iRAP’s long-standing partnership with iRAP Centre of Excellence and ChinaRAP Lead, the Research Institute of Highway (RIOH), was recognised last week in Beijing during a visit from iRAP’s Global Programme Director Greg Smith and Global Programme and Communications Manager Judy Williams.

ChinaRAP is a collaboration between iRAP and RIOH, Ministry of Transport (MoT).

Launched in 2008, support for small pilot studies was initially provided by iRAP with larger partnerships made possible with the support of the World Bank Global Road Safety Facility and Bloomberg Philanthropies.

The Ministry of Transport now fully leads and undertakes ChinaRAP assessments and more than 300,000km of roads have been assessed across the country by the national teams using locally developed technology.

An early aim of the collaboration was to support the central government’s Highway Safety Enhancement Project (HSEP). The first phase (2004-2013) of HSEP was perhaps the largest road infrastructure safety programme in the world, involving the investment of US$5 billion to treat 366,000km of high-risk roads with embedded Star Rating targets.

ChinaRAP was at the centre of the scaled-up HSEP Phase II and the aptly named “Highway Safety to Cherish Life” initiative. The 5-year road safety plan, developed by the Safety Production Committee of the State Council, called for national and provincial implementation of road safety assessments, including identification and rapid treatment of high-risk road sections. It also aimed to ensure that no new hazardous sections were added during the design and construction stages of new projects.

With the country in its third phase of the HSEP, ChinaRAP’s work is as important as ever. With a local team that has grown from 2 to 20 members as technical support, ChinaRAP has driven major policy, road upgrade and public health outcomes in China and helped other countries around the world.

iRAP and RIOH are revisiting the Memorandum of Understanding that underpins the ChinaRAP programme partnership and how China’s technological expertise and innovation can continue to enhance iRAP’s globally shared protocols and tools, and advance road safety in other countries.

New RIOH priorities were discussed including:

• HSEP Phase III’s expanded focus on implementation of the Safe System Approach;
• China’s three-year Action Plan for Work Safety 2024–2026, announced by China’s Ministry of Emergency Management last year, which includes the priority development of work safety standards, increased risk inspection, and safety training for workers in high-risk industries; and
• Fostering the climate resilience of China’s road infrastructure network.

RIOH President Sun Yonghong said, “RIOH is the road safety leadership agency of the Ministry of Transport in China and we have greatly valued our close relationship and collaboration with iRAP over many years. The HSEP programme has seen large scale investment in China’s road infrastructure made safer informed by ChinaRAP road safety assessments. However, rising vehicle numbers and the impact of climate change are creating new challenges and opportunities for us. We look forward to our continued deep collaboration and cooperation with iRAP to not just address our own national priorities, but also in the future, share our technologies and experiences with surrounding countries.”

Greg Smith, iRAP’s Global Programme Director reflected iRAP’s shared appreciation for its long-term collaboration with RIOH that has not only supported the elimination of high-risk roads in China, but also in many other countries including Cambodia, Pakistan and New Zealand, through supported capacity building and iRAP project delivery.

RIOH has also contributed to the development of iRAP protocols and technologies as a Centre of Excellence and through its membership on iRAP’s Global Technical Committee (GTC), as well as its support for development of the iRAP Star Rating Demonstrator.

“iRAP global partners can greatly benefit from China’s innovation in AI and traffic safety. Climate resilience and road safety are closely linked and increasing the climate resilience of road networks is a challenge faced by many countries. We look forward to working together with RIOH in extending our ChinaRAP partnership to help scale the safety of road networks in China and globally, and explore opportunities to address the pressing challenge of climate change. We’re also keen to explore how China’s expertise and experience could contribute to building capacity and road infrastructure safety in Africa, where road traffic fatality rates are high,” Mr Smith said.

With five million kilometres of expressways in China, RIOH may also offer valuable insights to iRAP’s innovation initiative focussed on improving the safety of high-speed road networks.

RIOH assisted in developing the programme of last week’s 2025 China Road Traffic Safety Innovation and Cooperation Conference, highlighting China’s use of advanced technologies and AI for traffic safety.

For more information on the conference and the 15th China International Road Traffic Security Products Expo attended by iRAP, as well as meetings held with the China Communications University (CCU), RIOH and the Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP) with the aim of bolstering road safety in Africa and road infrastructure projects of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, click here.

Joining iRAP’s Greg Smith and Judy Williams, meeting attendees from RIOH included Sun Yonghong, President; Hou Dezao, Director; Shu Bin, Division of Science and Technology; Zhang Xiaodan, Director, Road Traffic Safety Center; Zhang Tiejun, Deputy General Manager, Beijing Zhongjiaohuaan Technology Co. Ltd (BZT); and Wan Jiaona, BZT.

It was so lovely to catch up with our ChinaRAP friends Zhang Tiejun, Hu Han and Wan Jiaona.

Images credit: iRAP