Roads Australia
Participants at ARF’s March Forum at the WatersEdge in Sydney were given a mixed assessment of road construction investment for the short to medium term.
BIS Shrapnel Senior Economist Adrian Hart said while road construction activity had been strong in 2005/06 - largely on the back of private subdivisions and toll roads - private sector-funded construction was now moving into a downturn.
On the positive side, public sector spending in 2005/06 was back to its late 1990s peak and was projected to increase over the next two years - although not enough to completely offset the private sector downturn.
Individual state outlooks varied widely, with NSW the weakest and Queensland and WA the strongest.
The picture for individual States was expanded on by the panel of road authority representatives, who gave their usual rundown of activity within their various jurisdictions. The panel participants were Commissioner of Main Roads Western Australia, Menno Henneveld; Chief Executive of SA’s Department of Transport, Energy and Infrastructure, Jim Hallion; Executive Director of QMR’s Project Development Office, Derek Skinner; GM of Traffic and Transport Integration with VicRoads, Ted Vincent; and DOTARS Director, Simon Atkinson.
Wearing his hat as Chairman of Austroads, Mr Henneveld also provided an illuminating overview of the role and responsibilities of that particular organisation.
Mr Henneveld outlined the various challenges facing road authorities around the country, including road safety, traffic congestion, the freight task and the impact of changing demographics. He said Austroads members were working together on a strategic response to those challenges across areas like asset management, workforce capability, freight management, network optimisation, road safety, technology, and registration and licencing.
Richard van Velzen, from Aon Risk Services, gave Forum participants a comprehensive assessment of the particular risks and opportunities in alliance contracting, focussing on insurance issues and in particular the development of specialised insurance products to address the unique characteristics of alliance contracts.
ARF President Ray Fisher addressed Forum participants over lunch, reflecting on the organisation’s tremendous expansion in membership since its reformation four years ago.
Mr Fisher also commented on the results of a recent membership survey that indicated members were broadly happy with the services and focus of the ARF, but would like to see the organisation build its profile and play a stronger advocacy role.
He said the Board and executive were in the process of developing strategies to respond to the issues raised in the survey.
The March Forum’s international guest speaker was Jens-Uwe Holz, the CEO of Satellic Traffic Management in Germany and CEO of Gedas Germany GmbH - the internationmal IT division of Volkswagen AG.
Mr Holz gave a fascinating presentation on the successful adoption of satellite-based tolling technology in Germany and its applicability to Australia.
The Toll Collect system in use in Germany covers some 13,000 kilometres of motorway and A roads and has proven itself to be a reliable, efficient, flexible and scalable solution that has billed the highest amount of kilometres driven of any tolling system over there, returning an average of 250 million Euros to the German treasury each month.
The sophisticated system allows road users to be charged according to distance travelled, emissions class and number of vehicle axles. Over half a million trucks carry the on-board satellite-linked tolling units.
The suitability of a satellite-based tolling system for Australia was discussed during a lively panel discussion immediately following Mr Holz’ presentation.
Sponsored by SKM, ARF’s March Forum was yet another sell-out event, attracting representatives from 55 companies and organisations.
The next ARF Forum is to be held in Brisbane in November.
If you wish to make any special requests, modify or cancel your booking please contact Roads Australia directly.