The ROADEX Project was an EU-funded collaboration of Northern European road organisations from Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Scotland and Sweden that aimed to improve the condition of rural road networks. The project started as a pilot in 1998 to share best practice, to research and develop new knowledge, and to implement and test new solutions; it is still active, as the ROADEX Network, and currently comprises 13 partner organisations. ROADEX Partner countries

It has now been running for 22 years and has become a centre of information for all things concerning the management of rural roads. Its website averages over 5,000 hits per month from around the world seeking information and strategies for dealing with issues of poorly performing roads, including

Banked turn A banked turn (or banking turn) is a turn or change of direction in which the vehicle banks or inclines, usually towards the inside of the turn. For a road or railroad this is usually due to the roadbed having a transverse down-slope towards the ...

s ,

Cross slope Cross slope, cross fall or camber is a geometric feature of pavement surfaces: the transverse slope with respect to the horizon. It is a very important safety factor. Cross slope is provided to provide a drainage gradient so that water will run o ...

s, traction,

Drainage gradient Drainage gradient (DG) is a term in road design, defined as the combined slope due to road surface cross slope (CS) and longitudinal slope (hilliness). Although the term may not be used, the concept is also used in roof design and landscape arc ...

s, and in the

European Campaign for Safe Road Design The European Campaign for Safe Road Design aims to influence the European Union to make safe road design a European transport priority and save unnecessary deaths on Europe's roads. The campaign is a partnership between 28 road safety stakeholders ...

. The project was awarded a European Union RegioStars special mention in 2009. and in 2018 its strategies and technologies were recognised in a Global Road Achievement Award by the International Road Federation for ″Asset Preservation and Maintenance Management″ The project became self-funding as the ROADEX Network in 2012.

Projects 1998–2012

Pilot project, 1998–2001

The pilot project (ROADs Information EXchange = ROADEX) was set up between the roads districts of

Finnish Lapland Lapland ( fi, Lappi ; se, Lappi; smn, Laapi; sv, Lappland; la, Lapponia, links=no) is the largest and northernmost region of Finland. The 21 municipalities in the region cooperate in a Regional Council. Lapland borders the region of North O ...

, Troms County of the

Norwegian Public Roads Administration The Norwegian Public Roads Administration ( no, Statens vegvesen) is a Norwegian government agency responsible for national and county public roads in Norway. This includes planning, construction and operation of the national and county road netw ...

, the Northern Region of The

Swedish National Road Administration The Swedish Road Administration ( sv, Vägverket), formerly The Royal Board for Public Road and Water Structures, was a Government agency in Sweden. Its primary responsibility was to organise building and maintenance of the road network in Swede ...

and the

Highland Council The Highland Council (' ), the political body covering the Highland local authority created in 1995, comprises 21 wards, each electing three or four councillors by the single transferable vote system, which creates a form of proportional represe ...

of Scotland. It was 50% funded by the European Union and also received support from The Scottish Executive and The Icelandic Road Administration. The pilot identified 5 common problems, and these issues still form the basis for all considerations today. # Road drainage # Heavy trucks and permanent deformation (i.e. rutting) # Poor quality road materials # Roads on peat # Widened roads

ROADEX II, 2002–2005

This second project continued to be part-funded by the EU and aimed at developing new ways for the management of rural roads. The four members from the pilot were joined by two new organisations from Scotland: Forest Enterprise of Scotland and

Comhairle Nan Eilean Siar Comhairle nan Eilean Siar (, for, , Scottish Gaelic, Council of the Western Isles) is the local government council for ''Na h-Eileanan Siar'' (the Outer Hebrides) council area of Scotland.

and six associate partners: The Norwegian Hauliers Association, The Finnish Road Administration Lapland District, Metsähallitus Forestry, Stora Enso Metsä, Metsäliitto Osuukunta, and The Forestry Centre of Lapland. The new associate partners from the forestry and paper industry brought experience of using forest

gravel roads A gravel road is a type of unpaved road surfaced with gravel that has been brought to the site from a quarry or stream bed. They are common in less-developed nations, and also in the rural areas of developed nations such as Canada and the Uni ...

to the project and extended its researches into all

road surface A road surface (British English), or pavement (American English), is the durable surface material laid down on an area intended to sustain vehicular or foot traffic, such as a road or walkway. In the past, gravel road surfaces, hoggin, cobbles ...

s. The formal outputs of the co-operation included a DVD ''Focussing on low volume roads in the Northern Periphery'' and 11 technical reports.

ROADEX III, 2006–2007

The third project was designed as a

Dissemination To disseminate (from lat. ''disseminare'' "scattering seeds"), in the field of communication, is to broadcast a message to the public without direct feedback from the audience. Meaning Dissemination takes on the theory of the traditional view ...

and

Implementation Implementation is the realization of an application, or execution of a plan, idea, model, design, specification, standard, algorithm, or policy. Industry-specific definitions Computer science In computer science, an implementation is a realiza ...

project to show how the strategies and practices developed under the previous projects could be used in practice and what benefits could result. This included translating the reports into the six partner languages, presentations at conferences, seminars and workshops. Four new

e-learning Educational technology (commonly abbreviated as edutech, or edtech) is the combined use of computer hardware, software, and Education sciences, educational theory and practice to facilitate learning. When referred to with its abbreviation, edt ...

training packages were produced for the website in the partner languages and road trials of new solutions trialled on local roads. Five new organisations joined: The Icelandic Road Administration, The

Swedish Forest Agency Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

, The Department of Transport and The National Roads Authority from Ireland, and The Municipality of Sisimiut of the

Greenland Home Rule Government Naalakkersuisut ( en, Cabinet of Greenland, da, Grønlands Regering), is the chief executive body and the government of Greenland since the island became self-governing in 1979. An "autonomous territory" ( da, land) of the Kingdom of Denmark, tak ...

. The Swedish Board of Forestry, Dalarna/Gävleborg and the Russian Association of Regional Road Authorities (RADOR), joined as Associate Partners. A new area of research was the measurement of daily

vibration Vibration is a mechanical phenomenon whereby oscillations occur about an equilibrium point. The word comes from Latin ''vibrationem'' ("shaking, brandishing"). The oscillations may be periodic function, periodic, such as the motion of a pendulum ...

in drivers of heavy vehicles caused by poorly maintained road networks. An important finding of the research was that this arises wholly as a result of the condition of the road and cannot be mitigated by modern trucks with modern

suspension system Suspension is the system of tires, tire air, springs, shock absorbers and linkages that connects a vehicle to its wheels and allows relative motion between the two. Suspension systems must support both road holding/ handling and ride q ...

s. Outputs of the project included 3 DVDs and 14 technical reports on the management and maintenance of roads, including the socio-economic benefits of rural roads to communities.

HITRANS The Highlands and Islands Transport Partnership (HITRANS) is the statutory regional transport partnership for Na h-Eileanan Siar, Highland, Moray, Orkney Islands and Argyll and Bute (less the Helensburgh and Lomond area, which is covered by th ...

of Scotland was one of the first organisations to recommended the adoption of the new strategies. The project received a RegioStars award in 2009 by the Northern Periphery Programme.

ROADEX IV, 2009–2012

The fourth project carried out a programme of demonstrations of strategies on live public roads. The work was supported by a new consultancy service and web-based knowledge centre. New research and development continued in the areas of climate change, road widening and driver health issues. The Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada (FERIC) and

Coillte Coillte (; meaning "forests"/"woods") is a state-owned commercial forestry business in Ireland based in Newtownmountkennedy. Coillte manage approximately 7% of the country’s land, and operates three businesses - their core forestry business, a ...

of Ireland joined as Associate Partners. In all 30 technical reports were published at the end of the project, covering issues such as road drainage methods in different countries and road types, demonstrations of road repairs and widening, road condition surveys and proposals for forest roads. The project concluded with a summary report on the benefits and savings that could be achieved using the new strategies. The ROADEX project was listed as a best case study for tangible benefits in the final summary report of the Northern Periphery Programme 2007–2013, "Achievement".

Network since 2012

EU part-funding of the ROADEX projects ended in 2012 and the partners continued at their own cost as the "ROADEX Network". Joint research continued to keep the collaboration current and sharing information Recent projects involving strategies developed by the project include: research into the effects of the new generations of heavy trucks on

s; and the PEHKO project in Finland. The PEHKO Project was the first comprehensive long-term application of the ROADEX strategies in a main road maintenance programme. The Finnish Transport Agency commissioned the project in 2015 on two tests areas on the Kemi-Tornio and

Karstula Karstula is a municipality of Finland founded in 1867. It is located in the Central Finland region. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is . Neighbouring municipalities are Ka ...

to take place from 2015-2025. In this the ROADEX strategies and analyses are being used to design the maintenance plans for the test areas to improve the condition of the network, whilst reducing maintenance costs . The key operations are better drainage maintenance, pro-active

snow removal Snow removal or snow clearing is the job of removing snow after a snowfall to make travel easier and safer. This is done by both individual households and by governments and institutions. De-icing and anti-icing De-icing is defined as removal ...

and targeted repairs of road sections that need action. Early results in 2016 showed clear benefits in the two test areas. The trials were extended to a third test network in the

Uusimaa Uusimaa (; sv, Nyland, ; both lit. 'new land') is a region of Finland. It borders the regions of Southwest Finland, Tavastia Proper (Kanta-Häme), Päijänne Tavastia (Päijät-Häme), and Kymenlaakso. Finland's capital and largest city, He ...

area outside Helsinki in 2018. The PEHKO project was awarded the 2018 Global Road Achievement Award for ″''Asset Preservation and Maintenance Management''″ by the International Road Federation. The project publishes results its results internationally

Website

The project website, www.roadex.org, contains everything that has done since 1998, and holds the e-learning suite and knowledge centre. It is fully

open access Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which research outputs are distributed online, free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 definition), or libre op ...

. As of 2020 the project website was averaging over 5,000 users per month from around the world seeking information and solutions, including India (18%), USA (13%), Philippines (8%), Malaysia (5%), Nigeria (5%).

References

External links

www.roadex.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Roadex Project 1998 establishments in Europe Road transport in Europe Northern Europe