The increasing importance given to the protection of the environment has deeply changed the approach and ways to manage the business projects in the road sector. In the past, the role of road administrations was mainly toprovide the necessary infrastructure to meet the steady increase of traffic, whereas now they must face the challenge to develop sustainable transport policies where land planning and transport demand are analysed so as to give priority to environmental friendly solutions. In addition to environmental concerns, the general budget constraints and the pressure from competition make the reform of the road sector necessary. The road administrations are currently experiencing major changes in their missions and organizational structure under the combined effect of 2 principals that apply to most of them: decentralization (different allocation of the road networkamong the public authorities) and externalisation of various tasks. The session will address 2 topics: decentralization and externalization. Through various examples, it will bring forward items for discussion about the changes and the operational aspects of road administrations around the world. For the covering abstract see ITRD E139491.
Abstract