Road and Tunnel Safety Management: Establishment of a Common Enhanced Approach to Road Infrastructure and Tunnel Safety Management

Abstract

The objective of the ECOROADS project is to overcome where appropriate the barrier established by a formal interpretation of the two Directives 2008/96/EC (on road infrastructure safety management) and 2004/54/EC (on tunnels), that in practice do not foresee the same Road Safety Audits/Inspections (RSA/RSI) to be performed on open roads and in tunnels. To overcome this legal barrier, the project examined a common-coordinated enhanced approach by applying some of the concepts (RSA/RSI) of the Directive 2008/96/EC to transition areas between tunnels and open roads, without jeopardising (but rather complementing) the usual tunnel safety management operations. This paper presents the results of the project which includes the recommendations and guidelines for the application of the RSA and RSI concepts within the tunnel safety operations.