Tools for Road Safety Audits and Road Safety Inspections at Work Zones

Road Safety Audits (RSA) and Road Safety Inspections (RSI) are effective means of Road Infrastructure Safety Management. They are preventive tools, consisting of systematic, safety assessments, carried out by trained, independent safety expert teams, resulting in a formal report on detected road hazards and safety issues, requiring a formal response by the relevant road authority. Yet, current regulations, procedures and protocols vary considerably between countries. The prerequisites for a good RSA/RSI practice are a number of defined regulatory, administrative, financial and technical issues. Since road work zones represent elevated hazards, running systematic and effective RSA/RSI procedures is vital to provide safe environments for both road users and road workers. A Work Zone Road Safety Audit (WZRSA) assesses a project’s temporary elements that will eventually be removed once the active work zone phase is completed. Hence, a WZRSA team should focus on work zone safety, design, and operations; it should not focus on permanent geometric design elements. WZRSAs can be done during all project phases – from planning through an active work zone. Due to the temporary nature of work zones, the WZRSA team must record its findings and submit recommendations to the road owner in a timely fashion.