One or several simultaneous changes in the climate conditions, e.g. hotter seasons, extreme precipitation events, increasing severe storms and sea level rise could severely affect roads in LICs. Missing to appreciate such an impact in future road design, maintenance and operating planning and protocols, could cause accelerated road deterioration and increased risk of damage, traffic disruption and accidents with knock-on effects on economy.

To address this, the CRISPS multi-disciplinary research project will work for two years under the leadership of the University of Birmingham (UoB) and in collaboration with the University of Auckland (UoA), the Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) and the International Road Federation (IRF).

The aim of this project is to achieve an affordable high-volume road resilient approach to climate change and traffic demands, by assessing the suitability of three global best-practice types of road surfacing technologies for use in LICs: namely Modified Epoxy Chip Seals (MECS), Modified Epoxy Asphalt Surfaces (MEAS) and Fibre Mastic Asphalt (FMA) respectively. The technologies are a result of many years of research in New Zealand (MECS and MEAS) and Malaysia (FMA) where their in-situ performance has been demonstrated through trials and they are as a result routinely used in service.

Access presentation and recordings of the following CRISPS webinars to learn more: