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#19-04 Launch of the Standard safety intervention toolkit for the Safe Networks Programme

Published: | Category: Technical advice note | Audiences: Road traffic engineers & consultants, Roading contractors

This notice advises that the draft Standard safety intervention toolkit is available to assist project managers to more easily apply the Safe Network Programme funding model.  The draft toolkit has been released, will come into effect from 14 March 2019 and should be applied to all works in the Safe Network Programme.

Publication details

  • Author:
  • Published: 1 April 2019
  • Reference: 19-04
  • Version: 1
  • Contact: tim.crow@nzta.govt.nz

Purpose

This notice advises that the draft Standard safety intervention toolkit is available to assist project managers to more easily apply the Safe Network Programme funding model.  The draft toolkit has been released, will come into effect from 14 March 2019 and should be applied to all works in the Safe Network Programme.

We have simplified the decision-making and approval processes around standard safety treatments. This means that proven safety interventions (such as a road side barriers) based on criteria (volume of traffic, crash rate, One Network Road Classification (ONRC)) can progress to pre- implementation with a very concise application/approval process based on a National Programme Business Case.

The toolkit is intended to provide guidance for road practitioners of all types and levels, including: road safety and transport engineers, asset managers, town planners, civil designers and community road safety officers. It is relevant to both state highway and local authority networks.

The Safe Network Programme team are currently working with council officers to identify whether any of the local authority corridors/intersections should be elevated in priority and brought into the programme.

The standard safety interventions included within the toolkit are proven road safety counter-measures that deliver the beneficial safety outcomes by improving the existing road network; they are not intended to be used for offline or new road corridors. Further work is continuing, to assess other infrastructure interventions for standard safety interventions.  Once they have been approved they will be included in future updates of the toolkit. Implementation guidance and investment assurance criteria have been developed for each standard safety intervention to support the project manager with optioneering and intervention selection. 

The toolkit is now available online at https://www.nzta.govt.nz/resources/standard-safety-intervention-toolkit/

General information

The toolkit has been developed progressively since 2018 and is a ‘living’ document. It is intended to be maintained and updated regularly, so that new standard safety interventions can be captured and disseminated to practitioners.

The toolkit is not intended to replace any Transport Agency and/or Austroads road safety publications as a source of in-depth technical information.  Further information to support this is available in other NZ Transport Agency documents such as the Transport Agency’s High-risk rural roads guide and High-risk intersections guide

Although the primary objective of this toolkit is to focus on engineering-based treatments, it is expected that the user takes a holistic view on road safety, identifying issues such as enforcement, road user education and media campaigns. The toolkit provides photographic examples of individual standard safety interventions and for most treatments, there are technical references provided, some with links to internet sites containing relevant documents.

Project development

Suitably trained and qualified practitioners need to engage in a critical assessment of the road safety issues on the corridor and/or intersection and the appropriate safe system interventions to address them. In some situations, such interventions will not be feasible due to project constraints dictated by budget, site, conflicting road user needs, or the environment. If so, the next safest project-feasible solution needs to be identified. 

However, in accordance with the Government policy statement on land transport (GPS), value for money must also be demonstrated and as such primary safe system infrastructure interventions may not be affordable and supporting safe system treatments may be appropriate. The reasons why options have been or not been selected should be documented.

Publication details

Author: NZ Transport Agency
Published: February 2019
Version: 1
Found at: https://www.nzta.govt.nz/resources/standard-safety-intervention-toolkit/

Further information

To submit documents or if you have any questions or feedback, please contact the NZ Transport Agency Safe Network Programme Director, Tim Crow at tim.crow@nzta.govt.nz

 

David Darwin                 Vanessa Browne