Green light for new Road Safety Audit offering

We are excited to now offer a Road Safety Audit (RSA) service as part of our transport planning capabilities, led by senior transport planner and road safety auditor Mike Dutton.

These audits review the road safety implications of engineering interventions for all road users and make recommendations to reduce the risk of accidents occurring, which helps inform designs for highway schemes. Road safety is fundamental to any alterations to the highway network associated with new development, meaning all clients will require and benefit from road safety related services.

With more than ten years of experience in highway design, Mike and his team can provide expert advice on schemes at all stages of the development process – covering DMRB GG119 stages 1-4. This means support can be provided prior to submitting planning or technical approval, helping schemes progress smoothly, through to post-construction.

The four stages of Road Safety Audit consist of:

• Stage 1 – Completion of preliminary design: At stage 1, RSA includes road safety matters which may have a bearing upon land take, licence or easement before the draft orders are published or planning consent is applied for
• Stage 2 – Completion of detailed design: At stage 2, the RSA team focuses on the more detailed aspects of the highway scheme using the design information provided with the RSA brief. Stages 1 and 2 can be combined on smaller schemes if a stage 1 RSA has not been undertaken
• Stage 3 – Completion of construction: Stage 3 RSA is undertaken when the highway scheme construction is complete, ideally before scheme opening. The audit team will consider the safety of all users and will walk/cycle/drive through the scheme as appropriate. RSA problems and recommendations raised in the stage 1 and stage 2 are reviewed and reiterated if the associated RSA actions are not complete
• Stage 4 – Post opening monitoring: Stage 4 RSA is an evidence-led review of road traffic collisions that have occurred in the vicinity of the highway scheme and is carried out using a minimum 12 months of validated post highway scheme-opening road traffic collision data

On leading our new RSA team, Mike said: “It’s exciting to lead such an important new offering at Rodgers Leask. Road safety is integral to our work as designers and engineers, so incorporating it as a service at Rodgers Leask is a natural step forward. Our broad offering from the start is something that I’m proud to deliver and I look forward to seeing grow, along with our team.

“Road safety has always been an ever-evolving area of work which has to adapt to constant legal, societal and technological changes. That of course comes with challenges, but it’s those changes and challenges make the road safety sector so interesting. Anyone who is involved in development projects comprising the movement of people, construction of new highway infrastructure, or amendments to the existing highway network, can benefit from our new offering.”

Rodgers Leask strive to offer reliable and practical advice to our clients across a range of road safety related services to help improve highway designs or existing infrastructure. Our knowledge of road safety can equally be applied to both the public and private realm. Public spaces where there is an interaction between multiple modes of transport must be assessed for safety and we have already worked with several local authorities to develop safer designs. Private road safety assessments, which includes assessing the movement of vehicles and people within a specific development, can also be provided.

Furthermore, the team will be offering related services such as collision analysis and road safety engineering. Collision Analysis, also known as Accident Investigation and Prevention (AIP) can be used to identify locations where personal injury accidents are a cause for concern and as a basis to devise engineering measures to reduce the risk of accidents occurring. Our team will investigate the details of the accidents to try and identify patterns and develop engineering measures to solve the problems.

While efforts to ensure multi-modal accessibility and inclusivity are informing design across every development sector, there are still common pitfalls to consider – of which our experts are well aware. For example, Mike said: “a frequent issue that is commonly found is with tactile paving that has either been designed incorrectly, or actually installed wrongly on-site. Additionally, housing estates that were built pre-2019 have often been designed to meet what are now outdated standards, such as narrow footways or the lack of dropped curbs for access.

“Road safety auditors are independent from the design process, it’s our job to give recommendations that are proportionate and viable to eliminate or mitigate the identified problem. As such, the safety audits are a vital part of ensuring that safety is paramount to our clients’ design development process.”

To find out more about our new RSA and road safety engineering service you can email Mike at mike.dutton@rodgersleask.co.uk.