In October 2023, the XXVIIth World Road Congress was held in Prague. The Congress attracted 38 ministerial delegates, 4,000 delegates and 2,000 students from 120 countries.
The IRF Global hosted a session on Game-changing Trends in Road Project Delivery, exploring how innovation is reshaping infrastructure planning, design, and execution. The session, moderated by NEWROAD Consulting’s Nina Elter, brought together global perspectives on digital tools and processes that are setting new benchmarks for performance and sustainability in the road sector.
The session opened with a focus on the transition toward digital infrastructure. Technologies like Building Information Modeling (BIM), automation in construction, and advanced decision-support tools are already influencing how projects are delivered—enabling smarter planning, reducing risk, and improving financial outcomes. Yet, the message was clear: these technologies are only as effective as the collaboration that supports them.
Four case studies from Europe, North America, and Asia illustrated how different regions are applying innovation in context-specific ways. Presentations covered topics such as:
- Space-based data and its integration into transport asset management, offering new capabilities for monitoring, forecasting, and planning.
- Large-scale project execution driven by strong leadership, internal systems, and safety initiatives – demonstrating how process excellence complements technology.
- AI-powered road inspection tools designed to automate and optimize traditional maintenance practices, with a focus on sustainability and scalability.
- National-level BIM implementation, highlighting how integrated data environments, standardized workflows, and cross-sector cooperation are transforming major infrastructure programs.
Reflecting on the session, Nina Elter remarked,
“The future of road delivery will be shaped not just by new technologies, but by how effectively we connect people, policies, and systems. It’s about unlocking collective capacity to deliver better, faster, and more sustainably.”
The session concluded with an interactive discussion, where participants reflected on implementation barriers, emerging opportunities, and the importance of skills development in a rapidly evolving ecosystem.
Looking ahead, IRF Global will continue the dialogue at the Roads to Tomorrow Conference in Phoenix this November, where the future of roadways—green, equitable, intelligent, and integrated—takes center stage.
