Event Summary

The BrazilRAP One Year On Workshop held on 16 December drew 157 stakeholders and highlighted significant progress and high level commitment to eliminating high-risk roads across the country.

The webinar, attended by government agencies, development banks and road research institutes from Brazil – and as far afield as Portugal, Chile, Romania, Canada and Mexico – discussed what has already been done on road research in 2020 and the next strategies for implementation in 2021.

BrazilRAP was launched in November 2019 hosted by DNIT. To date, 31,300 km have been star rated, over 1,200 stakeholders have been trained and nearly USD$6.6 billion of road infrastructure has been made safer. 20 local suppliers are trained to deliver iRAP specification services to the global infrastructure safety standard.

The event was opened by BrazilRAP Lead Luiz Guilherme Rodrigues de Mello, Director of Planning and Research, National Department of Transport and Infrastructure Brazil (DNIT).

Guest of honour Marcelo da Costa, Secretary, Ministry of Infrastructure said, “The Brazilian Ministry of infrastructure plans a series of actions and accountability is always important. This event is part of the Ministry´s accountability, regarding our road safety actions.

“We always worked in road safety for decades, with actions that led to reductions in deaths and injuries, but we have a lot to advance, and have to bring to the centre of the debate the topic of road safety.

“We’re consolidating a year of learnings with iRAP and we’re planning to include iRAP metrics as an obligation for the Brazilian concessions. The concessions will have to create safety at a high level for road users,” he said.

A presentation from Henrique Carvalho de Souza, Investment Partnership Structuring Area Manager – AEP, Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) also outlined how they will use a 3 star minimum target for Brazilian toll roads they fund.

Julio Urzua, iRAP Regional Director – The Americas said, “I congratulate BrazilRAP and its local partners for their significant achievements this year.

“It was wonderful to hear the workshop presenters’ strong commitment to save lives supported by iRAP and the 50 questions generated during the session highlight the active level of local engagement.

“We look forward to providing the methodology, tools and training to support Brazil’s achievement of UN Targets 3 and 4 for >75% of travel on 3-star or better roads for all road users by 2030.

“In this second Decade of Action, this stands to save over 3 million lives and serious injuries with an economic benefit of USD$445 billion to the country’s economy.

WORKSHOP PROGRAMME

The programme agenda included:

• Opening address – Eng. Luiz Guilherme Rodrigues de Mello, Director of Planning and Research, DNIT
• Road safety as a public policy within the Ministry of Infrastructure – Marcello da Costa, Secretary of
  the Ministry of Infrastructure
• iRAP survey in DNIT: Current status and next steps – André de Oliveira Nunes, General Coordinator of
  Investment Planning and Programming, CGPLAN Planning and Research Directorate, DNIT
• How BNDES is incorporating the iRAP methodology in its modelling and expectations – Henrique Carvalho de Souza Investment Partnership Structuring Area Manager – AEP, BNDES
• iRAP, road safety and integration to road asset management in Latin America – Ana Beatriz Monteiro, Leading Transport Specialist, Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)
• The experience of the Government of Tocantins, through the Tocantinense Agency of Transport and Works – AGETO, with the implementation of iRAP on paved state highways – Gabriel de Araújo Martins, AGETO – Tocantinense Agency for Transport and Works (SEINF), Directorate of Traffic Engineering and Road Safety
• Revitalization of highways through low cost engineering solutions – Anderson Esteves, Research Coordinator and Development, Department of Highways (DER-PR)
• Introduction to iRAP and new products – Julio Urzua, Director of the Americas, iRAP

If you missed the Workshop, it’s not too late.

Download the Workshop Presentations.
See the Workshop Video.

A SNAPSHOT OF CURRENT BRAZILRAP ACTIVITIES

• 63,000km Star Rating assessment of DNIT’s entire paved network. It is one of the largest applications of the iRAP methodology in the world.
• The safety of 26,000kms of Sao Paulo’s State Highways in Brazil will soon be assessed as tender calls for suppliers
• A new concession of 1,273km between Piracicaba and Panorama (the largest concession in the country) requiring an investment of USD$3.5 billion, will be the first to include the iRAP methodology to measure the levels of safety of the new infrastructure.
• Pavesys and IFC are ensuring the iRAP methodology is used as a road safety KPI across new Brazilian concessions
• A USD$730 million safer roads investment is underway with projects in Bahia, Sao Paulo and Fortaleza.
• Infrastructure concessionaire Arteris has invested €2,160 million between 2018 and 2020. iRAP has partnered with the company to assess more than 4,500km of concession roads and provide safer road infrastructure training to staff.
• Rodovias & Vias Magazine (Edition 123), the main infrastructure press vehicle of Brazil, announced a partnership with iRAP to promote road safety in the country.
• Edition 124 profiles an update and an interview with Luiz Guilherme de Mello, Programme Lead and Director of DNIT
• Read the World Bank Blog: Scaling private sector participation to build better roads in Brazil

FOR MORE INFORMATION

• Download the BrazilRAP Brochure in English and Portuguese
• To learn about how safe Brazil’s roads are, the road attributes that matter and what is possible in human life and economic savings by achieving >75% of travel at a 3-star or better standard for all road users by 2030, visit the iRAP Big Data Tool and search Brazil at https://www.vaccinesforroads.org/irap-big-data-tool/
• Contact BrazilRAP Programme Lead Luiz Guilherme Rodrigues de Mello, DNIT on email luiz.mello@dnit.gov.br