Austroads: Transport Research and Trends

Climate change is placing increasing pressure on transport infrastructure across Australia and New Zealand, creating growing challenges for asset owners and network managers. This webinar introduced the findings of an Austroads report, Identifying and Prioritising Climate Adaption Actions for Transport Assets, which addresses a key challenge for Austroads members: translating climate risk and resilience objectives into prioritised adaptation initiatives to support investment decision-making.

The session showcased the new Adaptation Action Prioritisation Methodology (AAPM), developed to help Austroads member agencies:

• identify suitable and effective adaptation actions for transport assets
• assess and compare adaptation options
• understand trade-offs between cost, risk reduction and broader outcomes
• prioritise investments and adaptation planning
• increase consistency in how adaptation measures are assessed and evaluated.

Attendees also gained insights into two integrated resources developed to support implementation of the AAPM:

• the Library of Adaptation Actions, which includes over 60 good practice adaptation measures for road assets
• a set of parameter values to quantify the impacts related to climate hazards and adaptation measures.

Watch the recording to learn how these new tools can help integrate climate resilience into transport planning and investment decisions, build stronger business cases for adaptation, and deliver better value-for-money outcomes in a changing climate.

This webinar was presented by Lorena Garcia, Aidan McGann, and Cameron Ades.

Bituminous binders that are used to construct roads are tested prior to use to ensure they will perform satisfactorily during a road’s lifecycle. Standards Australia Committee CH-025 ‘Bitumen and related products for roadmaking’ is responsible for the revision of 4 national specification documents and 26 test methods which are used to characterise bituminous materials used in road construction. Austroads has also published 14 test methods that are used to characterise bituminous materials.

This webinar presents the outcomes of Austroads Project APT6256 which provided expert technical input into the revision of 3 national specification documents (AS 2008, AS 2157 and AS 1160) and 1 Austroads test method (ATM 101). The webinar includes a description of the process used to update an Australian Standard and outlines the main changes to the 4 revised documents.

Transport Management Centres operate at the heart of our transport networks, coordinating responses to incidents, managing disruptions and supporting the safe and efficient movement of people and goods. Alongside these responsibilities come unique challenges, including shift work, high workloads, exposure to traumatic events and the need to make critical decisions under pressure.

This webinar provided an overview of the key findings from the project, discussed practical approaches for managing fatigue and psychosocial hazards in TMC environments, and explored how agencies can better support the wellbeing, resilience and performance of their operational teams.

We encourage TMC leaders, operators, incident response personnel, workplace health and safety practitioners, HR professionals and others involved in safety-critical operations to watch this recording.

This webinar was presented by David Yee and Sarah Jones.

The Austroads Guide to Temporary Traffic Management (AGTTM) provides nationally consistent guidance for the planning, design, and implementation of safe and efficient temporary traffic management across Australia and New Zealand.

Road Infrastructure Managers (RIMs) play a critical role in setting standards, approving works, maintaining network performance and ensuring safe road user outcomes during construction and maintenance activities.

This webinar is designed for professionals working within or for RIMs, especially those responsible for managing TTM access to the road network for works, events, and emergencies. This webinar is suited to any RIM personnel involved in reviewing TTM documentation as part of managing road corridor access or the delivery of infrastructure, as well as persons inspecting/auditing temporary traffic management arrangements on behalf of RIM.

The Austroads Guide to Road Safety Part 7: Road Safety Strategy and Management has been updated to Edition 3.0, published April 2026.

AGRS Part 7 supports Australian and New Zealand jurisdictions to reach their national targets of zero road deaths and serious injuries by 2050 (and interim targets by 2030). The Guide outlines international best practice and research on road safety management, providing an integrated framework for coordinated strategic planning across all pillars of the Safe System.

Edition 3.0 includes minor editorial amendments throughout to align with national and international best practice. Most significantly, it introduces a new Section 2: Road Safety Management - the focus of this webinar.

Section 2 delivers targeted, actionable guidance for the people who most shape road safety outcomes at a systems level: senior government executives, senior road safety leaders, road safety delivery partners, and elected officials. It addresses the leadership, institutional, and management conditions that enable, or constrain, effective road safety performance, providing a practical resource for those responsible for driving change at the highest levels.

During this webinar, we explore the key elements of the new Section 2.

Urban freight plays a critical role in supporting cities and regional centres across Australia and New Zealand; however, despite its importance, urban freight is not consistently defined, measured and planned for across jurisdictions.

This webinar presents an overview of the Urban Freight Scoping Study. The purpose of the study is to provide a clear, evidence-based foundation to support future policy development and decision-making related to urban freight in Australia and New Zealand.

Participants gain an overview of the current state of the urban freight task and understand key challenges faced by industry. Drawing on findings from existing literature, stakeholder engagement with over 30 organisations, and international best practice, the session also discusses ways that governments across Australia and New Zealand can better support urban freight.

This webinar presents the outcomes of Austroads research into intersection sight distance, identifying key gaps, inconsistencies, and opportunities for harmonisation across Australian and New Zealand road design guidance. Drawing on an extensive literature review, international best practice, and stakeholder engagement with jurisdictional experts, the project examined the application of sight distance models at signalised and unsignalised intersections for all road users. The webinar will highlight key findings, including inconsistencies in current design approaches, consideration of different transport modes, and the treatment of signal failure scenarios. It will also outline recommendations for updating Austroads Guide to Road Design Part 4A to improve clarity, consistency, safety outcomes, and practitioner decision-making across the road network.

This webinar provides an overview of the updated Austroads Guide to Road Safety Part 3: Safe Speed Management, with a focus on how the guidance can support safer speed limit setting in practice.Designed for road authorities, transport practitioners and others involved in speed management, the webinar will provide an overview of the Guide’s key concepts, evidence base and practical tools for applying safe speed principles across different road and street environments.Participants learn how the updated Guide supports a move from evidence to strategy, frameworks, implementation planning and delivery.

This project delivered a range of important updates to the AGRD aimed at improving the clarity, consistency and contemporary relevance of road design guidance across Australia and New Zealand. It incorporated findings from the All User Groups and All Stereotypes and Safe System Median Treatments projects, while also addressing identified errors, inconsistencies and opportunities for harmonisation.

In this session, we focus on updates to Workstream 1.3 Batter Slopes and Workstream 1.8 Consistent Speed Terminology. Attendees will gain an understanding of the key changes, the rationale behind them, and their practical implications for road design, standards development and project delivery.

This webinar presents the outcomes of Austroads Project APT1975, which conducted research to develop a new Austroads test method for evaluating the fatigue cracking performance of aged bitumen. The test method was developed for road agencies to select durable binders for constructing sprayed seal surfacings.

The development work included an extensive literature review of international fatigue cracking tests to identify suitable dynamic shear rheometer (DSR) tests. The most promising tests identified in the literature review were then conducted on a wide range of binders that were subjected to asphalt fatigue tests. This enabled selection of a reference binder test that showed the best correlation with asphalt fatigue life results.

The DSR time-sweep test was identified as a suitable reference binder test and was used to assess the fatigue cracking performance of bitumen samples after they were aged in a laboratory pressure ageing vessel (PAV) for up to 72 hours. The bitumen samples were then subjected to other DSR tests that could be performed in a shorter time than time-sweep tests, in order to identify a simple test that could be used instead of time-sweep tests which are time-consuming and complex.

The new Austroads test involves PAV ageing a 1 mm bitumen film for 72 hours and then measuring the complex modulus (G*) of the aged bitumen sample at 15°C using a test frequency of 10 Hz.