On November 20, a colloquium was held again this year at the ISE in the road construction technology department. The topic of the event was "News from the world of asphalt". moderated the event, welcoming around 120 participants and four speakers.

First, Dipl.-Ing. Sven Gohl reported on the revisions to the TL and ZTV Asphalt-StB. Under the title "Updating the TL/ZTV Asphalt-StB ... will everything be different?", he gave an insight into the new versions of the regulations. The topic of the second lecture was "On the way to the new regulations: asphalt-technological practical experience with temperature-reduced asphalt" and was presented by Dipl.-Ing. Stephan Ninnig. After a short break, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Alexander Buttgereit followed with an exciting presentation entitled "Rethinking cycle paths in asphalt construction". Dr.-Ing. Carsten Karcher concluded the event with a report on "News from Brussels and Europe".

The ISE would like to thank all interested parties and especially the speakers at this year's colloquium.

On February 7, 2024, the Karlsruhe Exchange of Experience in Road Operations 2024 took place at the Institute of Road and Railway Engineering. As moderator of the event, Dr.-Ing. Matthias Zimmermann welcomed numerous guests from the field of road operations.

Dr. Katja Bett and Ms. Fiedler, who focused on the future of learning in the road maintenance service, kicked off the event. Constant further development and changes in the technical and legal framework conditions as well as the age-related retirement of experienced people in the road maintenance service make targeted learning indispensable. Ms. Bett and Ms. Fiedler therefore presented recommendations for action from a didactic, technical and strategic perspective.
FS100 technology in winter road maintenance offers many advantages - yet it is still met with reluctance by many road and freeway maintenance depots. Dipl.-Ing. Drazan Bunoza therefore presented the results of the research project "Widespread introduction of FS100 technology on federal trunk roads". The advantages of FS100 technology, such as the reduction of salt ingress into roadside vegetation, are offset by a lack of technical equipment in the vehicles available in the maintenance depots or a lack of staff training.

After a coffee break, which was used to make and maintain individual contacts, the second block of lectures began, which was dedicated to road maintenance on cycle paths.

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Thorsten Cypra presented the WinRad research project, which describes the sustainable promotion of cycling in winter through optimized winter road maintenance. Cyclists are significantly more exposed to the weather than motor vehicle drivers, which leads to a significant change in the modal split, especially in winter. In order to make cycling an all-year-round means of transport for many, sensible winter service planning is also required, which, for example, prioritizes the early clearance of cycling infrastructure facilities.
The FGSV working paper on the operation of cycling facilities (AP BeRad) also covers other operational service issues on cycling facilities, such as structural maintenance or green maintenance, in addition to winter service. According to Prof. Dr.-ing. Christian Holldorb, standardization of the requirements is necessary simply because different cycle path connections must be safe and comfortable along a route, even if they are maintained by different authorities.
The series of lectures was concluded by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Rainer Heß, who emphasized the importance of cycle path maintenance for everyday bicycle use. One of the findings was that the maintenance service has a decisive influence on how users decide which mode of transport to use. Littering of cycle traffic facilities with garbage, broken glass and leaves as well as a lack of green maintenance and winter service are reasons for which users particularly often report a need for improvement.

A compact overview of the topics and the presentation slides can be found on the corresponding event page on our website:

Karlsruhe exchange of experience in road operation 2024

Once again this year, we were delighted to organize a colloquium in the Department of Road Construction Technology at the ISE. The topic of the event was: "Das geht an die Substanz - aktuelle Ansätze für nachhaltige Asphaltstraßen". Around 100 participants made their way to Karlsruhe and the Engesser lecture hall in the old civil engineering building on Wednesday, 22.11.2023.

As the originally planned presentation on "Warmasphalt mit Schaumbitumen - Erkenntnisse und Erfahrungen aus der Praxis" by Mr. Georg Bus had to be cancelled at short notice, the other speakers had a little more time for their presentations - and made good use of it.

After the welcoming address by Dr.-Ing. Plamena Plachkova-Dzhurova, who chaired the event, Dr.-Ing. Dirk Jansen gave an informative overview of the "Stand der Einführung schnellfahrender Tragfähigkeitsmessungen in Deutschland". It was a particular pleasure for ISE that the following lecture was given by Mr. Simon Schwarzmann, M.Sc. and thus an ISE employee was able to give a lecture again this year. The topic of his lecture was the "Validierung von Messergebnissen zur Substanzbewertung anhand von Schichtuntersuchungen". After a short break, which offered time for networking as well as refreshments, Mr. Volker Jakobi reported on "Das Bewertete Längsprofil - erweiterte Möglichkeiten zur Beurteilung der Ebenheit der Straße". Dr. Daniel Gogolin concluded the event with the exciting title "Nichts bleibt verborgen - Substanzerfassung und -bewertung mit dem GPR".

The ISE would like to thank all interested parties and especially the speakers at this year's colloquium.

The program as well as the presentation slides can be found on the corresponding event page "Das geht an die Substanz - aktuelle Ansätze für nachhaltige Asphaltstraßen".

The Research Association for Roads and Traffic (FGSV) hosted the Colloquium Road Operation on September 19 & 20, 2023 in the Audimax of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). The Institute of Road and Railway Engineering (ISE) has been supporting this for many years as an accompanying partner on site.
Traditionally, the interested professional world meets in Karlsruhe every two years for mutual discussions and encounters as well as for learning about the latest developments in road operation and winter road maintenance. After the pandemic-related break in 2021, the colloquium was able to take place again this year as usual.

On September 19, the thematic focus was on road operations. Siglinde Rauch-Liebich led through the lectures, which could be divided into the topics "Organizational issues of road operation", "Training and further education in road operation" and "Green maintenance". The speakers were visibly pleased with the interested audience in the almost fully occupied lecture hall.
The first day of the colloquium was rounded off for many of the participants at the Mercedes-Benz plant in Wörth, where Daimler Truck AG sponsored the evening event.

The second day of the colloquium, September 20, was in no way inferior to the previous day. Ltd. MinRat Dr.-Ing. Horst Hanke moderated this day, which was entirely dedicated to winter road maintenance. The speakers' presentations were divided into the thematic areas of "Environmentally friendly use of gritting materials", "Storage and loading of gritting materials" and "Road operation on wheeled traffic facilities".
As a further item on the agenda, the winning teams of the 3rd German Snowplow Championship were honored to loud applause from the approximately 300 participants.
 

The colloquium was accompanied by a trade exhibition in the foyer of the Audimax and on the forecourt, where exhibitors were able to bring interested guests up to date on the latest technology and discuss developments in road operation with them. In total, more than 20 exhibitors could be welcomed.
 

We would like to thank all those who contributed to this successful colloquium and accompanying exhibition!

As part of the course Traffic, Planning and Rights of Way, ISE took interested students on an excursion to the Mörlenbach bypass construction project on July 14. The trip through Mörlenbach showed directly why Hessen Mobil is providing a bypass here - bumper to bumper car traffic is jammed through the southern Hessian community and considerably reduces the quality of living and stay. In the information center set up and during a tour of the construction site, those responsible for the 3.9-kilometer-long route demonstrated the challenges that such a construction measure entails. Among other things, the elaborate measures for nature and species protection were reported on, as well as the difficulties due to the topographical boundary conditions were pointed out. The latter was solved by the planning of two large valley bridges as well as two tunnel structures, whereby ~40 % of the route lies on or in structures. After 7 years of construction and total costs of about 100 million Euros, the traffic is expected to be released in 2027 - and Mörlenbach will be relieved by 68% in terms of traffic in the inner city.

We would like to thank the employees of Hessen Mobil and the initiator Prof. Dr. jur. Hönig for the interesting insights into this exciting project.

From Saturday, 27.05.2023, to Sunday, 04.06.2023, the excursion to Norway, which had been planned several years ago, could finally take place.

With three 9-seaters and 21 interested students, mainly from the master courses Mobility and Infrastructure and Civil Engineering, the excursion took us to infrastructure projects in the Norwegian cities of Stavanger, Bergen, Lærdal and Oslo. The tour was completed by a guided tour in the Danish capital Copenhagen. Information on the route and the individual program points can be found in the excursion report.

Once again, we would like to thank all speakers for their time and effort, as a result of which all tours and lectures far exceeded our expectations. A big thank you also goes to the participating students!

After a break of several years, the winter colloquium in the field of road design and traffic safety could take place again on 01.02.2023. The fact that the chosen topic "Cycling - New Findings and Developments" is extremely present in the population as well as in the planning offices and administrations was shown by a very high interest. Around 145 participants were welcomed by Univ.-Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dr. h.c. Ralf Roos as moderator of the event at KIT.

In two blocks, a total of five papers were presented and discussed by the speakers. The first block, which was dominated by scientific papers on the topic, started with a presentation by Miriam Niestegge, M.Sc., in which she presented findings from a pilot test on right turns by cyclists on red. Due to the introduction of the green arrow for cyclists with the StVO amendment 2020 and the now increasingly frequent arrangement in practice, Ms. Niestegge offered an interesting insight into a particularly topical issue. Also very current was the topic of Mr. Simon Hummel, M.Sc.: "Bicycle Streets - Design Recommendations and Application Criteria for Practice". Mr. Hummel showed that critical interactions between road users can occur in bicycle lanes under different boundary conditions and how these can be reduced. Live from Berlin, Dipl.-Ing. Jörg Ortlepp gave a presentation on "protected cycling facilities". Using accident data, Mr. Ortlepp showed that the safety of cyclists needs to be significantly increased. The importance of various elements such as the safety separation strip between cyclists and stationary traffic as well as moving traffic (in case of high motor vehicle loads) was also explained.

In the second block, practical experiences were shared, made in two major cities, which probably rightly see themselves as "bicycle cities". Mr. Georg Herffs as head of transport planning of the city of Freiburg im Breisgau showed in his presentation "Pedestrian and bicycle offensive in Freiburg: 16 million €, 16 months, 30 measures" how the city could achieve great progress in the field of cycling infrastructure with a budget of 16 million for two years. An equally remarkable development was presented by Dipl.-Ing. Ulrich Wagner from the Karlsruhe City Planning Office in his presentation "From the 20-point plan for cycling to the Karlsruhe Program for Active Mobility". After doubling the share of bicycles in the modal split since 2002, this path is to be continued so that in 2035 at least 70 % of trips will be made as Active Mobility (walking and cycling).

Download the presentation slides

On 09.11.2022 the Colloquium Road Engineering took place at ISE. The topic this year was: "Asphalt in transition - Challenges and Approaches". The ISE was pleased to welcome about 100 visitors at the KIT. Univ.-Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dr. h.c. Ralf Roos moderated the event. A total of four lectures served as a basis for discussion. Dr.-Ing. Thomas Chakar gave a lecture on the "Investigation of maintenance sections on federal roads in Baden-Württemberg that are susceptible to cracking". As there were two cancellations at short notice in the originally planned program, Ms. Nina Stelzenmüller, M.Sc., took the opportunity to discuss "Recycled Plastics in Asphalt Road Construction". As department head of road construction technology at ISE, Dr.-Ing. Plamena Plachkova-Dzhurova presented findings on "Development of climate-optimized asphalt concepts". Dipl.-Ing. Sven Gohl also gave a practical demonstration of the topic with his presentation on "Temperature-lowered asphalt - experiences from the construction of test sections".

Download the presentation slides.