ROAD SAFETY INSPECTION OF THE AP-8 HIGHWAY (ERMUA-EL GALLO)

Area of activity
TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURES

Service
Road Safety and M&O

Client
GEBISA-Infrastructure Management of Bizkaia

Scope

• Identification of elements susceptible to improvement
• Corrective actions proposal
• Road Safety Audit (Final Report)

Duration
2017-2021

These inspections consisted of an independent, periodic, systematic and technical review of the road safety of the AP-8 or sections of it in service, by an inspection team. The Chief Inspector will be accredited by the Provincial Council, in order to certify that they operate in the maximum possible safety conditions or, failing that, to minimize the costs of possible actions that may be feasible to eliminate or mitigate the elements that could be improved. These are understood as those that constitute a factor of increase in the frequency or injury rate of accidents or that have associated social costs disproportionate to the function they perform.

In addition, a study of traffic intensities was previously carried out based on the data recorded in the capacity books that the Provincial Council of Bizkaia publishes every year, in order to obtain the average and working day traffic density, as well as the traffic density of heavy vehicles.

In addition, a study of the accident rate was also carried out for the road safety inspection in order to make a spatial and temporal distribution. The typology and concurrent factors were studied to help determine the priority of action in the different areas of the section where there is a higher accident rate or where an area with a specific risk is detected.

Several visits were made to the road to carry out inspections of the infrastructure, both on days with good weather conditions and in adverse weather conditions and at night, to collect graphic documentation. Specifically, inspections were made of the functional elements of the trunk and junctions (signaled speed, visibility, pavement condition, drainage, vertical and horizontal signaling, study of roadside protection, etc.) in order to check their condition and detect existing pathologies, developing the corresponding inventory.

Based on this inventory of the Elements Susceptible to Improvement (ESMs), the proposals for action were developed by means of the road’s road modification. Among these proposed actions, it is worth highlighting the actions in areas with serious accident risk, mainly in overpasses (overpass over the Amorebieta junction road), overpasses over railway tracks, etc., as well as the provision of containment elements and pavement replacement in dangerous sections.