Call to TII Open Research Call 2021

Description

The main aim of the TII Research Programme is to enable TII to carry out its mission of “providing high quality transport infrastructure and services, delivering a better quality of life and supporting economic growth”. Research is one of the key ways that TII informs operational policy and sets standards. Emphasis is on: • What is likely to be the TII needs, • Ensuring that state-of-the-art materials and techniques are used, • Filling knowledge gaps where they exist, • Implementing the research conclusions and integrating the research outputs in a timely and effective way. The research programme covers all areas of TII responsibility including planning, design, construction, maintenance and operations. TII uses the research programme outputs to: • Provide and/or improve standards, specifications and procedures, • Identify, encourage and facilitate innovation, • Assist in the professional development of staff and enhancement of TII operations. Lot 1: Collision Prediction Model for the Irish National Road Network TII are leading the way in Europe in their approach to the implementation of directive 2008/96/EC Road Infrastructure Safety Management (RISM) systems. The TII Standards and processes use targeted and proactive network safety analysis and ranking to implement and prioritise safety improvements measures. Currently these procedures use Crash Modification Factors (CMF) derived from an Accident Prediction Model (APM) developed in other countries. CMF and crash modification functions are the indicators that quantify the crash reductions that result from interventions. They are used for evidence-based safety policies and intervention decision making. TII participated in the Conference of European Directors of Roads (CEDR) project called Predicting Road Accidents (PRACT) and that project developed a methodology to use the CMFs from the PRACT web database (www.pract-repository.eu). These have proven very beneficial to the TII Road Safety Programme. This programme is now maturing and local authority uptake of the TII standards has improved greatly however there are limitations to the use of CMFs from other EU states for Irish roads. A particular limitation is that safety measures relate to treatment of countries that drive on the right and have different road layout standards to Ireland. The use of results from APM in other state should be used with care caution according to Wegman et al. (2012). Accident Prediction Models (APM) are a highly useful tool for road authorities, road designers and road safety practitioners allowing them to quantitatively analyse potential safety issues in a road section, intersection or interchange, identify safety countermeasures and estimate the potential effect of these countermeasures in terms of crash and fatalities reduction (Yannis et al., 2016). APM are an indispensable tool for the implementation of effective cost benefit assessment methods for road safety projects, in order to quantitatively estimate benefits and the implementation of the Safe System Approach (EU, 2018). Lot 2: Development of Irish specific source and propagation correction factors for incorporation into the new CNOSSOS-EU noise prediction model Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) is a state agency in the Republic of Ireland. TII's primary function is to provide an integrated approach to the future development and operation of the national roads network and light rail infrastructure throughout Ireland. TII are responsible for the planning, maintenance and construction of National Primary Routes and National Secondary Routes. The National Roads Network totals 5,306km of road. It comprises 2,649km designated as National Primary Road and 2,657km designated as National Secondary Road. National Primary roads are numbered from M1 to M50 (N Inclusive) and National Secondary roads are numbered from N51 to N87. Contained within the national road network are the Motorway/Dual Carriageway sections totalling 1,210km (916km Motorway and 294km Dual Carriageway), of which 328km are maintained under existing Public Private Partnerships (PPP) and 588km are maintained directly by TII through Motorway Maintenance and Renewals Contracts (MMaRC). The remaining 294km are maintained by the local authorities. 2.1 Strategic Noise Mapping and CNOSSOS-EU Directive 2002/49/EC relating to the assessment and management of environmental noise (the Environmental Noise Directive – END) is the main EU instrument to identify noise pollution levels and to trigger the necessary action both at Member State and at EU level. The END requires Member States to undertake strategic noise mapping within major agglomerations, in the vicinity of major road and rail transport corridors and around major airports. The aim of the Directive is “to define a common approach intended to avoid, prevent or reduce on a prioritised basis the harmful effects, including annoyance, due to exposure to environmental noise”. The END has been a Statutory Instrument (S.I. 140/2006) of Irish Legislation since 2006 in accordance with the Environmental Noise Regulation 2006, amended by Commission Directive (EU) 2015/996 and revoked by S.I. 549/2018 in accordance with the Environmental Noise Regulation 2018. The Regulations designate the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as the National Authority for the purposes of the Regulations. EPA's role includes supervisory, advisory and coordination functions in relation to both noise mapping and action planning, as well as reporting requirements for the purpose of the Directive. The Regulations identify the National Roads Authority (now TII) as a Noise Mapping Body responsible for the development of strategic noise maps for all national roads carrying in excess of 3 million vehicles a year outside the agglomerations of Dublin and Cork. The relevant local authority is responsible for the development of noise maps for non-national roads. TII are also the Noise Mapping Body for major light rail services in Dublin. In accordance with the Environmental Noise Regulations (2006), Phases I-III (2007-2017) of the strategic noise mapping in Ireland were undertaken using the interim method Calculation of Road Traffic Noise (Department of Transport - Welsh Office, 1988). However, Commission Directive (EU) TII-268 Lot 2 Service Requirements Page 3 of 11 2015/9965 established common noise assessment methods and replaced Annex II of EU Directive 2002/49. CNOSSOS-EU is the new common noise assessment European harmonised method to be used for the prediction of road traffic noise emissions. The amended Environmental Noise Regulations (2018) require that noise mapping bodies (including TII) use CNOSSOS-EU for all future phases of strategic noise mapping. Development of Phase IV strategic noise maps will commence in 2021. Phase IV mapping is to be completed in July 2022. Lot 3: Development of Standards relating to Surface Water and Groundwater Impacts of National Road Projects In 2009, the National Roads Authority (which now describes itself as Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) for operational purposes) published its Guidelines on Procedures for Assessment and Treatment of Geology, Hydrology and Hydrogeology for National Road Schemes. TII now seeks to replace these documents with a Standard regulating the surface and groundwater impact assessment of ‘Proposed National Roads’. It is intended to publish this Standard in the TII Publication system in the Environment (ENV) Stream under the Planning and Evaluation (PE) Activity. Where appropriate technical guidance, advice and requirements shall also be developed to supplement the Standard which shall be published in TII Publications as a Technical document. TII requires the development of a surface water and groundwater Impact Assessment methodology for Proposed National Roads for all Planning and Design project phases, namely: Phase 0 – Scope and Pre-Appraisal; Phase 1 – Concept and Feasibility; Phase 2 – Options Selection; Phase 3 – Design and Environmental Evaluation; and, Phase 4 – Statutory Processes. The Standard and associated Technical documents will be well illustrated Lot 4: Long Term Geotechnical Monitoring and Deterioration Modelling of Earthwork Slopes The efficient management of the Irish national road network is of primary importance to ensure the ongoing functionality of roads. With 5,300 km of national roads under its management, Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) is continually faced with challenging strategic decisions concerning the appropriate allocation of limited resources. It is important to understand the long-term behaviour of TII’s geotechnical assets and to be able to predict this with the associated effects of climate change so as to inform long term planning of the National road network. It is proposed to investigate and remotely monitor the geotechnical behaviour of both a cut and an embankment slope on the National Road network as well as monitoring associated drainage, climatic conditions and vegetation growth on these two slopes over a period of 3 years with an option to extend this for another 2 years. The slopes shall also be modelled to predict future deterioration and the monitoring data garnered will be used to calibrate the model. The deterioration model shall be developed so that is able to be applied to all TII’s geotechnical assets. Lot 5: Automatic Detection of Archaeological Features from LiDAR Data using Machine Learning Techniques Archaeological examination of LiDAR data is increasingly used on Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) road projects to reduce archaeological risk through the early identification of previously unknown, potentially significant monuments. In particular, risk can be reduced through the early identification and avoidance of monuments of potential national significance i.e. those that could be considered National Monuments under the terms of the National Monuments Acts 1930–2014. The optimum time to undertake this examination is during Phase 2 Options Selection - the process of selecting a preferred route option - when there is maximum opportunity to avoid potentially significant monuments. However, current experience shows that it is often not feasible to undertake the archaeological examination of LiDAR data at this stage of a project due to the extents of the Phase 2 study areas, programme constraints and the limited capacity of the private sector to provide this service. As a result, archaeological examination of LiDAR data is more commonly undertaken on the preferred route only, during Phase 3 Design and Environmental Evaluation. This considerably increases the archaeological risk to a project as there is limited scope to avoid potentially significant sites at this stage. TII wishes to address this issue through the application of machine learning to the automatic detection of archaeological features from large LiDAR Lot 6: Lifespan of Steel Safety Barriers The efficient management of the Irish national road network is of primary importance to ensure the ongoing functionality of roads. With 5,300 km of national roads under its management, Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) is continually faced with challenging strategic decisions concerning the appropriate allocation of limited resources. Vehicle Restraint Systems (VRSs) are an integral part of road safety, which is a strategic goal of TII. They are made from either steel or concrete. This study focusses on steel safety barriers (excluding wire rope and concrete systems). In order to be able to more efficiently manage this asset, it is necessary to understand the lifespan of the steel barriers installed throughout the network. There are over 1,600km of steel safety barriers on the network. In this era of the Construction Products Regulation, every CE marked barrier comes with a declared durability. Durability is an essential characteristic of vehicle restraint systems in accordance with EN1317-5. It is declared indirectly in terms of galvanisation of the steel. Most manufacturers report on their certificates that their steel is galvanised in accordance with EN ISO 1461 and most of the steel safety barriers are marketed with serviceable life span of 20 years. After 20 years in service, most VRS are still functional. It is unclear at what stage, or if required at all, does it become necessary to replace them in preventative maintenance. It is also not known whether prolonged exposure to weather elements affect the performance of steel barriers. There is also the question of whether steel barriers installed in marine environments, such as on coastal roads, suffer more degradation in their function over time. These are questions that need answers especially given that some of the barriers are installed in very dangerous locations to motorists, such as high embankments or deep drops to water and other such locations. Lot 7: Self-healing Asphalt Joints: Pilot project The efficient management of the Irish national road network is of primary importance to ensure the ongoing functionality of roads. With 5,300 km of national roads under its management, Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) is continually faced with challenging strategic decisions concerning the appropriate allocation of limited resources. In order to be able more efficiently manage the roads infrastructure across the national road network, it is necessary to develop innovative technologies for construction, service and maintenance of the road infrastructure specifically self-healing asphalt joints. The outputs from this pilot project will result in a long lasting and maintenance free asphalt joints, that will form the basis for organising the planning of design, construction and maintenance of asphalt joints. Lot 8: Bio-based Asphalt Pavement Binder and Rejuvenator Study Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) is tasked with improving Ireland’s quality of life and national economic competitiveness by developing, maintaining and operating the national road, light rail, and metro network in a safe, cost effective and sustainable manner. Every effort is made to protect the natural and built environment when progressing and operating such projects, so the next generation can enjoy the same benefits from the countryside and towns. Stakeholder engagement and collaboration is key to this process. TII commits to strive to incorporate sustainability principles into the development, operation, and ongoing routine maintenance of the national road, light rail and metro networks; therefore, contributing to social wellbeing, supporting economic efficiency, and protecting, restoring and enhancing environmental systems for future generations. In its management of the 5,300 km of National Road, TII rehabilitates / maintains approximately 300 km of flexible pavement on an annual basis utilising approximately 900,000 tonnes of bituminous materials In order to be able to manage the roads infrastructure across the National Road network in accordance with TII’s Environmental Strategy, it is necessary to develop innovative and sustainable technologies for construction and maintenance of the road’s infrastructure specifically bituminous materials. It is considered the outputs from this research project will advance further the concept of an alternative, bio-based (organic) asphalt binder for use by the asphalt industry in maintaining the National Road network in a sustainable and environmentally-friendly manner.