Safer Roads by Design™ - Roadside Safety Applications Seminar
May 18 - 22, 2008
Gulf Region
- May 18, 2008 - Abu Dhabi, Beach Rotana Hotel
- May 19, 2008 - Dubai, Shanri-La Hotel
- May 20, 2008 - Kuwait, Sahara Hotel
- May 22, 2008 - Qatar, Ritz Carlton
The International Road Federation is utilizing a series of roadside safety applications seminars for road authorities and consultants to teach them how to turn existing and new roads into "Forgiving Highways" in order to eliminate needless deaths. The training seminars will teach attendees the proper steps to follow to make a road safer by eliminating the hazard, moving the hazard, making the hazard less rigid, shielding the hazard, or delineating the hazard.
The Roadside Safety Applications Seminars will introduce the attendees to the state-of-the-are concepts and best practices being used around the world to reduce the severity of the inevitable accidents that will occur on every road in the world. These "passive safety" products - such as safety barriers (concrete barrier, steel guardrail and cable barrier), crash cushions, transitions, terminals and breakaway devies make roadside objects less rigid, allowing motorists to walk away from accidents that otherwise might have killed them.
In addition to learning about the technologies that are successfully eliminating needless deaths on roads around the world, attendees will better understand which of these technologies are appropriate for their local conditions. They will also be introduced to the performance testing criteria being utilized in the United States (NCHRP 350) and in Europe (EN-1317) to allow them to make intelligent, cost-effective choices.
Preliminary Agenda
- 7:30 AM Continental Breakfast
- 8:45 AM Introductions & Opening Presentation - Explanation of the Problem & Seminar Overview
- 10:30 AM Break & Sponsor Tables
- 11:00 AM Longitudinal Barriers and Longitudinal Barriers Panel Discussion
- 12:30 PM Lunch
- 1:45 PM Crash Cushions and Crash Cushions Panel Discussion
- 3:15 PM Break and Sponsor Tables
- 3:45 PM Terminals and Terminals Panel Discussion
- 5:00 PM Summary
- 5:30 PM Adjournment
Lead Instructor: Richard Powers
Mr. Powers graduated from the University of New Hampshire in 1966 with a BSCE degree. He entered the Bureau of Public Roads (now FHWA) engineer training program upon graduation with assignments in Utah and Maryland before interrupting civilian service for three years active duty in the US Army Reserve. His service with the Army Corps of Engineers included tours of duty in Germany and Vietnam as an officer assigned to two separate construction battalions and a brigade headquarters. Discharged from the Army as a Captain in 1970, he resumed his career with FHWA with assignments in Washigton, DC, California, and New Mexico.
Mr. Powers became the first highway safety engineer in New Mexico when these positions were established in each FHWA Division office in the late 1970s and worked directly with the State Highway Department to develop state-of-the-are safety upgrading programs. He was then promoted to Senior Project Manager for Highway Safety in FHWA's Demonstration Projects Division in Washington, DC in 1982, developing a project on new barrier systems and encouraging pilot installations of selected systems in several states.
Powers transferred to FHWA's Office of Engineering in 1987 where he wrote the first draft of the American Association of Highway and Transportation Official's (AASHTO" 1989 Roadside Design Guide, a document which is currently the national guideline for roadside safety issues. Mr. Powers continuously updated and presented the National Highways Institute's two-day training courses on the Roadside Design Guide nationwide for over fifteen years. He served as Secretary for the AASHTO Technical Committee for Roadside Safety, the organization that periodically updates the Roadside Design Guide, and was actively involved in these updates. From the early 1990s until his retirement in 2007, Mr. Powers reviewed crash test reports for traffic barriers and other safety hardware, including bridge railings and barrier end treatments, to determine compliance with appropriate national standards and acceptability for use on public roads. During this period, he was also recognized as a national expert on roadside safety design and issues and provided timely guidance to state, local and other federal engineers on topics of concern.
For more information contact Magid Elabyad
