N O R D I C R O A D A S S O C I A T I O N

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A s s o c i a t i o n
A vibrant Forum for Nordic
road professionals
Activities in the Association
The Nordic Road Association (NVF) functions as a platform for the exchange of knowledge and experiences. NVF aspires to spread information
to the whole Nordic road and road transport sector and even beyond
through its co-operation with other international associations.
Cover Graphic: Arletty Suenson, Vejdirektoratet
Layout: Ditte Kilsgaard Møller, Nordkom
Photo: Vägverket, Vegagerðin, Statens Vegvesen,
Vejdirektoratet and Tiehallinto Vägförvaltningen; Thanks to: Henrik Kettunen, Peter Lund
Andersson, Knut Opeide, Viktor Arnar Ingólfson,
Magne Flemsæter, Geir Brekke, Bjørn Andersen,
G. Pétur Matthíasson
Print: Prinfovejle
Published July 2009
1st issue
3000 copies
© NVF 2009
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The committees of NVF offer road professionals – young and experienced,
men and women – excellent opportunity to be a part of a vibrant and motivated network of experts from all Nordic countries including the Faroe
Islands and representing all the major actors in the field.
The results of the work in the committees is presented to the public in
numerous seminars and the Via Nordica congresses, held every four years.
More than 800 experts participating in the work of NVF and its numerous
committees can’t be wrong. Co-operation without frontiers adds value.
I invite you to have a closer look at us, our work and our services. We always welcome new companies and organizations to join our network.
Perhaps you would like to join us?
Enjoy the reading
Hreinn Haraldson
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Hreinn Haraldsson
Vegagerđin, Iceland
President of the NVF
Introduction
About the Nordic Road Association
Guide to the many dimensions of the work of the NVF
Expertise Without Frontiers
The Nordic Road Association consists of a general secretariat, two thematic groups and 14 technical committees that focus on specialized areas
such as bridges, information technology, road pavements etc.
Nordic Road Association (NVF) aims at developing the road and road
transport sectors in Northern Europe through professional cooperation
between experts from all Nordic Countries: Denmark, Finland, Faeroe
Islands, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.
Four strategic themes form guidelines for the work accomplished within
the organization.
1. Improved holistic approach
2. New Roles and New Competences
Every member country has its own national section in the NRA. The Chair
of the Association rotates in periods of four years among all member
countries, except the Faroe Islands. For the period 2008 - 2012 the NRA is
chaired by Iceland.
The NVF was established in 1935 inspired by the hundred years old French
based World Road Association, PIARC’s organisation and ways of working.
3. Environment
4. Traffic Safety
The most important objectives of the organization are realised through
the work carried out in the technical committees. On page 6-7 the technical committees are presented briefly. Our interpretation of the strategic
themes are shown on page 8-9.
Today the NVF counts more than 800 participants in the work of its Technical Committees, Theme Groups and 6 National Boards. About 300 organisations are members of the Association.
Please check out our website or contact us for further information.
www.nvfnorden.org
Storebæltsbroen. The 18 km long bridge
in Denmark was finished in 1998.
Photo: Peter Lund Andersson, Epoke
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Facts on the 16 Technical Committees
ITS
Bridges
Urban
transport
Strategic
planning
Vehicles and
transport
Information
systems
Road
Construction
Operations and
maintenance
The committee covers
Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) - from organization and cooperation
to implementation and
operation of ITS.
A technical committee
that works with Nordic
issues in bridge engineering, cost estimation and
procurement methods.
The committee benchmarks traffic and area
planning in Scandinavian
city regions.
The committee works
with transport efficiency
with a view to create a
more holistic and cohesive infrastructure for
transport.
The work is divided into
the fields of: Best practice for heavy vehicles,
Vehicle inspection and
reciprocity between vehicle and road.
The committee consists
of the following competence groups: E-services,
Road User Behavior and
Data.
The committees field of
work consists of the subsurface, construction and
dimension of the road,
finances and quality.
The objective is to pool
Nordic competence
within operations and
maintenance of roads
and streets.
Organization
and market
Development
of roads
Road pavements
Traffic safety
Environment
Tunnels
Access
Competence
The committee commits
to the strategic plan of
the association.
The work of the committee is divided into 3 areas:
urban traffic, vulnerable
road users and traffic
rules.
The committee primarily
works with all aspects of
Road Pavements, but also
covers surface treatment
and alternative solutions.
The committee works
with topics such as: Accident frequencies in the
Nordic countries, Traffic
Safety inspections, traffic
safety in society planning
and head-on collisions.
The vision of the committee is that transport is not
to lead to serious injury
of man or environment.
The committee has three
workgroups for the areas:
LCC, Operations maintenance and upgrading, Efficient tunnel production
and documentation, and
fire safety in tunnels.
The thematic group aims
to enhance accessibility
in broad aspects of roadand urban planning.
This thematic group
analyzes education and
activity levels in the
sector in the different
nations. The analysis is
used in specific activities.
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the idea behind our
Strategic themes
1 Improved holistic approach
2 New Roles and New Competences
Transport system awarenes
Mobility Management
lifecycle process in road operations
Customer services
Transport system in cities
Comparable effects of the transport sector
Information management
Universal design
Entrepreneur and producer competences
Innovation and production
Awarenes of lifecycle
Globaizing, co-operation and partnering
New action-, financing- and organization plans
Availability of data
Recruitment for the road sector
3 Environment
4 Traffic Safety
Climate and energy
Health
Aestethics and environment
Use of natural resources
Traffic system for drivers and vehicles
Specific groups of road users
Safety and security
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Via Nordica
The Nordic Forum for road knowledge sharing
The Nordic Road Congress Via Nordica is arranged every four years.
At the final ceremony of Via Nordica 2008 in Helsinki, Finland the chairmanship of Iceland was introduced. This is the first time Iceland leads the
Nordic Road Association.
In 2012, June 11 - 13 Via Nordica will be held in Reykjavik.
www.vianordica2012.is
Moments from Via Nordica in Helsinki 2008
Photo: Henrik Kettunen
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Due to a violent storm the dam near
Rømø at the Danish westcoast was
broken through.
Not only a hot topic
Cooperation across committees
The Committee of Environment is aware that environmental work is of
great significance to all aspects of the road sector. The committee provides
consultancy for all other committees within the Nordic Road Association.
Gerd Åström, Head of the Committee expects the product of the work in
the committee to be a series of recomendations and advices on how to
achieve a sustainable process in all road sector related projects. “We work
with a variety of environmental questions, both local problems and issues
that covers all nordic countries”, says Gerd Åström.
Cooperation is of great importance to the committee, as well as communication. During the period untill 2012 the Committee of Environment will
probably be seen as a partner in many seminars held by all committees in
the Nordic Road Association.
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We are Building bridges
in more than one sense
Sharing nordic Knowledge on bridges
Sharing knowledge of practices among Nordic countries is the core
competence in the Committee of Bridges and comprises research,
development and bridge management issues. Therefore both bridge
designers, contractors, employers, research organizations and universities take part in the work of the committee.
Apart from a wide and powerful range of affiliates, the success of the
committee includes a long history and tradition, which also leaves
space for new thinking and renewal.
Every fourth year at the Via Nordica conference the committee awards
the best nordic bridge project. At the award ceremony it is also given
a thorough and well illustrated presentation of the bridge and the
construction process.
In Helsinki 2008 the Icelandic bridge Þjórsárbrú landed the prize
mostly due to its ability to withstand earthquakes, which it did just a
fortnight month before receiving the award.
Cutting edge research on
Road surface Technology
Annual Award: the best young scientist
Members of the Committee of Road Pavements look forward to the
annual meeting held in the summer. Every year the committee arranges a competition among new research and development projects.
The purpose of the legendary competition is to reward cutting edge
research within the area, but also to sharpen the appetite for pavement research among young scientists and students at Nordic universities.
Participants in the competition represent the larger Nordic countries,
Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland and Denmark. But also Faeroe
Islands bring in competitors once in a while. The reward for winning
the competition is 1500€, and all participants get refund for travel
expenses.
The committee’s more than 60 members comprises entrepreneurs and
contractors as well as scientists and engineers at Nordic road administrations. All are eager to get an update on technical and cutting edge
research by each other and the R&D price nominees.
The work of the committee during the annual meeting takes shape as
a progressive workshop, documented and printed in the annual report
among the results and the presentations from the best performances
in the competition. The annual report is a valuable resource for sharing knowledge on pavement research among Nordic countries.
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Solving seasonal Challenges
They Lower costs and spare our environment
Combating icy roads results in large cost in all Nordic countries. Adjusting
levels of salting, implementing winter surveillance and using right equipment at right places are some of the efforts taken to ensure that the roads
are safe at winter times.
Among the nordic countries one commonality is that survaillance and
advanced IT systems play a large role in winter maintenance. Cooperation
in the Committee of Operations and Maintenance leads to development
of technology and methods.
Sharing knowledge on how to handle difficult winter conditions among
the Nordic countries leads to development of equipment and methods.
This means that procedures can be improved. One example is that when
unnecessary salting is avoided the environment is spared huge costs.
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The data is collected by the Committee of Traffic Safety and can be downloaded at the committee web site.
3D visualization of tunnel
project in Bjørvika, Norway
The diagram shows numbers of
casualties every month from 2000 to
2008 in Sweden, Denmark, Finland,
Norway and Iceland.
SW
ED
EN
DE
NM
AR
550
K
500
FI
NL
450
AN
D
Safety is universal
400
Shared Effort brings down numbers of casualties
350
NOR WAY
300
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2007
2006
200
150
100
ICELAN
20
D
50
2008
2009
Comparing statistics among the
Nordic countries in order to plan
a joint effort is a working strategy
that several of the committees
in the NVF follows. Particularily
within the safety area this strategy
can add a perspective to procedures in each country.
“We believe that we all gain the
most from the network when we
handle themes that our members
have experience within”, says Heidi
Berg, head of the Committee of
Tunnels. The Committee offers
knowledge sharing in a broad
array of technical themes within
tunnel construction, -operation
and -maintenance. Safety is one of
the main focal areas. Procedures
around tunnels and safety are different among the Nordic countries
due to different traditions. The
safety knowledge group aim to
gather experiences from all Nordic
countries.
each country. By understanding
the development of these curves
many circumstances needs to be
considered. This could be change
of speed limits, politics, climate
changes, gas prizes etc. “By understanding the development of accidents we have an option to bring
down the numbers in the future”,
says Lars Ekman, head of the Committee of Traffic Safety.
Joined statistics of casualties from
the Nordic countries reflects many
different circumstances within
Most committees value cooperation with other committees high
on the list of goals for this period.
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Recruiting engineers
Lack of engineers can develop into a major problem
The Thematic Group, Committee of Competence handles recruitment and
education of engineers for the road and traffic sector. The Nordic countries experience decreasing numbers of educated engineers. The thematic
project will develop descriptions of future possibilities, a tool for organizations, companies and institutions to encourage interest from young
people.
At workshops throughout the Nordic countries companies and road
administrations will be informed about the issue. “Our goal is to mobilize
companies and road administrations, and to encourage them to speed
up their activities in the area”, says Jens E. Pedersen, head of the Thematic
Group.
The committee will encourage a more profound level of cooperation.
Even children in preschool is a target group in the attempt to make more
people choose technical educations. The knowledge that the committee achieve in the area will be presented at public seminars, articles and
workshops.
Let ideas come to life
Playful methods bring out creativity
The unique way the meetings are carried out is the core of the Committee
of Information and Communication Technologies.
”We are exceptionally aware of the way we plan and facilitate both technical and social networking activities”, says Hans Jørgen Larsen, head of
committee.
All work in the committee takes place at two annual meetings. Members
of the committee co-operates in smaller so called knowledge groups with
focus on specific areas of interest. Members of the committee have the
posibility to present national state of the art projects. This often leads to
new themes for the next meeting.
Ideas developed at the meeting have a tendency to come to life. At the
last Via Nordica Conference in 2008 two entries was held as a result of the
work of this committee. One of the entries was Preben Meyer director of
Innovationlab, who presented a mind blowing show of new electronic
gadgets. Participants at this presentation were guaranteed to expand their
horizon on what is technically possible.
Making sure that members of the committee connect across nationalities
is a task that demands detailed planning down to a practical level.
“When 20 – 30 people meet only once or twice a year it is a fact that
remembering names can be hard”, says Hans Jørgen Larsen. As a natural
consequence members wear nametags at all meetings.
At every meeting the host runs a warm-up activity. This is traditionally a
competition where the teams are divided either into knowledge groups
or by nationality. The main purpose is to ensure broad and international
networking. The traditional game makes a good and dynamic starting
point for the technical discussions and opens up minds for the networking
process.
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Seamless public transport
We enhance transition between public and private transport
Urban planning and transport are integrated parts as well as interaction
between private and public transport.
The road sector throughout the nordic countries has already realized that
limited space in road areas is an increasing problem and one of the main
traffic related challenges in the future.
During the next four years subdivisions of the Committee of Strategic Planning has the possibility to develop new common Nordic ways to enhance
capacity in road infrastructure.
Future cases could be car pool lanes, intelligent traffic systems and improvement of pay road systems. Furthermore better circumstances for
mobility management and cyclists is a strong focus in the committee.
The aim of the work is to improve seamless transfer between private and
public transportation. To ensure broad use of the work, the committee will
develop examples for good action plans in urban and traffic planning.
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About this folder
The Nordic Road Association (NVF)
aims at developing the road and road
transport sectors in Northern Europe
through professional cooperation
between experts from all Nordic
Countries: Denmark, Finland, Faeroe
Islands, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.