DS-4 - Appendix D.1 General
Road safety audits or reviews shall be undertaken for all Council transportation related projects. They are also recommended for subdivisional developments but are not mandatory. Where undertaken, a formal road safety audit or informal review may be required at one or several stages of a project. The stages and levels of review to be undertaken shall be in accordance with Table 1 – Design Requirements for Various Road Classifications and need to be considered at the early stages of any project to identify which stages of audit or review will be required and to budget for them.
DS-4 - Appendix D.2 Road Safety Audit
A road safety audit is an independent review of a project to identify road or traffic safety concerns for all road users and to ensure that all measures to eliminate or mitigate the concerns identified are considered fully.
Road safety audits must:
- Be carried out by people independent of the Designer, Developer, Contractor and Council who have appropriate experience and training.
- Address only the road safety concerns of a project and be a formally documented process.
A road safety audit is not a design check, peer review or a judgement on the quality of a project.
DS-4 - Appendix D.3 Road Safety Reviews
Road safety reviews are recommended for smaller scale projects where undertaking a formal road safety audit would be considered onerous. The road safety review shall be carried out by a Council traffic engineer or his delegate.
Road safety reviews involve checking a design or the constructed project against the relevant sections of the checklists provided in Appendix 2 of NZTA document Road Safety Audit Procedures for Projects which can be found online at the following link:
Road Safety Audit procedures
DS-4 - Appendix D.4 Road Safety Audit process
Formal road safety audits shall be undertaken in accordance with the NZTA document Road Safety Audit Procedures for Projects.
In brief, the procedure is:
- The Developer and Council jointly select an appropriately qualified and independent safety audit team.
- The Designer provides plans and other project information appropriate to the audit stage to the safety audit team. A briefing meeting can be undertaken at this stage for more complex projects to outline design philosophy and decisions and identify any design issues.
- The safety audit team carries out site inspections and desktop analysis of plans and any other information provided.
- The safety audit team produce a formal report identifying any potential safety problems and measures appropriate to the scale of the project that should be considered to mitigate the problems. The report will include a "decision tracking form" which will allow responses and decisions on the audit findings to be recorded.
- The Designer and Developer use the decision tracking form to comment on audit findings. They can agree or disagree with audit findings and or recommendations and make alternative proposals if desired
- Council consider the audit report and Designer / Developer response and decide on whether any changes to the project are required and what they should be. An exit meeting can be held at this stage to discuss and agree problems and potential solutions
DS-4 - Appendix D.5 Reconciliation of Unresolved Issues
In the event that Council requires a change that is not acceptable to the developer, the two parties shall meet to resolve the issues. The safety audit team shall be present at the meeting to assist in understanding the issues and the scale of any potential safety risks.
Definitions in this section
Contractor
Council
Design
Designer
Developer
Engineer
NZTA
Road