The UK-based highways industry trade body Asphalt Industry Alliance – a partnership between the Mineral Products Association (MPA) and Eurobitume – is celebrating 25 years.
AIA was set up in 2000 to increase awareness of the asphalt industry and its activities. It promote the uses and benefits of asphalt as an essential and sustainable solution for road maintenance and construction to specifiers, policymakers and the general public.
One of the AIA’s best-known activities is publishing the UK’s Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance (ALARM) survey. It gathers data from local authorities on the condition of the local road network in England and Wales and the amount of funding allocated to its maintenance.
The aim of ALARM – as well as the AIA throughout the year – is to raise awareness of road maintenance and condition issues, seeking to inform and influence a change in the amount and methods of funding for local roads.
David Giles, the eighth chair of AIA, said ALARM has become integral to, and synonymous with, the national debate on ‘the potholes problem’. “The AIA continues to use its findings to emphasise the importance of increased, sustained and targeted investment in maintenance of our local roads,” he said.
The AIA’s call for sustainable, longer-term funding for local roads is reinforced by direct engagement with parliamentarians and policymakers. This is particularly so through its support of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Better Roads in conjunction with the UK’s Institute of Highway Engineers.
The AIA also supports collaboration and knowledge sharing across the sector through its annual online Sharing Best Practice event. This brings together local authority highway teams and industry experts to discuss materials and innovation with case studies showing how these help to improve the performance and sustainability of the road network.
The AIA also hosts RoadFile, an online hub of road-related statistics covering topics such as road usage, traffic volume, safety, environment and funding. It provides the latest publicly available data from trusted UK and European Union sources such as the UK’s Department for Transport and Eurostat, a department of the European Commission, located in Luxembourg City. Eurostat’s main responsibilities are to provide statistical information to the institutions of the European Union and to promote the harmonisation of statistical methods across its member states and candidates for accession, as well as the countries of EFTA – European Free Trade Association, consisting of Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.
“The additional challenges the highways sector faces today such as limited budgets, the need to decarbonise, protecting against the effects of extreme weather events and rising traffic volumes on a deteriorating network, make our work more important than ever,” said Giles.
“We will continue to play our part in making the case and calling for targeted and accountable funding over the long term as well as promoting practical, sustainable asphalt solutions that support a resilient road network and help the UK meet its net zero ambitions.”
