The ROADEX Network has published an external independent academic assessment on the benefits and savings of the alternative road asset management strategies suggested by ROADEX over the period 1998 – 2012. The aim of the work, by Professor Pekka Leviäkangas, was to critically evaluate the 2012 ROADEX IV summary report “ROADEX benefits and savings – achieving more with less”.  The evaluation looked into the ROADEX results, methodologies and approaches, with the main focus on the economic and financial matters of the published ROADEX strategies.

The evaluation was both critical and complimentary of the works of ROADEX, and gives excellent guidance for the current ROADEX NETWORK partners for future collaborations.

This report can be downloaded from the ROADEX website.

The Finnish Transport Agency together with the Lappi and Keski-Suomi Centres for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment, Lapland and Roadscanners Oy from Finland has started a new PEHKO 2015-2025 project with the emphasis on testing new methods that could improve the efficiency and productivity of the management of paved roads. The project will commence in 2015 in selected maintenance contract areas in Lapland and Central Finland. The ambitious goal of this 10 year R&D pilot project will be to cut down the annual paving costs in the areas by 40-50% from the current level.

The basic idea of the PEHKO project will be to improve the practices and policies of paved road maintenance and management, and the technologies developed and tested in the ROADEX projects will have a great role. The aim of the project will be to enhance the productivity of funding investments and improve the condition of the paved road network, or at least keep it at current levels with less resources. This goal will be achieved by focusing on three targets:

1) Improving the daily drainage maintenance standards for paved roads. This will lead to increased pavement lifetimes and lower annual paving costs.
2) Applying new NDT (non-destructive testing) road survey technologies in the diagnostics of paved roads allowing the engineers involved to focus their rehabilitation measures exactly on the problem sections and address the roots of the problems rather than just treating the symptoms.
3) Changing maintenance policies from reactive to proactive maintenance. This will mean that maintenance crews will fix the potential problem sections before serious pavement damages appear.

ROADEX Network Partners commissioned Roadscanners in 2014 to carry out a prestudy on the “Effect of Axle and Tyre Configurations on Pavement Durability”. The resulting ROADEX Network report provides a general information package on the effect of different truck options, axle configurations, tyre types and tyre pressure options on pavements, other road structures and subgrades. A secondary goal of the prestudy was to model the stresses and strains, and perform  calculations of pavement lifetimes, caused by the different variables on typical pavement structures within the ROADEX Network area. The report also summarizes the key results of research carried out in Finland, Sweden, Norway, Scotland and other countries regarding the effect of heavy traffic on pavement durability.

This report can be downloaded from the ROADEX website.

Northland Resources Ltd opened an iron ore mine in Kaunisvaara in Pajala municipality in Northern Sweden in 2013. Their plan was to annually transport five million tonnes of mined ore concentrate on trucks to a new terminal in Svappavaara from where it would be hauled by train to Narvik harbour in Norway. The ROADEX project was involved before mine was opened in an impact analysis of a range of heavy truck options on the transport route that had relatively weak structures. After the mine was opened Roadscanners performed a follow up survey on selected sections of the route in order to compare the types of damages that appeared on the road.

The follow-up measurements 2013 and 2014 showed that, as was predicted  before the start of the heavy haulage, the surveyed road sections had experienced extensive deformations and damages after the commencement of the heavy traffic. The greatest rutting and damages were located in the areas of highest risk classes 4 and 5, especially in those places where the subgrade changed from strong to weak. In addition to the Mode 2 rutting caused by the weak subgrade, Mode 1 rutting deformation in the base course was also detected in many places. Problems with frost action and thawing of ice lenses were also evident in the sections.

Regrettably the mine was closed in 2014 due to financial difficulties and the follow-up surveys are not expected to continue until the mine re-opens operations.

The Icelandic version of the elearning lesson on “Environmental Considerations for Low Volume Roads” is now available on the ROADEX website. This lesson has now been translated into the four ROADEX partner languages of Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish, as well as English. See: Fáfarnir vegir og umhverfismál

The Greenlandic version of the elearning lesson on “Drainage” is now available on the ROADEX website. This elearning lesson is also available in English, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish. See: Kuuffinnik ilinniutit

The Swedish version of the elearning lesson on “Drainage” is now available on the ROADEX website. Further translations of the lesson will be released as soon as they become available. See: Dränering av vägar

The Swedish version of the elearning lesson on “Roads on Peat” is now available on the ROADEX website. Translations of “Roads on Peat” has already been published in English, Finnish and Norwegian. See: Vägar på torv.

The Finnish version of the elearning lesson on “Environmental  Considerations for Low Volume Roads” is now available on the ROADEX website. Translations of “Environmental Considerations for Low Volume Roads” has already been published in English, Swedish and Norwegian. See: Vähäliikenteisten teiden ympäristönäkökohdat.