The XIVth International Winter Road Congress, held in Andorra this February, provides the opportunity to learn from leading technical experts on a range of winter related subjects.  The Congress, to be held on the 4 – 7 February this year, has a number of technical seminars based around papers that were reviewed by an expert panel.  A number of papers were accepted from the UK by members of CIHT including Martin Hobbs, Highways Agency; Hugh Gillies, Transport Scotland; and Matthew Lugg, Mouchel.

Matthew Lugg, CIHT Council member and Director of Public services at Mouchel Infrastructure Services said:  “I'm really looking forward to attending the Winter Congress in Andorra to be able to share international best practice for winter maintenance services.  My presentation will explain the wake up call to the UK Highways sector caused by three successive severe winters. How the national resilience was severely challenged by these events and how the country responded. I will make reference to the various reviews and inquires and the lessoned learnt which have helped to us be in much better place to respond to such events in the future". Mouchel also have another paper which is a collaboration with Oldham Council and TRL on the risks of  de-icing over concrete structures.

Martin Hobbs, Head of Asset Resilience at the Highways Agency is presenting a paper on Management during Extreme Winter Weather Events.  Martin will explain the process that was developed to better control and coordinate the Agency's response in advance of and during crises following the experiences from a succession of unusually extreme weather in the UK.  Martin also serves as a technical committee representative for the UK on the World Road Association Technical Committee on Winter Service alongside Alan Chambers, Amey and Stewart Leggett from Transport Scotland, both members of CIHT.   Two further papers are being presented by the Highways Agency, one on the development, implementation and evaluation of reduced salt spread rates and the other on influencing road users during severe winter weather events.

Scotland’s worst gridlock in living memory occurred during December 2010 as heavy snow fell during what was already a prolonged and extremely cold period.  Following that event Transport Scotland implemented significant improvements to its winter service to further increase the resilience of Scotland’s roads to severe winter weather. To cover the range of improvements delivered on Scottish trunk roads 3 papers are being presented across key themes.  Stewart Leggett, Strategic Impacts Manager at Transport Scotland will be explaining the new Multi-Agency Response Team approach to severe winter events.  Brian Gordon, Managing Director of the trunk road operating company BEAR Scotland will be describing the challenges faced in an unpredictable climate and how improved resilience has been achieved through increased investment and innovation with regard to winter treatments, decision making and communications.  Karl Johnson, Economic Adviser at Transport Scotland will explain how the cost of disruption to travel by severe winter weather has been estimated and how that can be used to better understand the economic benefits that can be achieved through winter resilience improvements.