The Western Australian Pavement Asset Research Centre was established in July 2011. It is a collaboration between Main Roads Western Australian, Western Australia Local Government Association, ARRB Group, Curtin University of Technology, the University of Western Australia and the Planning and Transport Research Centre, which brings together the relevant departments of four WA universities.

WAPARC’s purpose is twofold:

• To develop pavement research and practitioner capability in Western Australia
  

• To develop solutions and knowledge specific to Western Australia within the national context 
  

          of Australian research, technology and guides.

These objectives were the result of the recognition that:

• pavement and asset specialists in WA are too few, by a significant amount, to be regarded as a sustainable source of expertise
  

• the drive for increasing network productivity is increasing heavy vehicle stresses on WA’s pavement network
  

• there are some significant existing technical issues that need addressing to reduce whole of life pavement costs.
  

Main Roads WA are funding the initial three year program ($2.4m), with the intention of levering co-funding from industry (for specific interest projects) and from sources such as the Australian Research Council (Linkage, Discovery and LIEF grants).

The strategy has deliberately focussed on short-term applied research in order to offer WAPARC the opportunity to prove the concept of the collaborative approach to research.  A review will be initiated in mid 2013 into the initial 36 month period to determine the Centre’s success and future.