Frequently Asked Questions
Why should I use RSA for the audit?
It’s 30+year experience, industry credibility and relationships ensure clients have fast issue resolution with authorities, practical advice through custom risk assessments, and no surprises.
What is a Road Safety Audit?
A road safety audit is a formalised assessment conducted by a team of road safety experts to identify possible and probable road safety issues in new and proposed road and infrastructure projects, existing roadways and infrastructure, and roadworks and infrastructure under construction
Why conduct a Road Safety Audit?
Research in the UK has found that on sites with audited designs the average annual number of casualties dropped from 2.08 to 0.83 compared with non-audited sites which dropped from 2.6 to 2.34*.
To ensure new road facilities incorporate current safety and accessibility principals during conceptual and design stages.
To minimise the potential for accidents during and post construction.
To minimise the possibility of legal action against authorities, architects, designers, developers, planners and contractors.
To ensure pedestrian safety and accessibility.
*Safety & Security for Road Infrastructure, ITS International, March/April 2005, page 9
Which project and how many audits?
To meet the ever demanding constraints of shrinking budget allocations it is critical to make certain that any concept development, design and construction expenditure is incurred just once.
A project of any size can benefit from an audit, even minor works. Generally an audit should be undertaken at the design/planning phase, traffic management/construction phase and pre-opening phase.
Legal & Economic Safeguards
Modern trends are towards lawsuits and litigation. The possibility of accidents, property damage, human suffering and costly legal action should be a major consideration of government road authorities, engineering companies, consultants and contractors.
How long will the audit take?
This is dependant on the size of the project and the component being audited, but a typical concept traffic management plan can normally be turned around in a few business days, and a design audit normally within 5-15 business days. For a post-implementation traffic management audit, every effort is made to submit a report of the site within 24 hours, however, issues identified are usually raised on site with traffic management staff so that they can address them immediately.
What do I do with the findings of the audit?
Discuss any issues / errors / misunderstanding / clarifications with the audit team, then decide on whether to accept or reject the audit finding, and provide sound reasoning. Often the audit will need to be provided to the relevant authority. Send the final responses to the audit team for their knowledge, learning, and records
