The theme of the congress was: 'Providing a safe and sustainable winter road service' and UK delegates presented at a number of sessions. They attended a wide range of presentations to garner knowledge about winter service issues, technological advances, state of the art research and global best practice.

Frederick G (Bud) Wright, executive director of AASHTO in the United States delivered a keynote address and provided examples of how some state transport departments, such as Idaho, offer real time views from snow ploughs to provides a richer view of actual conditions on the network.

Ministers from Poland, Japan, Lithuania and Montenegro also participated in meetings on ensuring safe and efficient winter road service to users and delivering winter maintenance in a context of sustainable development.

The Congress saw coverage of 168 articles and 38 technical sessions. One paper of note covered 'sweep salting' – a method for winter maintenance of bicycle paths, presented by Anna Niska and Goran Blomqvist from Sweden.

The national committee of the World Road Association in the UK (WRA UK) will shortly produce a summary report about the knowledge gained from the event.

Photo: Darren Clark