech National Road Administration, Prague, 26 May 2010  T Saarenketo presents ROADEX road condition management policies to managers of the Czech National Road Administration
• Briefing to Destia Design Group staff, Tampere, 1 June 2010, T Saarenketo presents the ROADEX project and its results
• Meeting in Trafikverket offices, Luleå, 3 June 2010, Discussion of new drainage management policies in Sweden based on ROADEX research recommendations.
• TRA Conference, Brussels, 7 June 2010, Johan Granlund presents ROADEX methods
• FCE/ROADEX Low Impact Vehicles & TPCS seminars, Perth, 23-24 June 2010
• TPCS seminar, Tampere, 28 June 2010, P Kolisoja presents ROADEX research results, A Bradley of FERIC presents Canadian experience           
• TPCS seminar, Luleå, 1 July 2010, P Kolisoja presents ROADEX research results, A Bradley of FERIC presents Canadian experience
• NPP Scottish Partner event, Nairn, 23 August 2010, R Munro presents ROADEX update
• "Neighbouring area cooperation meeting, Finland and Russia", Murmansk, 8-9 September 2010,  Jukka Jääskö presents the ROADEX Project
• NPP First Level Controller seminar for Scottish Partners, 22 September 2010 
• ROADEX climate change workshop, 19 October 2010, Inverness
• Dortmund, 17 November 2010, T Saarenketo presents ROADEX drainage research results to German road maintenance contractors
• Hungarian Road Administration miniseminar, Budapest, 19 November 2010, T Saarenketo presents the ROADEX project and its key results to PMS specialists
• Pardubice, Czech Republic, 10 January 2011, T Saarenketo presents ROADEX project and pilot results to a special seminar arranged by Pardubice area.
• Timmerleden Forest Road seminar, Luleå, 13 January 2011, ROADEX method proven to give best results
• Greenland Government Nordic Seminar, Nuuk, 9 February 2011, ROADEX booth
• World Bank, Washington DC, 23 January 2011, T Saarenketo presents ROADEX project results in a special TRB World Bank session for low volume road network condition surveys,
• Luleå, 24 February 2011, ROADEX mini seminar in Tarfikverket in Luleå

Reports/articles/presentation material

• Swedish National Audit Office (SNAO) published a report on maintenance of paved state roads in November 2009 that cited reports by ROADEX
• Finnish Road Administration “Finncontact” article. “ROADEX Co-Operation Bringing New Solutions for Road Condition Management Problems in Northern Europe”, January 2010
• ROADEX article in “Vectrum”, the Vectura in-house magazine
• “ROADEX IV presentation NPP” – MS PowerPoint
• Posters and leaflets for the “LAVA09” conference
• ROADEX Wikipedia page launched, 29 June 2010

Work Programming

The ROADEX Implementation project continues to make good progress against its project plan. All planned tasks are underway across the Partner areas and beginning to produce tangible results.  The Project is on target to deliver the programmed 23 demonstration tasks, 3 research tasks and elearning lessons on time. 

The Demonstration Projects:

• D1 “Drainage Maintenance Guidelines”.  Road surveys have been carried out on the demonstration sites in Ireland, Highland, Sweden and Finland projects.  The remaining work in Norway, Iceland, Western Isles and Greenland will be done in 2011. 
• D2 “Road friendly vehicles and TPC”.  The Scottish road surveys have been carried out using trucks from James Jones & Sons Ltd.  The demonstration tasks at the Percostation site in Keuruu, Finland will be carried out using a timber truck equipped with tyre pressure control. 
• D3 “Forest Road policies”.  The demonstration in Sweden is being carried out at the “Timmerleden” forest road and is comparing the 3 Swedish rehabilitation methods with the ROADEX method.  The Scottish demonstrations are being carried out by the Forestry Commission on their internal forest road networks using their GPR survey vehicle and assisted by Roadscanners. 
• D4 “Rutting, from theory to practice”.  The main road surveys and analyses for this task have now been generally agreed.  The ROADEX template for the final reports has been agreed and circulated.  This will be a common format for all of the demonstration tasks and will allow a common style for reporting that will be able to be modified to suit the particular aspects of each task. 
• D5 “Roads on Peat”.  The two demonstration sites in Ireland, in Co Mayo and Co Donegal, have been surveyed.  It has been agreed that this task will also include a summary of road construction and maintenance practices being carried out in Ireland for sharing between the Partners, as Ireland is a new Partner to ROADEX.
•  D6 “Health and Vibration”.  Four demonstration projects have been identified in Lapland, Highland, Norway and Sweden using a range of vehicle types.  The Finnish, Scottish and Swedish surveys have been carried out.  The analyses of the collected data will be carried out in 2011 and reported.

The Research Projects:

• RE1 “Climate change and its consequences on the maintenance of low volume roads”. This task is being assisted by researchers at ARTEK.  A summary of the current prediction models for climate change across the Northern Periphery has been made and a Questionnaire issued to Partners to obtain their views and concerns.   A number of research programmes are underway on climate change and these are being reviewed as part of the task.  A ROADEX workshop on climate change adaptation will be held in Inverness on 19th October.  The task is on target to report by end of 2011.
• RE2 “Widening of roads”.  The “State of the art” survey of road widening practice across the partner areas has been completed.  It is planned that the Questionnaire and report should be published on the ROADEX website in early 2011.  It has been agreed that the outputs of the research task should be a final report and pocket book outlining the new guidelines for widening of roads.
• RE3 “Vibration in vehicles and humans due to road condition”.  This task aims to identify those standards of winter maintenance that give acceptable effects on health. Surveys are being done in the winter and summer on roads with different winter maintenance levels, good and bad, measuring ride vibration as function of road condition.  The test road for the research is Road 331, “The Beaver Road”, in Sweden. 

ROADEX E-learning – Four ROADEX elearning lessons are being written:

• A. “Permanent deformation in roads”, almost complete
• B. "Road construction over peat”, 50% complete
• C. “Drainage of roads”, 50% complete
• D. “Environmental considerations of low volume roads”, 50% complete

The ROADEX Website – the website was launched on 15 June 2010 and has been populated will all ROADEX materials to date.  This website aims to be the “one stop shop” for all matters pertaining to the management of rural low volume roads in cold climates.

THe ROADEX Consultancy – the Consultancy has been established and is giving advice to the Partner organisations on a range of issues from road survey and interpretation, through to training.

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