The Roadex Project

The ROADEX Projects were a series of technical co-operation between roads organisations across northern Europe part funded by the EU Northern Periphery Programme that aimed to share roads related information and research between the partners. The Project started in 1998 as a 3 year pilot co-operation between the roads districts of Finnish Lapland, Troms County of Norway, the Northern Region of Sweden and the Highland Council of Scotland. This was subsequently followed and extended by a second project, ROADEX II, from 2002 to 2005, a third project, ROADEX III, from 2006 to 2007, and a final project, “ROADEX Network Implementing Accessibility”, from 2009 to 2012.
Over that period the collaboration grew from a simple agreement to share between four roads districts into an international network that spanned the whole of northern Europe encompassing Partners in Ireland, Iceland, Greenland, Scotland, Norway, Sweden and Finland.
In all the ROADEX collaboration produced:
* An active website www.roadex.org
* 71 technical reports
* 4 DVDs and project movies
* 37 technology demonstrations
* A host of seminars and workshops
All of the reports produced by the ROADEX collaboration are available for download on the ROADEX website at www.ROADEX.org.
In order of execution, the four ROADEX projects were:
The ROADEX Pilot Project, 1998-2001
ROADEX II, 2002-2005
ROADEX III, 2006-2007
ROADEX Implementing Accessibility, 2009-2012
The ROADEX Pilot Project, 1998-2001
Creating an effective technical exchange & co-operation across the road districts of the European Northern Periphery
The aim of the Pilot ROADEX Project was to create a technical information exchange for roads related issues across the European Northern Periphery. (Roads Information Exchange = ROADEX). The four Partners areas of the Project were Finnish Lapland, Troms County of Norway, the Northern Region of The Swedish Transport Administration and the Highland Council of Scotland.
These partner districts shared the common environmental and roads problems of long distances to their main markets in Europe, remote settlements and villages, sparse populations, difficult terrain, poor ground conditions, and long winter seasons. I addition they had the major transportation issues associated with their internationally important timber and fishing industries.
ROADEX aimed to bring together the varied roads experiences gained across the individual partner districts to identify best practice and apply this to advantage across the Northern Periphery area. The Pilot project was 50% funded by the European Union and 50% by the partner road districts, and additionally received support from The Scottish Executive and the Icelandic Roads Administration. The Lead Partner for the project was the Lapland Region of the Finnish National Road Administration (Finnra). The budget was approved at 541,071 EUR.
The main consultants for the Project were Roadscanners Oy of Finland, The Norwegian University of Science and Technology and Laboratorio Uleåborg Oy of Oulu who provided the graphic design.
The project delivered a number of outputs: a project CD-ROM Creating effective technical exchange & co-operation between road districts in the NP region and 3 technical reports. These were:
* Road Condition Management of Low Traffic Volume Roads in the Northern Periphery
* Winter Maintenance Practice in the Northern Periphery
* Generation of Snow Smoke behind Heavy Vehicles
Following the completion of the successful Pilot Project the partners committed themselves to a further ROADEX collaboration to further share information and carry out joint research.
The ROADEX II Project, 2002-2005
Interactive and Innovative Road Management Practices for Low Traffic Volume Roads
The ROADEX II Project was a 3 year collaboration to develop ways for interactive and innovative road management of low traffic volume roads. It built on the networks created during the successful Article 10 ROADEX project with additional inputs from local industry involving heavy road haulage to improve roads service provision across the area.
The Partners in the new Project were: The Partners in the new Project The Highland Council of Scotland, The Norwegian Public Roads Administration, The Swedish Transport Administration Northern Region, Forest Enterprise of Scotland, Comhairle Nan Eilean Siar, The Finnish Road Administration, District of Keski-Suomi and The Finnish Road Administration Central Administration.
The Lead Partner for the project was The Highland Council, Scotland and the project budget was 511,250 EUR. Roadscanners Oy of Finland in association with Laboratorio Uleåborg Oy of Oulu was awarded the role of project consultant following an open EU tender process.
The project also had a number of Associate Partners. These were: The Norwegian Road Haulage Association, The Finnish Road Administration, Lapland District, Metsähallitus Forestry, Stora Enso MetsäMetsäliitto Osuukunta, and The Forestry Centre of Lapland. The involvement of these Partners from the forest and timber products industry in the Project brought extensive experience of gravel road technology to the Partnership and permitted the Project to consider community roads in the widest possible context.
The formal outputs of the project included a Project DVD Focussing on low volume roads in the Northern Periphery and 11 technical reports concerning the management and maintenance of low volume roads. These were:
* User perspective to ROADEX II test areas’ road network service level
* Permanent deformation
* Material treatment
* Managing spring thaw weakening
* Socio-economic impacts of road conditions on low volume roads
* Dealing with bearing capacity problems on low volume roads constructed on peat
* Drainage on low traffic volume roads
* Environmental guidelines
* Road management policies for low volume roads
* Structural Innovations
* Monitoring, communication and information systems & tools for focusing actions
The ROADEX III Project, 2006-2007
A Project to disseminate, transfer and use the new ROADEX knowledge across the Northern Periphery area
The ROADEX III Project was a 2 year trans-national collaboration that aimed to disseminate and implement the roads management strategies, practices and innovation gathered under the pilot ROADEX project and ROADEX II. This was done through a range of methods including producing executive summaries of ROADEX outputs in individual partner languages; presentations at conferences, seminars, workshops; training packages, web based information; and further pilot trials of prototype solutions on the rural road networks of the Partner areas.
The partners in the project were The Highland Council, Forest Enterprise and Comhairle Nan Eilean Siar from Scotland, the Northern Region of the Norwegian Public Roads Administration, The Northern Region of the Swedish Transport Administration and the Swedish Forest Agency, the Savo-Karjala and Keski-Suomi Regions of the Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment of Finland, The Icelandic Road Administration, The Department of Transport and The National Roads Authority from Ireland, The Municipality of Sisimiut of the Greenland Home Rule Government and the Swedish Board of Forestry, Dalarna/Gävleborg. In addition to these Partners The Finnish Road Administration Lapland District and The Association of Regional Road Authorities (RADOR), Russia joined as Associate Partners.
The Lead Partner for the project was The Swedish National Road Administration and the project budget was 797,030 EUR. Roadscanners Oy of Finland in association with Laboratorio Uleåborg Oy of Oulu was awarded the role of project consultant following an open EU tender process.
The formal outputs of the project included 3 Project DVDs and 13 technical reports on the management and maintenance of low volume roads. These were:
Project DVDs
* DVD Video Introduction to the ROADEX III seminars
* DVD Working to the Lisbon and Gothenburg Agendas
* DVD ROADEX in Greenland, 2007
Executive summaries from ROADEX II reports
* Managing rutting in low volume roads
* Treatment of moisture susceptible aggregates
* Design and repair of roads suffering spring thaw
* Managing peat related problems on low volume roads
* Managing drainage on low volume roads
* Environmental guidelines
* Monitoring low volume roads
ROADEX III Project Reports
* Developing drainage guidelines for maintenance contracts tyre pressure control on timber haulage vehicles
*Understanding low volume pavement response to heavy traffic loading
*Driver health issues raised by poorly maintained road networks
*Road condition management policies
*Policies for forest roads
*ROADEX III case study in Greenland
The Northern Periphery Programme put forward the ROADEX project for a RegioStars award in 2009. At the award ceremony the project received special mentions from the RegioStars 2009 Jury.
The ROADEX Implementing Accessibility Project, 2009-2012
Implementing ROADEX technologies across the Partner areas
This Fourth ROADEX project aimed to change construction and maintenance of rural roads across the Northern Periphery by demonstrating what was possible when new ROADEX technologies were used. Demonstration projects of ROADEX methods were carried out in the local Partner areas supported by a new pan-regional ROADEX Consultancy Service and Knowledge Centre. Through these, roads administrations were able to directly experience the benefits and cost savings available and so encourage their adoption through their organisations. Joint research and development also continued in the areas of climate change, road widening and the health issues that can arise from poorly maintained roads.
The Partners in the project comprised public road administrations and forestry organizations from across the European Northern Periphery: The Highland Council, Forestry Commission Scotland and Comhairle Nan Eilean Siar from Scotland; the Northern Region of the Norwegian Public Roads Administration; the Northern Region of the Swedish Transport Administration and the Swedish Forest Agency; the Lappi, Savo-Karjala and Keski-Suomi Regions of the Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment of Finland; The Icelandic Road Administration; The Department of Transport and The National Roads Authority from Ireland; and the Greenland Home Rule Government. The Forest Research Institute of Canada (FERIC) and Coillte Teoranata of Ireland contributed to the project as Associate Partners.
The Lead Partner again for the project was The Swedish National Road Administration with a budget of 2,163,473 EUR. Roadscanners Oy of Finland in association with Laboratorio Uleåborg Oy of Oulu was appointed as project consultant after an open EU tender process.
Each demonstration project was followed up by a fully referenced technical report published on the ROADEX website. These continue to be available free of charge to all. In all over 30 technical reports were published. Typically these reports covered roads related issues such as drainage analysis techniques across different countries and road landscapes, demonstrations of state-of-the-art road rehabilitations and widening, condition surveys and rehabilitation proposals for forest roads, as well as a summary report on the benefits & savings that could be accrued using ROADEX strategies and technologies.
The EU part-funding of the ROADEX projects ended in 2012 at which point the Partners committed themselves to jointly self-fund a ROADEX Network to permit continued information sharing and research. This Network is still active.

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu