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EUPAVE at the AFB20 (2) Roadside Safety Design Subcommittee on International Research Activities

28/09/2017

The 2017 edition of the AFB20 (2) Workshop on Roadside Safety Design, organised by the European Union Road Federation (ERF) in cooperation with the International Road Federation (IRF) and the Transport Research Board, was held on 21 September 2017 in the CEN premises in Brussels.

The one-day meeting was a unique opportunity for road safety experts around the globe to gather and exchange information concerning the latest trends and developments in the area of passive safety and road safety design. Thirteen speakers both from a research and a development/implementation perspective presented their work on road side safety. The presentations were followed by a roundtable discussion which looked into future challenges for roadside safety.

Luc Rens, Managing Director of EUPAVE

 

Luc Rens, Managing Director of EUPAVE, gave a presentation on “50 Years Durability for Vehicle Restraint Systems (VRS) – Research on Artificial Aging of In-Situ Concrete Barriers”.
He started with a view on durability of VRS according to the standard EN 1317 and also discussed how it is implemented in Europe today.  Afterwards he presented the status of the research project “KORRBSWO”, led by the Austrian Competence Centre on Electrochemical Surface Technology (CEST), the Technical University of Vienna and DELTABLOC.  The first goal is to simulate all conditions that could stress a concrete barrier in its typical environment.  Temperature variations, frost and thaw, moisture and dryness, carbonation and chloride introduction have to be combined in the right method and sequence to simulate a 50 year lifetime in the freezing Nordic countries, in hot and dry Spain, in frosty and wet Central Europe and also coastal regions. In the end the research project shall be a proposal for a safe and technically correct classification of the performance lifetime of concrete barriers in direct context with the specific environment.

 

Thomas Edl, Managing Director of Deltabloc

 

Thomas Edl, Managing Director of Deltabloc and member of EUPAVE presented the “Concrete safety barriers without detached parts on impact” based on a “zero debris concrete”.   He showed impressive impact tests in a test hall with a heavy pendulum on concrete barriers.  Those tests were followed by crash tests, proving the successful behaviour of the concrete and the safety barrier.

 

Participants to the meeting

The day ended with a roundtable discussion on “Transitioning standards into real-life performance” and “How make EU roads safer”, moderated by Mr. Mike Dreznes from IRF.
The panel included Mrs. Francesca La Torre of the University of Firenze (Italy), Mr. Erik De Bisschop from the Flemish Road Authorities, Mr. Matteo Pezzcucchi from the Norwegian Public Roads Administration, Mr. Martin Page from DELTA BLOC (Austria), who is also convenor of CEN TC 226 WG1, and Mr. Konstandinos Diamandouros from ERF.

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