Integrating Road Safety Audits and Value Engineering

Road Safety Audits (RSAs) and Value Engineering Analysis (VE) are two important procedures within the road design process. Both procedures attempt to optimize a roadway design, with the RSA focused specifically on safety issues and the VE process investigating the value of the design, seeking opportunities for economic efficiencies. The output from each procedure is a document that is directed at the roadway designers, which identifies elements of the design that should be investigated for potential modification in the interest of either safety (via the RSA report) or cost-effectiveness (via the VE report). How the RSA and VE procedures are integrated within the design process will have an impact on the efficiency of the overall design process. Several iterations of RSAs and VEs, which are conducted in series, have the potential to create an extended time required for design. Furthermore, if the two procedures operate independently, then there is the potential that the recommendations from each process will be in conflict, with the designer left with a quandary for resolution of the identified safety issues / value proposals. Three options are commonly presented for the integration of RSAs and VEs in a design process: 1) The RSA is conducted in advance of the VE process, 2) The VE and RSA processes are conducted concurrently with interaction between the two, or 3) RSA conducted after the VE, ensuring that the VE recommendations are subjected to a RSA. This paper investigates the success of these three options and reports on the experience that has been gained in British Columbia, Canada in attempting to effectively integrate road safety audits and value engineering.

• Corporate Authors:

  Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE)

  Washington, DC  United States 

  Federal Highway Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • de Leur, Paul
• Conference:
  • ITE 2008 Technical Conference and Exhibit
  • Location: Miami FL, United States
  • Date: 2008-3-30 to 2008-4-2
• Publication Date: 2008

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: CD-ROM
• Features: References;
• Pagination: 12p
• Monograph Title: Compendium of Technical Papers. ITE 2008 Technical Conference and Exhibit, March 30-April 2, 2008, Miami, Florida

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Cost effectiveness; Highway design; Highway safety; Safety audits; Traffic safety; Value engineering
• Geographic Terms: British Columbia
• Subject Areas: Design; Highways; Safety and Human Factors; I20: Design and Planning of Transport Infrastructure; I82: Accidents and Transport Infrastructure;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01109040
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS, USDOT
• Created Date: Aug 22 2008 8:42AM