The fifth road maintenance meeting will focus on customer service
Málaga City Council’s Councillor for Territorial Planning, Raúl López, announced at the inauguration of the 5th Road Maintenance Sustainable Cities Meeting, sponsored by Althenia and Los Serranos, that next year the Municipal Planning Department is going to organise first National Road Maintenance Meeting.
During his speech Raúl López analysed the vision of road maintenance in a smart city like Málaga: “It allows us to cover the needs of those who need us, the citizens, better”. Next, the Delegate of Development, Territorial Planning, Culture and Historical Heritage of the Government of Andalusia in Málaga, Carmen Casero, highlighted the work done in the city: “Málaga has been a pioneer in Spain in road maintenance, like in other fields”.
The opening ceremony continued with the interventions of Jorge Gámiz, Sando’s general director of Conservation and Maintenance of Infrastructures and Eduardo Fernández, CEO of Eiffage Infraestructuras, who highlighted the evolution of the Road Maintenance Plan in recent years.
The first of the sessions focused on investments made in road maintenance in the city of Málaga. During this session Javier Pérez de la Fuente, head of the Department of Architecture and Infrastructure of Málaga’s Municipal Planning Department, stressed the importance of new communication technologies: “If we don´t have the right information, it is impossible to offer good maintenance, but with data we are able to programme and prioritise them”.
The detail of the investments made during the last year in Málaga was given by Pilar Vila, head of Málaga’s Project Services and Works Management of the Planning Department, while Málaga’s Road Maintenance Contract director, Sergio Muñoz Caro, explained the information contained in the deterioration maps of the city and its relationship with the investment by zones.
The session on national and international experience in road maintenance began with a presentation by the vice president of the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces, José María García who, in his capacity as Mayor of Estepona, talked about how the maintenance of a city can affect its economic and social development.
During the round table, the moderator and vice president of the European Asphalt Pavement Association, Juan José Potti, analysed the current international maintenance scenario and delved into the need to adapt the plans to the future. In this sense, Ángel Sampedro, Professor of Road Engineering at the Alfonso X University, announced some of the results of a maintenance research project that his department is conducting. Next, Miguel Caso, World Road Association technical director, explained how the information processing constitutes the future in maintenance: “Data is the oil of the 21st century”. Finally, Lola Ortiz, Madrid City Council General Director of Planning and Mobility Infrastructures, talked about the application for notices of incidents on public Roads that Madrid has developed and that users can use directly.
Innovation in maintenance
Innovation and new trends were the focal point in the last two round tables in the final phase of the 5th Road Maintenance Sustainable Cities Meeting, sponsored by Althenia and Los Serranos. In the first one, moderated by the journalist Luis Carlos Ramírez, an in-depth debate was held on how to optimise the maintenance activity. In this context, Francisco Martín, head of the Málaga Road Maintenance Plan, talked about how the Genesis IT system, developed as a research project, has radically improved efficiency in the city of Málaga. At the same time, Pablo Sáez, Managing Director of the Infrastructure Maintenance and Exploitation Company Association, asked for more investment in research in this area due to lack of support.
The most technical point of view was offered by David Bueno, manager of the Municipal Computing Centre, and Ramsés Vidal, civil engineer in the Planning Department.
Finally, different views on how to make a city friendlier were presented in the round table on new trends in maintenance, moderated by the journalist of Diario Sur, Ana Pérez-Bryan. José Luis Borau, drawing from his experience as head of the ONCE’s (Spanish Organisation for the Blind) Accessibility and Physical Environment Department expressed why good maintenance is essential for people with disabilities. A vision put into context by José Cardador, Málaga City Council urban planning manager, who gave examples of the activity carried out in Málaga, and that Enrique Catalina expanded on with his experience as general director of Infrastructure and Land Management of the Government of Andalusia and the architect from the Málaga Planning Department, Cristina Gallardo.
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