Presentations

• Roads for Decarbonization and Adaption –  The Minnesota perspective
  • Nancy DAUBENBERGER (Minnesota Department of Transportation, United States)
  Presentation (pdf - 2.1MB)

Nancy DAUBENBERGER has worked for the Minnesota Department of Transportation for over 22 years, in engineering and management positions and was appointed by Governor Tim Walz and Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan as the agency's Commissioner in May 2022 after serving for three years as Deputy Commissioner and Chief Engineer. Prior to her current role, she served as the Assistant Commissioner for Engineering Services, the State Bridge Engineer, and also previously served in planning, project management and design roles for the MnDOT Bridge Office and Metro District. Before coming to MnDOT, she worked in consulting for about six years, in both bridge and road design.

• Road decarbonization: an ecological emergency
  • Christophe SAINTILLAN (Vinci Autoroutes, France) - Deputy Managing Director
  Presentation (pdf - 939KB)

Christophe SAINTILLAN currently is Deputy Managing Director of VINCI Autoroutes, France's leading freeway concession company, in charge of 4,400 km of motorway. Previously, he was with the French Ministry of Transport for twenty years, in charge of various road design, road policy and infrastructure management roles. He was a Member of the PIARC Executive Committee from 2010 to 2016 and First Delegate for France. He joined the Great Paris (Île-de-France) regional council for 4.5 years, where he was in charge of housing and transport.

Christophe Saintillan presented how VINCI Autoroutes address decarbonization and adaptation. VINCI Autoroutes has been working with academics on the decarbonization of the road: starting from the observation that in France, the transport sector has become the most emitting sector and the only one whose emissions are not being reduced, Vinci Autoroutes has studied the concrete actions to be taken to bring mobility on freeways in line with the trajectory imposed by the Paris Agreement and French national policies. These include welcoming electromobility for light vehicles (massive installation of charging stations) and heavy goods vehicles (charging stations, ERS), encouraging the most virtuous modes of transport (car-sharing, public transport thanks to reserved lanes, parking facilities and multimodal platforms) and, more generally, making freeways part of a logic of urban and environmental integration and adaptation to climate change, given their impact on the weather (reducing the consequences of flooding, protection against the risk of fire). This calls for a massive and urgent investment plan, broken down by action and costed.