Barents Low Volume Road Management (KO243)
Funded by Kolarctic ENPI 2007-2013

Objective of the project

Overall objective: The overall objective is to develop the economy of Kolarctic core regions through improving of their currently non-adequately managed low volume road networks. Harmonisation of regional practices - on the voluntary basis rather than by directives. Specific objectives: • Developing recommendations and proposals (draft guidelines) on vehicle load management on low volume road networks for the northernmost parts of Russia and Finland. • Transferring know-how from Northern Periphery Programme ROADEX (I...III and on-going IV) to Russian side of Barents Region.

Main activities

The project has provided the following “instruments” for the harmonization of regional practices: • Three Project training seminars which form a know-how transfer with balanced theoretical and practical components. Totally 74 Russian participants attended the event. • The improved access to the ROADEX database, a significant part of which is available in Russian due to the Project. Totally 11 key ROADEX reports concerning road maintenance management were translated into Russian. • A road construction damage model was developed with the Lapland case study and adapted to the Russian conditions with the Arkhangelsk case study. • The increased internet resources for the Project output dissemination. The websites of the Partners were added with the new site “Technology Transfer Transport Projects (3T-Projects) • Totally 3 Analytical reports to assist implementing of the recommendations of the Project Contractor under Russian conditions. • Practical guides in handy format: two Catalogues of recommendations №1 (concerning road maintenance in a whole) and №2 (concerning road drainage) were prepared. • The Green Guide for Russian road engineers

Achievements

The project increased the informational capacity of road engineers and road maintenance. The challenges of maintenance of low-volume roads are similar on different territories of the Arctic. Also the challenges of the near future were identified as - heavier transport loads on roads – all year round road usage – climate change Cost-effective methods for meeting the challenges were learned, and know-how was transferred. The recommendations from ROADEX network database with its adaptation to Russian conditions were developed.