Within the Resilient Road element of Forever Open Road, FEHRLmember Rijkswaterstaat (RWS) is launching the KEYROADS project to evaluate the risks from climate change (and possible measures) for the key road links between its sea ports and the European hinterland. It will use the RIMAROCC guidebook that resulted from CEDR’s ERANET Road research framework. As the ‘gateway to Europe’, the Netherlands has a strong interest in free flowing and seamless freight transport network from its seaports and economic areas to its European hinterland. This is also reflected by the national innovation spearhead on logistics for which RWS is responsible.
The gradual change in our climate and weather patterns will influence road operations and logistics processes. Mostly this will be driven by the increased occurrence of extreme weather events. In order to be prepared in time to accommodate negative consequences, a risk assessment on road operations and freight logistics is required. Such a risk assessment may drive adjustments to future investment cycles.
The risk assessment should expand beyond the borders of the Netherlands and focus on the European freight corridors that the Netherlands feeds into. As a first step, focus should be on road corridors with Germany. Later, projects may expand the assessment on to a wider European scale (i.e. include sections from Belgium (Antwerp seaport), Poland (corridor to Russia), Austria (via the Donau; Brenner motorway) and Italy (seaports) and make make it multi-modal (i.e. including rivers and rail corridors). Such assessments could ultimately form the basis for Dutch advice to the European Union on the strategies for developing the TEN-T.
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