Development of Expertise within Road Maintenance

One of ten major research and development programmes conducted by the Norwegian Public Roads Administration

Duration: 2007 - 2009

The background for the programme is the concern about loss of maintenance expertise in the Norwegian Public Roads Administration (NPRA) and in the business sector, for which several causes can be identified:

• The NPRA lost both expertise and experience when the Production Department was separated from the NPRA in 2003 and became a commercial company
• Introduction of competitive tendering has caused a sector-wide shift of focus from maintenance practices to competitive bidding, contracts, terms of settlement, etc.
• Over the next few years many employees will reach retirement age, and important experience may disappear.

In addition, experience has shown that contractors are unwilling to spend their resources on long-term research. The Roads Authority must therefore actively stimulate innovation in the sector.

The main objective is to increase maintenance expertise, not only for the NPRA, but for the whole road maintenance sector in Norway.

An additional aim of the project is to establish systems, routines and procedures that help develop expertise in the future.

After initial seminars with members from the industry, four project groups were established in 2008 to work on separate focus areas.


 
CONTACT
Programme manager: Mr. Øystein Larsen
Email:   oystein.larsen@vegvesen.no
Phone: +47 73 95 46 80
Mobile: +47 901 18 460