Circular No. 11/2005/TT-BGTVT guiding traffic safety assessment work for national roads

CIRCULAR

Guidelines for Traffic Safety Appraisal Work on Roadways

Article 40 of the Road Traffic Law and Article 10 of Decree No. 186/2004/NĐ-CP dated November 5, 2004 of the Government provide detailed regulations on traffic safety appraisal work. To implement uniformly and effectively, the Ministry of Transport provides guidance as follows:

This technical regulation sets out technical requirements, testing methods, sampling procedures; management requirements; responsibilities of organizations and individuals producing, trading, and importing cigarettes.

1. Traffic safety appraisal on roadways (hereinafter referred to as traffic safety appraisal) is the process of studying and analyzing investment construction project reports, investment construction project proposals, economic and technical construction reports, technical designs, construction drawings, and on-site inspections before the project is put into operation or during its operation to identify potential traffic accident risks, assess causes of traffic accidents, and propose solutions to ensure safe and smooth traffic flow.

2. Traffic safety appraisal work shall be carried out:

a) For new or upgraded roadway construction projects: the person authorized to decide on investment or permit investment (hereinafter referred to as the investment decision maker) decides on the projects that require appraisal, the stages of appraisal, and the organization to carry out traffic safety appraisal. Based on the level of traffic safety of the roadway project, the investment decision maker decides to conduct traffic safety appraisal at one or more of the following stages:

- Investment construction project report;

- Investment construction project proposal or economic and technical construction report;

- Technical design or construction drawings;

- Before putting the project into operation;

- During operation.

b) For operational roadway projects: the road management unit monitors and records traffic accident files, and when hazardous areas frequently causing traffic accidents (black spots) are identified, they must promptly report to higher authorities to conduct traffic safety appraisal according to regulations to determine the cause and propose solutions.

In cases where the cause and solution do not fall within the scope of bridges and roads, the road management unit immediately advises relevant agencies, organizations, or individuals to handle the matter within their authority.

c) For BOT construction projects: during the construction phase, traffic safety appraisal must be conducted as stipulated in point a, clause 2 above.

During the business phase, the organization or individual responsible for business operations shall undertake traffic safety appraisal according to regulations.

d) For specialized roadway projects constructed and managed by the investor, the investor shall be responsible for conducting traffic safety appraisal according to regulations.

3. Consulting organizations preparing investment construction project reports, investment construction project proposals, economic and technical construction reports, technical designs, or construction drawings (hereinafter referred to as Consultants) shall provide all relevant documents and materials to the organization tasked with conducting traffic safety appraisal as a basis for the appraisal. Consultants shall accept the recommendations of the traffic safety appraisers; study and incorporate them into the project design documents for approval by the authorized person; and simultaneously notify the traffic safety appraisers in writing of the adopted solutions and explain those not adopted.

II. AUTHORITY DECIDING ON TRAFFIC SAFETY APPRAISAL

1. For new, upgraded, or reconstructed projects, the investment decision maker decides.

2. For operational roadway projects:

a) The Director of the Vietnam Highway Administration decides for national highways;

b) The People's Committee of the province decides for urban roads, provincial roads, and district roads;

c) The People's Committee of the district decides for commune roads.

3. The report on the results of the traffic safety appraisal and the Consultant's comments on amending the project documents serve as the basis for approving or authorizing the approval of the project according to regulations.

III. ORGANIZATIONS AND INDIVIDUALS CARRYING OUT TRAFFIC SAFETY APPRAISAL

1. The organization entrusted with traffic safety appraisal must have at least three traffic safety appraisers, adequate technical equipment, and operate independently from the consulting organization that prepared the project and design documents.

2. Individuals carrying out traffic safety appraisal, referred to as traffic safety appraisers, must meet the following criteria:

a) Hold a bachelor's degree or higher in transportation engineering;

b) Have at least five years of experience in road construction design or road traffic management, and have participated in designing or handling traffic safety issues in at least three projects;

c) Be in good health suitable for office and fieldwork.

IV. BASIS FOR TRAFFIC SAFETY APPRAISAL

1. The decision of the investment decision maker assigning organizations or individuals to carry out traffic safety appraisal and the stages and contents of each stage to be appraised.

2. Project design documents and related files provided by the consultant for the traffic safety appraisal stage. If the appraisal is conducted before the project is put into operation, it also includes on-site inspections of the completed works.

3. Current Standards, Regulations, and Technical Specifications.

4. The outline of the content of traffic safety appraisal established by the organization or individual conducting the appraisal and approved by the investment decision maker.

The traffic safety appraisal organization bases these provisions to conduct traffic safety appraisal, accurately determine the cause, and propose solutions.

V. CONTENT OF IMPLEMENTATION AT EACH STAGE OF TRAFFIC SAFETY APPRAISAL

1. Investment Construction Report Stage: traffic safety appraisal is based on preliminary route survey documents (plan view, longitudinal profile, cross-section, intersection type) to evaluate the scale, function, technical standards, development needs of the road, traffic volume, types of vehicles participating in traffic; and assess the impact of the new project on traffic safety in the area of intersections, parking places, bus stops, adverse weather conditions affecting the project, and other negative factors.

2. Stage of the investment project for construction or economic and technical report on the works: must consider changes compared to the stage of the construction investment report and specific documents regarding traffic intersections, dedicated lanes, drainage systems, geology, climate, hydrology, environmental landscape, industrial zones, service areas, residential areas, and phased investment affecting the works, impacting exploitation therefrom to have solutions regarding road signs, lighting, greenery, and traffic control.

3. Technical design stage or construction drawing design stage: the safety review work is carried out based on the technical design dossier or construction drawing design dossier to examine and propose appropriate safety standards on the plan, cross-section changes, roadside treatment, bridge and culvert entry and exit ends, visibility at difficult locations and intersections; organize traffic for vehicles and pedestrians, organize traffic at intersections and overall on the road, organize traffic control; examine mutual impacts between transportation works and adjacent works and have solutions to ensure safety for both traffic and adjacent works; examine the arrangement of auxiliary facilities such as stop lines, bus stops, and parking lots suitable with the rest area and nearby route.

4. Pre-exploitation stage: inspect the construction results on-site, identify unreasonable traffic organization or potential traffic accidents not mentioned due to actual conditions differing from the design. Special attention must be given to traffic organization at intersections, signaling systems, dedicated lanes, emergency parking lanes, merging lanes, parking lots, visibility at technically limited locations, defects caused by construction such as road roughness, road surface texture, longitudinal slope, transverse slope, and the use of safety strips causing instability of the works and affecting the visibility of traffic vehicle drivers.

5. Exploitation stage: organize on-site inspections; check, examine, evaluate potential traffic accident risks; identify unreasonable traffic organization at intersections, signaling systems, dedicated lanes, emergency parking lanes, merging lanes, parking lots, visibility at technically limited locations, defects of the road surface, longitudinal slope, transverse slope, and the use of safety strips causing instability of the works and affecting the visibility of traffic vehicle drivers; the identification and handling of hazardous locations frequently occurring traffic accidents on operating roads are implemented according to Decision No. 13/2005/QĐ-BGTVT dated February 2, 2005, of the Minister of Transport.

VI. PROCEDURE FOR IMPLEMENTING SAFETY REVIEW OF CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS, UPGRADES, AND RECONSTRUCTIONS

1. The investor decides on the stage and specific content of the safety review for each stage.

2. The investor bases on the experience and safety review capacity of the organization to select and assign the implementation of the safety review.

3. The organization assigned to conduct the safety review implements the collection of documents, data, actual conditions, analysis, evaluation, and proposal of remedial measures; hand over the results to the investor, consultant for project dossier preparation, and construction design.

4. The traffic safety review organization monitors the consultant's adoption and participates in opinions with the investor to approve the project when requested.

VII. EXPENSES FOR SAFETY REVIEW

1. For new construction, upgrade, and reconstruction projects, they are included in the project's investment budget.

2. For operating works:

a) For national highways, use central road maintenance funds or other sources as prescribed;

b) For local roads, use annual allocated funds for local roads or other sources as prescribed.

VIII. IMPLEMENTATION

This Circular takes effect fifteen days after its publication in the Official Gazette.

During the implementation process, units应及时反映在执行过程中遇到的问题给交通运输部研究补充和修改。