Joint Road Safety Analysis in Open Roads and Tunnels

Polidori, Carlo; Adesiyun, Adewole; Avenoso, Antonio; Dionelis, Kallistratos; Cela, Liljana; Nicodème, Christophe; Goger, Thierry · 2017 · Crossref

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.71734

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Summary

This paper addresses the fragmentation in road safety management, specifically the disconnect between safety analyses for open roads and tunnels. Although drivers perceive a road as a continuous linear infrastructure, current regulatory frameworks and expert practices often treat open terrain and closed tunnel environments separately. This separation, driven by differing technical demands and distinct European directives (2008/96/EC for open roads and 2004/54/EC for tunnels), creates safety gaps, particularly in transition areas. The authors argue that joint safety analyses conducted simultaneously by road safety and tunnel experts can harmonize these approaches, filling safety gaps and improving overall infrastructure safety. To evaluate this approach, the authors conducted five joint safety operations in 2016 under the European ECOROADS project. An international multidisciplinary team of experts, including a facilitator to coordinate between experts, observers, and infrastructure managers, visited five road sections featuring both open roads and tunnels in Belgium, Albania, Germany, Serbia, and Macedonia. The experimental procedure involved defining a specific "transition area" for inspection, calculated as the distance covered in 10 seconds at the speed limit before the portal plus the stopping distance inside the tunnel (based on a friction coefficient of 0.40 and 2-second reaction time). The teams utilized a standardized checklist covering function, portal design, cross-section, alignment, traffic signals, signing, lighting, and roadside features to assess these areas. The results confirmed that joint safety operations are feasible, effective, and cost-efficient when well-planned. The analysis revealed that transition areas frequently present the most critical road safety issues, validating the need for a coordinated inspection scope. Feedback from 42 forms indicated widespread consensus on the added value of the mixed-team approach. Benefits included the exchange of knowledge and best practices, a harmonized view of traffic management across different technical environments, and the ability for experts to observe driver behavior and infrastructure characteristics from both inside and outside the tunnel. The study successfully validated a simplified scheme for joint operations that infrastructure managers can adopt. The significance of this work lies in its proposal for a harmonized safety approach that bridges the regulatory and practical divide between open roads and tunnels. By treating the transition area as a unified critical zone, the method ensures consistent safety levels for users regardless of the infrastructure type. The paper provides a practical framework, including specific definitions for transition zones and a comprehensive checklist, enabling infrastructure managers to implement coordinated safety inspections. This approach enhances risk prevention by ensuring that safety measures are interlinked and that the specific characteristics of tunnels are properly integrated into the broader road safety assessment.

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• roadway lighting effects