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Conferences


First consultations	First joint consultations of the Baltic road specialists held
1927, Riga, Latvia
1928, Tallinn, Estonia

1st Meeting,	First *Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian Meeting on Road Matters* held. There were 21 participants, the outstanding engineer V. Nemirovitch-Danchenko among them.
26-28 September 1932, Riga
	The agenda included the following issues:

	Mutual exchange of information on road network.
	Identifying international trunk roads for tourist traffic and the maintenance problems of these roads.

	There were the following decisions taken:

	The roads are of great importance to the people; consequently, they must be passable throughout the year.
	The road maintenance service must be funded from specially allocated sums.
	All inter-state trunk roads must be of similar standards.
	In order to promote tourism, 6 border crossing stations between Estonia and Latvia should be opened at the same time.
	Data concerning road-keeping equipment and financial statistics must be collected for the next meeting.
	In case of regular motor traffic on roads and possible competition with railways, national priorities should be considered.

2nd Conference,	The Meeting was renamed into the conference; no more data survived.
August 1933, Estonia

3rd Conference,	39 participants. The work arranged in sections: road section, bridge section and motor transport section.
20-24 August 1934, Kaunas, Lithuania

4th Conference,	Included many modern issues like the total weight of lorries, compulsory insurance of motor vehicles, traffic safety, winter maintenance and the banning of ice spikes.
1935, Latvia

5th Conference,
1936, Estonia

6th Conference,	No data survived.
1937 Lithuania	No data survived.

7th Conference,	Included presentations by the three countries on the results of the past year. The main issues discussed were the following:
22-28 August 1938, Latvia	Roads section: mechanization of road works, training of skilled workers, expansion of roads, liquidation of unsafe road sections and traffic safety on railway crossings.
	Bridges section: quality of inert materials of concrete, organization of preliminary study of bridge construction and the extension of working life of wooden bridges.
	Transport section: taxing and compulsory insurance of motor traffic, traffic safety, measures against drunk driving and safety propaganda.

8th Conference,	About 30 participants.
21-23 August 1939, Prnu and Tallinn, Estonia
	Key issues discussed:

	Road section: the increasing traffic density calls for reorganization of the road network; dust binding on gravel roads and the maintenance of these roads by surface dressing; mechanization or road maintenance and common methods of traffic density counting.
	Bridge section: soil study problems, methods of periodic supervision of bridges and road dimensions.
	Transport section: problems of traffic safety and safe traffic propaganda, organization of bicycle traffic.

9th Conference	The 9th Conference was to be held in 1940 in Lithuania. However, it was cancelled because of annexation of the Baltic States by the Soviet Union.

	9th (1st after-war) Conference was held in July 1957 in Riga. It had speakers from Moscow, Leningrad, Pskov region, Byelorussia.

	Main issues:

	Building of road embankments.
	Current issues of road surfaces and building materials.

10th (2nd after-war) Conference,	General issues of the road branch discussed. Decided to hold conferences every two years.
1958, Vilnius

1960 Conference	Cancelled, but the three-year period of arranging conferences established.

11th (3rd after-war) Conference,	There were 42 presentations made (Estonia - 9, Latvia - 11, Lithuania - 7, Byelorussia - 3, guests - 12) on road design, building and maintenance. Hosted 80 participants from outside Estonia.
17-20 July 1961, Tallinn
	Had a good exhibition of the three Baltic States.

	The resolution included the following issues:

	The Baltic republics should develop perspective programmes of road network development.
	The technologies of bitumen emulsion were important.
	Using local building materials should be expanded.
	Automatization and remote control of asphalt concrete plants should be implemented.
	Industrialization of bridge construction should be increased.
	Mechanization of traffic density counting should be implemented.
	A list of necessary laboratory equipment should be compiled.
	An appeal was addressed to the USSR State Planning Committee to increase the production of road maintenance machines.
	Literature on roads in the native languages should be published.


12th (4th) Conference,	Topic: *Acceleration of technical progress*
27-31 July 1964, Riga, Latvia
	Mainly focused on the following issues:

	Stability of embankments.
	Warm asphalt concrete mixes.
	Care of road shoulders.


13th (5th) Conference,	Topic: *New achievements in Baltic states road maintenance*
15-18 August, 1967, Vilnius, Lithuania
	Focus on traffic safety issues.

	Had 15-20 participants from each country

14th (6th) Conference,	Topic: *Technical progress in road maintenance*
4-6 August, 1970, Tallinn, Estonia
	Main issues covered:

	General plans of road development.
	Road maintenance.
	Traffic safety.
	Road surface calculations.
	Structure of road maintenance organizations.


15th (7th) Conference,	Topic: *Main directions of road maintenance*
8-10 August 1973, Riga, Latvia
	Key issues discussed:
	Productivity.
	Quality.
	Traffic safety.
	Production resources.
	Soil stabilization.

16th (8th) Conference,	Topic: *Achievements of high-category road building*
August 1976, Vilnius, Lithuania	Topic: *Achievements of high-category road building*

17th (9th) Conference,	Topic: *Quality and efficiency*
14-19 August 1979, Tallinn
	Included a visit to the Olympic sites and Saaremaa island.

18th (10th) Conference,	Topic: *Roads and Environment*
1-4 September 1982, Ogre, Latvia
	Key issues:

	Landscape planning of roads.
	Environment protection.

	Included a visit to the newly opened road museum.

19th (11th) Conference,	Topic: *General Road Development*
August 1985, Kaunas, Lithuania
	Key issues:

	Road management planning
	Implementation of scientific and technical innovations
	Computer use
	Development of production bases
	Traffic safety


20th (12th) Conference,	Topic: *Social Progress and Rural Roads*
24-25 August 1988, Tallinn
	Invited Finnish specialists for the first time. The historic sequence of conferences was restored.

	Included a tour to Viru District to see the Rakvere road repair.

21st (13th) Conference,	The main issue: reorganisation and financing of road management. There were guests from Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Russia. A new section of the road museum in lokaubeka was introduced.
4-6 September 1991, Jurmala, Latvia

22nd (14th) Conference,	Topic: *Roads and State*
25-29 September 1994, Birštonas, Lithuania
	Had fairly large delegations from many countries: Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Germany etc. Discussed a variety of topics from the general issues of road network development, road construction and maintenance to the information technology strategy, technology transfer activities, Via Baltica Project etc. The Conference was the first to be included into the calendar of the IRF (International Road Federation).

23rd Conference,	Topic: *Rehabilitation of Roads and Motorways*
25-27 August 1997, Prnu, Estonia
	Key issues discussed:

	Asphalt Pavements and improvement techniques.
	Transport Policy.
	Road Data bank. Pavement management systems.
	Road technology transfer.
	Road maintenance


24th Conference,	There were about 300 participants. Had an extensive programme. Discussed a variety of issues including environmental problems, design and construction of bridges and roads, international transport corridors, repairs and maintenance of roads and bridges.
21-23 August 2000, Riga, Latvia
	Offered three technical tours: 5 bridge reconstruction sites, 3 road reconstruction sites, 5 road and bridge maintenance sites and a modern exhibition Motorways 2000.
Link:	http://www.balticroads.org/html/1_5_1_1.html

Adopted by permission of the author from:
Lass,A.1997.About the history of the Baltic road conferences.Teeleht 3(11):4-6.

25th Conference,
25-27 August 2003, Vilnius, Lithuania
Link:	http://www.balticroads.org/conference25/en/

26th Conference,	There were more than 800 participants from 20 countries.
28-30 August 2006, Kuressaare, Estonia	During the conference was covered 6 technical themes totally with 95 presentations in 15 sessions:

	1. Strategic management;
	2. Road management;
	3. Co-operation management;
	4. Bridge management;
	5. Tool management;
	6. Traffic management.

	Offered three technical tours for seeing local roads and discovering the beauty of islands Saaremaa and Hiiumaa. There was an exhibition with 72 exhibitors.
Link:	www.mnt.ee/bra/conference26/

Baltic Road Association