The National Civil Engineering Laboratory (LNEC), is an institution which is basically devoted to research in the field of civil engineering. It is a governmental body, with its own legal standing under the Ministry for Public Works, Transport and Housing.
The National Civil Engineering Laboratory was created in 1947. Since then it has grown in size and importance. Today its staff numbers some eight hundred people, out of whom more than two hundred have university degrees. The Laboratory is composed of 9 Departmental Units (subdivided into 35 Divisions) and several administrative and support services, on a site covering an area of around 100,000 m2 .
At LNEC’s Transportation Department, applied research is carried out related to transportation infrastructures (roads, airports, railways) at the different phases of their life-cycle. This Department comprise two Divisions: the Infrastructures Division (NIT) and the Planning, Traffic and Safety Division (NPTS).
Activity at the NPTS is split between two main areas: “Planning, Transports Economy and Environment”; and “Traffic and Road Safety”. In this latter area several studies have been developed over the past thirty years, namely as regards: models on the relations between rural road characteristics, speed and accidents; accident black spots detection methods; manual on road safety audits for rural roads; studies on the influence of roadside clearance on road accidents; and characterisation of the desired speed distribution on Portuguese rural and urban roads.
The LNEC has also participated in European research cooperation activities related to road safety, as for example in the framework of COST and EU-R&D programmes.
In the area of road safety, LNEC participates in several international organisations (ETSC, PIARC C13 Committee, FERSI, CEN, etc.).
More information on LNEC can be obtained from: www-ext.lnec.pt.