Prevention is better than Cure

 

We are committed to ensuring design safety for the scope work of all road projects undertaken. A methodical approach fosters the natural emergence of solutions, and when teamwork is incorporated into this process, a convincing synergy is produced. This combination propels the completion of big, intricate projects, continuously raising the bar towards development

of the nation.

– Debashish Roy

Road safety, which aims to safeguard road users including drivers, passengers, pedestrians, and cyclists is an essential component of transportation and urban development. During the last two decades, though a significant number of road development programs have been implemented in India like Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, Golden Quadrilateral and Port connectivity, the high-speed corridors are susceptible to various types of accidents unless proper attention is paid during design, construction and operation stages. Engineering measures, enforcing traffic laws and education are the key components of road safety, writes Debashish Roy, Senior Engineering Manager – Traffic and Road Safety, L&T Construction, EDRC TI IC.

The reasons for major safety hazards on roads include improper road geometry; absence of service road; improper median openings; faulty intersection design; abutting major roadside activities like schools, colleges and market activities; absence of bus bay lane and truck lay byes; direct interference of pedestrians with the traffic streams for absence of proper pedestrian crosswalk; improper cattle crossing; use of same right-of-way for all types of motorized high-speed vehicle as well as a non-motorized vehicle; improper road sign and marking; glaring effect at nighttime and violation of directional traffic movements.

 Statistics show that NHs and SHs constitute only 5% of total road length but they account for about 63% of total road accidents. Vulnerable road users constitute around 44% of the total road accidental deaths. Therefore, it is highly necessary that road development be properly coordinated with safety aspects. For this purpose, the most important measure may be implementation of safety audits during design, construction and operation stages of roadway development projects.

Safety Assessment is carried out as per the approved methodology, check lists and procedures as per IRC and MoRTH and other appropriate standard procedures not covered by IRC. A detailed methodology includes preparation by desk research, road safety workshop for audit purposes, collection of data, review of reports, review of drawings and design and onsite inspection, conducting RSA at different stages, analysis of accident data, investigation of accident causes and recommendation on implementation and finally, preparation of reports as per TOR.

The assessment encourages identifiable evidence of complex situations on new roads, roads that are being improved, or roads that are being constructed. It suggests appropriate mitigating steps to reduce the risk of accidents on roads that are already in place or to be constructed.

Development Phase

The feasibility study during the development phase makes recommendations for important plans that are integrated into urban areas with the intention of influencing development decisions, arrangement determinations, benchmarks, swaying and coherence with the current system, intersection arrangements, potential threats from roadside growth, and so forth.

While working on the preliminary design, principal factors which affect safety like access control, horizontal and vertical alignment, visibility, layout of intersections, interchanges, road cross sections, bridges & culverts, side drains, provision for parked vehicles and provision for vulnerable road users are considered. These elements are studied along the project and any geometric design inconsistency with substandard design elements likely to cause hazard are identified. After this stage, land acquisition is taken up.

Road designs done during the development phase include alignment of horizontal and vertical curves, width of land and shoulder, layout of intersection, provision of super elevation and side slopes with pavements, overtaking lanes, separate ways for pedestrians and cyclists, safety arrangements during construction on site, sign boards, design of link roads and space management.

Construction phase

Construction zones are hazardous for drivers, other road users as well as for people working at sites. Therefore, good practice in traffic management and diversion plans in construction sites as well as safety checks for workers are crucial. At least 7.0-meter width of road should always remain open to traffic with suitable traffic diversion measures on granular or suitable surface as applicable.

For specific safety assessment during construction, phase-by-phase plans of road construction for the entire stretch prepared by the concessionaire are reviewed. Recommendations in terms of traffic signs, marking and detour plans are assessed from a safety point of view and available capacity is also assessed. Additional data such as speed, travel time, total delay is analyzed, and the most preferable scenario is identified. This is tested against plans provided by the concessionaire and suitable recommendations are made. In urban areas, the issues are much more intense as redirections must be to adjoining roads in addition to sharing of road space by various classes of road clients.

Operation Phase

Next is the pre-opening/operation phase which involves site personnel and the local traffic police. This is checked amid evening time likewise to guarantee that required evening safety principles have been accomplished. Numerous plans are developed with the road open to traffic all through the development stage. At the point when there is no doubt about a real opening for traffic, a general examination is completed to review whether the markings and all traffic control gadgets are set up. This examination is done by the reviewer autonomously on the principal occasion and from there on alongside the Project Manager of the Contractor.

Various tasks are performed in sequence during the phases. The design phase includes the following tasks.

Preparation and Submission of Inception Report: Upon signing the contract, safety assessment Inception Report is submitted, which includes methodology and implementation plan for conducting audits, checklist and detailed procedure to be adopted during the development and entire construction period.

Methodology and Implementation Plan Finalization and Training: During preparation of the Inception Report, a training workshop is organized, where the proposed methodology is presented and discussed among the concessionaire, IE & Police and the same is finalized. Each representative appraises respective field staff. A report on Safety Training/Workshop and Methodology Finalization is submitted.

Collection of geometric, traffic and pavement data: This task includes collection of various geometric, traffic and pavement related data. Geometric design details are collected from the concessionaire. These include horizontal and vertical alignments, sightlines, layouts of intersections, interchanges, road cross-section, bridges and culverts, side drains, provision for parked vehicles, slow moving vehicles (tractors, bullock carts, bicycles) and pedestrians, bus bays, truck laybys, toll plaza, other traffic control device etc.

 Details of roadside safety treatments such as crash barriers, attenuators are also collected and associated with incidental or consequential information, if any. For traffic data collection, IRC guidelines are followed and at least two years’ traffic volume data from toll booths are obtained. Additionally, traffic count data available from feasibility study / DPR prior to Development Phase are also collected. For pavement conditions, surveys are conducted to gather information about pavement conditions and distress. In case of existing capacity augmentation of a road stretch, crash data is also collected from local Police stations to analyze fatal and grievous injury accidents.

Recommendations from Safety Assessment of detailed design: Based on the crash data analysis along with geometry, traffic and pavement information, as well as the site visits of the project highway (in case of existing road), recommendations on various safety measures are provided. This includes drawing/ designs as well as a final report on review of design and drawings.

Submission of Final Report and Recommendations: On completion of the safety assessment at detailed design stage, a final Report containing detailed recommendations is submitted.

Tasks during construction phase:

Examine if suggestions have been implemented: At this stage, it is important to visit and study the safety report of the development period and provide a gap report as to what was given in Final Safety Report and a Report containing details of what was finally implemented. Draft gap report is submitted.

Review of Safety Plan Prepared by Concessionaire: A detailed review of the actual construction zone safety plan prepared by concessionaire is studied and suggestions are given accordingly. This includes safety plans at various substages such as advance warning zone, transition zone, work zone and termination zone. Traffic management plan and traffic safety measures are also discussed.

Conducting Workshop: During construction period, Road Safety workshop is conducted every six months and report on each workshop is submitted.

Submission of Final Report and Recommendations: On completion of safety assessment a final report at construction stage, containing detailed recommendations, is submitted.

Tasks during Operation:

Collection of Accident Data from Primary and Secondary Sources and Compilation: Crash data is collected from local Police Stations of various jurisdictions and districts. This includes collection of both aggregate and disaggregates data (FIR data) maintained by the police stations for the preceding two years. This data contains fatal, grievous and minor injury data as well as property damage only accident data whenever available. Since this data for this region is primarily in manual format, the data obtained from police stations will be entered into an electronic database for further use and analysis. Additionally, accident data will be collected from secondary sources such as from concessionaires.

Comprehensive Analysis of Accident Data: After collection of accident data and road geometric, traffic volume and pavement condition, a thorough analysis of fatal and grievous injury accidents is performed. For this purpose, various statistical techniques, data mining methods as well as simple rate-based analysis using traffic volume count are done to check the trend. Based on these analyses, the geometric design features that are associated with high accident locations or sites will be identified.

Further Inspection of High Crash Locations: Once the high accident locations are identified, additional site visits are performed to identify various location specific factors during day and nighttime that may influence accidents. This information is used for countermeasure design and reviewed against the treatments suggested by the concessionaire. A draft report on review of visit in comparison with the design drawing compliance is submitted.

Documents and Standards

The standards to be followed in carrying the assignment includes IRC: SP: 88-2010, IRC: SP: 55-2001 IRC: 53-2012, other relevant standards of IRC / MoRTH especially for signing, marking and striping. Check lists from IRC: SP: 88-2010 and checklist provided by other standards for RSA after completion of detailed design and RSA during construction will be followed for this study.