Report 4 October 2011-December 2011 World Road Association (PIARC) Paris, France 1
Introduction In the fourth and last PIARC Report of 2011 I will alk about the Nordic Road Association Meetings in Oslo in November, the results from the Executive Committee Ballot and I will also mention the upcoming Kick-off Meetings in March 2012. The Technical Advisors (TA) at the World Road Association (WRA/PIARC) Central Office All the Technical Advisors (TA s) are responsible for different tasks, see list below. For your information, it is now time for our Korean colleague Byeong Jin (BJ) Lee to leave Paris after having spent almost one year here. In the New Year his successor Mr Ko Jun Sik will come and take over BJ s position. He is planned to arrive end of January 2012 or in the beginning of February depending on how long the VISA procedure takes. From the next cycle it has been decided that the Nordic TA s will take over the Strategic Theme 3 including the Road Safety Manual Task Force (TFI) and the Security Task Force (TF2) from the former Australian Technical Advisors. I have been asked to take over STC already in January 2012. So as the new year starts I will be in charge of STC/ST3 as well as managing the last bits and pieces of the work of the outgoing Technical Committees of STA. For the moment I will also be in charge of managing the proposed International Seminars for the cycle of 2012-2015. Name Email address STA/STC (Sweden) carolina.theolin-palmell@piarc.org STB Yasuyuki Matsumoto (Japan) yasuyuki.matsumoto@piarc.org STA Ko Jun Sik STD Miguel Caso-Flórez (Spain) miguel.caso-florez@piarc.org 2
Executive Committee Executive Committee Meeting (ExCom) The next Executive Committee Meeting will be organized by the Icelandic Road Administration and Dr Hreinn Haraldsson, in Reykjavik Iceland in April 2012. The schedule is as follows; on the Wednesday the 11 th of April the Strategic Planning Commission has a one day meeting. Following the SP Commission is the Executive Committee Meeting which is held for two days on the Thursday and Friday 12-13 th of April. Technical visits are planned to be held on the Saturday the 14 th of April. Executive Committee Ballot Since there were still a few vacant Chair and Secretary Positions in the Technical Committees for the new cycle, the Executive Committee was asked to participate in a ballot (electronically) to vote for the candidates that had been nominated by the First Delegates of PIARC. The outcome of this ballot is seen below. The elected Chairs are: TC 1.4 - Karl-Josëf Höhnscheid TC 2.5 Roberto Sandoval TC 3.1 Matts-Åke Belin TC4.4 Paul Garnica The elected English speaking Secretaries are: TC 2.3 Brian R Barber TC 4.3 Dimitrios Konstantinidis 3
Committee Chair E Sec. F Sec. S Sec. ST1 F. ZOTTER TC1.1 Brendan NUGENT Connie YEW Vacant Alberto DE BENITO TC1.2 M a José RALLO DEL OLMO Marie-Hélène LÉVESQUE Anne PLUVINAGE Gerardo GAVILANES TC1.3 Simon PRICE Vacant Vacant Juan FERNANDO MENDOZA TC1.4 Karl-Josêf HÖHNSCHEID Fred AMONYA Manon BARIL Guillermo TORRES VARGAS TC1.5 Keiichi TAMURA Yukio ADACHI Johanne LEGAULT Enrique BELDA ST2 H. OHNISHI TC2.1 Jacques EHRLICH Richard HARRIS Alexis BACELAR Alejandro MOSQUERA TC2.2 André BROTO Ana Maria LEYTON François RAMBAUD Ricardo ARREDONDO TC2.3 Don HOGBEN Brian R BARBER Bernard JACOB Eric MORENO QUINTERO TC2.4 Didier GILOPPE Richard J. NELSON Vacant José Carlos VALDECANTOS TC2.5 Roberto SANDOVAL Vacant Vacant Alfonso BALBUENA ST3 J. PANIATI TC3.1 Matts-Åke BELIN Robert HULL Vacant Jesus LEAL TC3.2 Mike GREENHALG Brendan MARSH Lise FOURNIER Roberto LLAMAS TC3.3 Ignacio DEL REY LLORENTE Fathi TARADA Vacant Javier BORJA ST4 C. MARIOTTA TC4.1 Thomas LINDER Vacant Philippe LEPERT Oscar GUTIERREZ TC4.2 Seung-Hwan HAN Vacant Benoit PETITCLERC José DEL CERRO TC4.3 Satoshi KASHIMA Dimitrios KONSTANTINIDIS Vacant Pablo DIAZ TC4.4 Paul GARNICA Vacant Thierry DUBREUCQ Aurea PERUCHO TERM Daniel VERFAILLIE Vacant Vacant Cristina HIGUERA As you can see there are still a few English and French speaking Secretary Positions yet to be filled. If they have not been filled before March then this issue has to be addressed and resolved at the actual Technical Committees Kick-off meetings in Paris in March 2012. Please also note that the 3.1 elected Chair Matts-Åke Belin is Swedish. He is the only Nordic Chair in the coming cycle. I would like to take this opportunity to express my appreciation to the Chair of the Nordic Road Association Dr Hreinn Haraldsson for his help in the campaign for Mr Belin. Without his support and contact with his fellow Executive Committee Members I am sure that Matts-Åke Belin would not have been elected. Nordic Road Association (NVF/NRA) Meetings in Oslo 23-25 November Secretary Meeting NRA National Chapters End of November I went to Oslo, Norway for the annual NVF/NRA meetings. On the 23 rd of November the Secretaries of the Boards of the Nordic Road Association s National Chapters had a meeting at the Thon Hotel Vika Atrium in Oslo Norway. The issues standing out from this meeting were the fact that Pär-Håkan Appel, Secretary from the Finnish Chapter is planning for his retirement and announced that he will step down as Secretary in the spring of 2012. He therefore brought his successor to this Secretary meeting on the 23 rd of November Mrs Anne Ranta-aho in order 4
for her to have an introduction. Anne Ranta-aho works at the Centre of Economic Development, Transport and Environment as a Manager of the Traffic Customer Service in Finland. Pär-Håkan Appel will be available to aid and assist if needed for the last couple of years before his retirement. On the subject of retirement, Per-Erik Winberg also announced that he will retire with effective immediately on the 1 st of December of 2011. So far, his successor as Secretary for the Board of the Swedish Chapter has not been officially announced. Furthermore, there was an update about the cooperation between the Nordic Road Association (NVF/NRA) and the Baltic Road Association (BRA) as well as between NVF/NRA and the World Road Association (PIARC). The progress of the Strategic Plan 2012-2016 was also discussed and was to be presented to the Nordic Road Association Board meeting on the 25 th of November. Nordic Road Association Förbundsmöte Meeting On the 24 th of November the Nordic Road Association Förbundsmöte was held in Oslo at the same hotel as the Secretary meeting the day before. After the opening of the meeting there was a session of presentations made by different Committees. Every presentation was about 10 minutes long in order to give an update of their work. After the update from the Committees, Rikhardur Kristjansson gave us a Progress Report regarding the organizing of the VIA Nordica Congress in Reykjavik, Iceland in June 2012. The progress looks really good and they are now finishing up with the last preparations and are hoping for as many participants as possible. The minimum number of participants in order to break even is about 800 people. Following the Progress Report regarding VIA Nordica, it was time for me make an Activity Report Presentation from the World Road Association - as all previous Technical Advisors seconded to the PIARC Central Office have before me. At first, I made a short overall presentation of the organisation of the World Road Association and the Central Office in Paris, France. Then, I presented the highlights of my experiences, travels I have made and meetings I have attended during my time at the PIARC office so far, all of which I have reported to you in my three previous PIARC Reports. Lastly, I talked a little about the upcoming events before finishing my secondment in Paris in the spring of 2012. The last item on the agenda was the Strategic Plan 2012-2016 Presentation made by the Secretary of the Norwegian Chapter of the NRA, Marit Langaas. This was the last discussion about the Strategic Plan before it was presented at the Nordic Road Association Board Meeting on the 25 th of November. On the evening after the NRA meeting, we were all invited to a wonderful dinner at the Restaurant Eik in the City Centre of Oslo. At this dinner the last Swan Award was given for outstanding work by Dr Hreinn Haraldsson to Oyvindur Brimnes from the Faroe Islands (see picture to the right). It is yet to be decided what to do with this award for the upcoming cycle. 5
Nordic Road Association Board Meeting Förbundstyremöte On the third and last day of meetings, the NVF/NRA Board Meeting was held at the Thon Hotel in Oslo. At this meeting the Strategic Plan 2012-2016 was discussed and accepted with slight amendments. The General Directors/ Vice General Directors from each Nordic Country then gave a Status Report of the Transport-, or Road Administrations. The Private Sector Representatives also gave a Status Report regarding their companies. Vice General Director Lena Erixon, the Swedish Transport Administration Lastly, after having attended the NVF/NRA Meetings in Oslo I realize even more how strong collaboration is in the Nordic Road Association between all the Nordic Countries. The NVF/NRA has been around since 1935 and counting all the inhabitants in the Nordic countries we are about 20 million people. As a representative seconded to PIARC by the Nordic Road Association and the Swedish Transport Administration, it makes me feel I feel very proud. Proposed seminars 2012-2015 The call for proposals of organizing International Seminars was sent out to all PIARC First Delegates and the deadline was the 15th of December 2011. So far we have received proposals from Ecuador, Malaysia, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Vietnam and Benin regarding themes such as Road Pavements, Freight Transport, Winter Service, Rural Road Systems and Accessibility to Rural Areas, and Management of Road Assets and so forth. Routes Roads Next edition of the Routes Roads magazine will be a Special Edition covering the whole XXIV World Road Congress in Mexico City in September 2011. It will be published end of January 2012. The Mexican and Spanish delegations are interested to provide a Spanish translation for this particular edition. New Website The new website has been launched. We are experiencing some technical problems but with every day that goes by they are being resolved. Please do not hesitate to contact me or the office if you need help managing the new website. Call for nominations for Technical Committee Members 2012-2015 In November, letters was sent out to all the First Delegates of the Association to ask for nominations for members of the Technical Committees for the coming cycle of 2012-2015. In mid January the nominations are to be received at the General Secretariat. 6
Final proceedings XXIV World Road Congress The work is ongoing to complete the final proceedings the World Road Congress in September 2011 and it will be available in February/March 2012. Kick-off Meetings for the new Technical Committees The Kick-off Meetings with the new Technical Committees will be held in March 2012 at the Coeur Defense Building in La Défense. The Coeur Défense Building is about 10 minutes walking distance from The PIARC Central Office at La Grande Arche. Every Strategic Theme will have about one week of meetings. The calendar of meetings for each Strategic Theme is the following: - March 6 to 8, Strategic Theme 1 - Management and Performance - March 13 to 15, Strategic Theme 3 - Safety and Committee on Terminology - March 20 to 22, Strategic Theme 2 - Access and Mobility - March 27 to 29, Strategic Theme 4 Infrastructure For each Strategic Theme, meetings are organized according to the same schedule, see below. Tuesday - 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 Tuesday - 2:30 to 6:00 p.m. Wednesday - 9:00 to 6:00 p.m. Thursday - 9:00. to 4:00 p.m. Thursday - 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Preparatory meeting: Strategic Theme Coordinator, Technical Committee Chairs of the Strategic Theme, Secretary General + Technical Advisors Plenary Meeting of all the Technical Committees of the Strategic Theme + Technical Advisors Parallel meetings of the Technical Committees of the Strategic Theme + Technical Advisors Parallel meetings of the Technical Committees of the Strategic Theme + Technical Advisors Meeting Summary: Strategic Theme Coordinator, Technical Committee Chairs of the Strategic Theme, Secretary General + Technical Advisors 7
Upcoming events CIRC Meeting in February 2012 Kick off Meetings with the new TC s in March 2012 Executive Committee Meeting and SPC meeting in April 2012 Introduction/hand over of Finnish Technical Advisor La Grande Arche Paroi Nord Niveau 5 92055 La Défense Cedex France Tel.+33(0)147968185 Fax: +33 1 49 00 02 E-mail: carolina.theolin-palmell@piarc.org Web: www.piarc.org info@piarc.org 8