news

The February 2011 edition of the ERTRAC newsletter has been published.  This announces the ERTRAC conference, the roadmap developments and TRA2012.

The Final European workshop of the DIRECT-MAT project will be held in Brussels on 18-19 October 2011. More information will be given on this site.

The  FEHRL's successful presence at the 90th Annual Transportation Research Board meeting included several sessions and meetings supplemented by an exhibition stand.

The fourth Transport Research Arena, TRA 2012 will take place in Athens, Greece, from 23 – 26 April 2012. This edition of TRA will for the first time, deal extensively with all surface transport modes - road, rail and waterborne, and underline the interlinks between these transport modes. The Programme Committee is now inviting submissions of abstracts for oral or poster presentations at the TRA conference. Abstracts should relate to one of the conference topics, which are grouped into 6 pillars that cover all areas of surface transport. Please consult the TRA website for detailed instructions on the submission procedure. Deadline for submission is midnight on 15 April 2011. First Announcement (.pdf).

Mathias Ruethe Director-General of the EC's Mobility and Transport (DG MOVE) has published his challenges for 2011.  In DG MOVE's weekly newsletter he focused on the presentation of the White Paper on the Future of Transport.

FEHRL member institute LCPC merged with fellow French institute on 1 January 2011 to create IFSTTAR- French Institute of Science and Technology for Transport, Development and Networks. The appointed Director General is Hélène Jacquot-Guimbal, coming from LCPC.  To learn more about IFSTTAR, please visit their new website at www.ifsttar.fr.

Forever Open Road has been included in the European Voice,  special report on "Tomorrow's Transport", out on 9 December 2010. The article is also available to read online on the FOR webpage.  

The ERA-NET ROAD II (ENR2) project  is initiating three cross-border funded, trans-national joint research programmes on three topics; Mobility, Design and Energy.  The call documents will be open and posted by the end of January 2011 in the section "Newest Documents". For more information and a detailed programme Description of Research Needs (DoRN),  please click on each topic call below or consult the ERA-NET ROAD II website. 

1. Mobility - Getting the most out of Intelligent Infrastructure - DoRN Mobility
2. Design - Rapid and Durable Maintenance Methods and Techniques - DoRN Design
3. Energy - Sustainability and Energy Efficient Management of Roads - DoRN Energy
   

The Federal Highway Agency (FHWA) has published the report of its 2009 scanning tour of Europe.  The scanning team team visited to gather information on safety and serviceability practices and technologies related to the design, construction, maintenance, and management of bridges.

SPACE - Speed Adaptation Control by Self-Explaining Roads - has published its first public deliverable, a state-of-the-art review entitled "Self-Explaining Roads Literature Review and Treatment Information". The literature review explores the evolution of the term ‘self-explaining roads’ and discusses various approaches to the concept. It further provides information about ‘self-explaining’ treatments that may have an impact on speed choice and would be appropriate for use on rural, single carriageway, higher volume roads. The review is available for download on the SPACE Public File Zone (.pdf).