RTA guidelines on road safety soon

An auditing will soon be done in Dubai with a view to improving road design methods, including the planning and designing of roads through the initial and final stages.

The auditing will also involve checking the existing ones, said Eng. Bader Al Siri, Director of Traffic Department at the Traffic and Roads Agency.

“The project, being implemented by RTA in cooperation with an Australian consultant company, aims at developing uniform standards for auditing on roads safety projects in Dubai,” Eng. Al Siri said.

He added: “This is being done to avoid any possible defects and to exclude any technical defects that may cause accidents. Special techniques will be used to reduce the factors that may be of danger to road users.”

The project includes four main phases. The first phase includes revising the specifications of checking road safety applied in various countries, in addition to the checking of the procedures and specifications currently applied in Dubai.

RTA conducted 27 surveys last year to monitor a number of roads and highway projects, including roads in various residential areas in Dubai.

The official pointed out that the second phase of the project would include the preparation of the draft guide after studying local traffic conditions. It has been applied on a trial basis in three new projects.

RTA also organised a training course during the third phase of the project for the traffic and road engineers.

The fourth phase will begin a year after applying the system and will be in the form of assessment and follow-up observations.

Siri said RTA had recently carried out checking campaigns on a number of new projects to come out with advanced engineering designs for safer roads.