Pressure is growing on the European Union and national transport authorities to agree heavy transport corridors throughout Europe in the wake of increasing concern about deteriorating infrastructure and unnecessary bureaucracy.
The issue – and the related problem of obtaining permits from local regulators – dominated discussions at last month’s meeting in Paris of the transport section of ESTA, the European Association of Abnormal Road Transport and Mobile Cranes.
The meeting heard presentations from Switzerland, France, Germany, Italy and Poland , all of whom made the same key points – that the present systems are over-complex, expensive, reduce safety and put up costs for the industry’s clients and ultimately their customers.
The issue has been given extra impetus following the recent NATO military exercises in Europe. Sources in Brussels have said that the EU will be looking at a new plan to help military equipment to move quickly and avoid border delays and weak roads and bridges.
ESTA hopes that this work will lead to a network of routes being developed that can also be used for heavy transport as well as for military purposes.