The World Road Association is a non-profit organisation established in 1909 as the Permanent International Association of Road Congresses (PIARC). The Association’s broad aim over its more than 100-year history has been to promote international cooperation and the exchange of knowledge on issues relating to roads and road transport.
With more than 120 member countries, the World Road Association brings together governments from all over the globe. Its members represent all levels of economic development and every region in the world. In addition to national governments, the Association includes regional authorities, collective members, and individual members.
The work of the Association is undertaken by 17 Technical Committees and 5 Task Forces plus the Terminology and Roads Statistics Committees, which bring together technical experts from around the world.
Austroads currently has 24 full or corresponding representatives on the committees. The representatives provide regular progress reports on the work being conducted by their technical committee.
The technical committee representatives are either members of or have a close working relationship with an Austroads Task Force or Working Group.
The committees operate under four strategic themes.
Strategic Theme 1: Road Administration
The goal of this Strategic Theme is to encourage the development of policies and strategies that result in transport administrations that perform well, measure performance, and incorporate innovative financing mechanisms to meet the ever-changing needs of the road transportation community. It is intended to provide examples of good governance, performance management, evaluation methods, and showcase the efforts of transport administrations that consider and manage risk and incorporate knowledge transfer strategies between agencies operating at different levels of government.
Technical Committees | |
TC 1.1 Performance of Transport Administrations Member Alan Colegate, MR WA (English speaking Secretary) Reports | |
TC 1.2 Contribution of Roads to Economic & Social Development | |
| TC 1.3 Finance and Procurement | |
TC 1.4 Planning the Resilience of Road Networks – Climate Change and other Hazards Members Dr Shafiq Alam, DTMR Qld (Chair) Reports | |
TC 1.5 Disaster Management | |
Task Forces | |
TF 1.1 HDM-4 |
Strategic Theme 2: Road Mobility
The goal of this Strategic Theme is to encourage the improvement of access and mobility provided to the travelling public and industry through efficient road network operation and integration with other transport modes.
Technical Committees | |
TC 2.1 Roads for Accessibility and Mobility in Urban and Periurban Areas | |
TC 2.2 Roads for Equity, Accessibility and Mobility in Rural and Interurban Areas | |
TC 2.3 Sustainable Freight Member David Shepher, NZTA (Full member) Reports | |
TC 2.4 Road Network Operations and ITS for Sustainability Members Clarissa Han, NTRO (Full member) Reports | |
TC 2.5 Road infrastructure for Connected and Automated Mobility (new) Reports |
Strategic Theme 3: Safety and Sustainability
The goal of this Strategic Theme is to improve the safety and efficiency of road transport, including the movement of people and goods on the network, while effectively and widely promulgating knowledge of all aspects of road safety and encouraging implementation of positive practices.
Technical Committees | |
TC 3.1 Road Safety | |
TC 3.2 Winter Service | |
TC 3.3 Asset Management Members Michelle Baran, DTMR Qld (English Speaking Secretary) Reports February 2024 (Michelle Baran) February 2024 (Paul Geck) | |
TC 3.4 Environmental Impacts of Road Infrastructure and Transport Member Philippa Forge, DOTP VIC (Corresponding member) | |
TC 3.5 Road Infrastructure for Road Transport Decarbonisation Members Dr James Grenfell, NTRO (Full member) |
Strategic Theme 4: Resilient Infrastructure
The goal of this Strategic Theme is to improve the quality and efficiency of road infrastructure through the effective management of assets in accordance with user expectations and government requirements.
| Technical Committees | |
TC 4.1 Pavements Members Richard Wix, NTRO (Full member) Reports | |
TC 4.2 Bridges Member Dr Torill Pape, DTMR Qld (Full member) Reports | |
TC 4.3 Earthworks | |
TC 4.4 Tunnels Member Evan Lo, DTMR Qld (Full member) Reports | |
| TC 4.5 Decarbonisation of Road Construction and Road Maintenance (new) Members Louis Bettini, MR WA (English Speaking Secretary) Sharon Atkins, NZTA (Full member) Sean Hennessy, DTMR Qld (Corresponding member) Reports February 2024 | |
Task Force | |
TF 4.1 Road Design Standards | |
| Special Projects | |
| Artificial Intelligence in the Road Sector (commencing March 2024) Member Dr Kirsten McKillop, Austroads |
National Membership
Australia and New Zealand are both national members of the World Road Association. Each country is represented by a First Delegate on the Association’s Council which meets annually.
Austroads has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the World Road Association. The MOU recognises Austroads as the national committee for Australia and New Zealand. This makes Austroads responsible for:
- Disseminating information provided by the association
- Providing the association with Australian and New Zealand roads and road transport information
- Identifying and supporting experts to participate in the activities of the technical committees and working groups
- Contributing views and national reports related to World Road Association Activities
- Promoting events such as seminars, hosting technical committee meetings or other World Road Association events in Australia and New Zealand
- Promoting individual and organisational membership in Australia and New Zealand
Collective and Individual Membership
Collective and individual members can access special promotional offers and enjoy discounted publications. They also benefit from fee reductions when registering at key events hosted by the Association such as the World Road Congress, regional conferences and international seminars.
All members of the Association are entitled to:
- Receive printed copies of the Routes/Roads magazine
- Receive the Association’s electronic newsletter
- Access additional Association publications and products free of charge
- Access the members’ area of the Association’s website (including exclusive and regular updates on the technical committees’ activities and the database of the Association’s members and experts contact details)
- Receive one copy of the published proceedings of each congress
Collective members can appoint two representatives to the World Road Congress and one representative to the International Winter Road Congress who will benefit from a reduced registration fee to attend, while individual members can benefit from a reduced registration fee to both the World Road Congress and the international Winter Road Congress.
Collective Membership Form: Word | PDF
Individual Membership Form: Word | PDF
Membership enquiries
Austroads
Phone: +61 2 8265 3300
Email: austroads@austroads.com.au