Many nations have made the same conclusions as the ECOROADS project. Experienced tunnel managers says that when you start to approach a tunnel you have to make several additional considerations that require tunnel safety/operation experts. You also need to gather information from the tunnel operator, the tunnel manager and the Traffic Control Centre. When it comes to tunnels the road become quite more complex. 

The general objective of the ECOROADS project is to overcome the barrier established by the formal interpretation of the two Directives 2008/96/EC (on road infrastructure safety management) and 2004/54/EC (on tunnels), that in practice do not foresee the same Road Safety Audits/Inspections to be performed on open roads and in tunnels.

Ecoroads Project, 2017

The ECOROADS project has been carried out by a Consortium of 16 partners and third parties belonging to 9 Member States plus Norway and SEETO Regional Participants. It has followed a practical approach to incorporate the tunnel safety procedures in an integrated approach for joint safety operations at both tunnels and open roads, with a focus on road safety. 

The project has examined a common-coordinated enhanced approach by applying the concepts (RSA/RSI) of the Directive 2008/96/EC to tunnels with a focus on the transition areas between tunnels and open roads, without jeopardising (but rather complementing) the existing tunnel safety management operations as legally described by the law in force.

The methodology used has been defined through a two-round workflow:

Plan > Do > Check > Correct

Where the “Check” phase was carried out through international workshops involving main European Stakeholders, most of them affiliated to the project main partners.

The project has delivered recommendations for the policy makers to ensure an actual and wider application of the ECOROADS methodology. 

Weblink: http://www.ecoroadsproject.eu