FEHRLopedia

“ERA-NET ROAD - Coordination and Implementation of Road Research in Europe” is a Coordination Action funded by the 6th Framework Programme of the EC. Within the framework of this action, the call “Road Owners Getting to Grips with Climate Change” was launched as the first cross-border funded joint research programme. 11 national Road Administrations (Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom) participated in the programme. The total budget for funding projects was 1,350 MEUR. 19 proposals from 18 different countries were submitted for the call. 8 of those countries are not members of the funding Programme Executive Board (PEB) of ERA-NET Road.

The theme for the programme was selected because the road network is heavily influenced by climate conditions which are expected to change in the future. Climate change may result in more frequent and more intense rainfall, milder winters, warmer summers, and increases in wind speed and storm frequency. Road authorities need to evaluate the effect of climate change on the road network and take remedial action through all components of road management including design, construction and maintenance. At the same time, consideration must be given to safety and accessibility to ensure that user’s expectations are not compromised. The adaptation of road networks to these changes is one of the important issues that road authorities need to address. The “Road Owners Getting to Grips with Climate Change” research programme aimed at providing road authorities all across Europe with the knowledge and tools necessary to "get to grips" with climate change and its effects on all elements of road management by adapting design rules, updating and improving data collection, and developing risk management methods.

Four projects were funded in the research programme:

● IRWIN - Improved local winter index to assess maintenance needs and adaptation costs in climate change scenarios

● P2R2C2 - Pavement Performance & Remediation Requirements following Climate Change

● RIMAROCC - Risk Management for Roads in a Changing Climate

● SWAMP - Storm Water prevention – Methods to predict damage from water stream in and near road pavements in lowland areas

The project reports can be downloaded from the following websites:

www.eranetroad.org ; www.cedr.fr ; www.fehrl.org

At the conclusion of the programme, a final event was organised near Cologne in Germany. This was held 8 and 9 December 2010. The conference was organized around different workshops, reports, and presentations of the projects results. The outputs of this research programme is a series of reports focusing on different aspects of climate change and its effects on the management of national road networks that can be applied across Europe and that will be important in facilitating the understanding of this research across the countries of Europe.

The reports were presented as proposed guidelines. The Forum of European National Highway Research Laboratories, FEHRL organised the event in collaboration with the German Federal Highway Research Institute, BASt. To support the theme of the event, a number of German national projects on climate change adaptation were also presented in the context of the conference. These further informed the debate on the topic.

The purpose of this document is to produce a final report for ERA-NET ROAD Programme entitled “Road Owners Getting to Grips with Climate Change”. This summary document brings together the findings and recommendations from the four projects in the programme (IRWIN, P2R2C2, RIMAROCC and SWAMP) and shows how road authorities can implement the recommendations from each of the projects in an efficient manner.