RAPcapacity

RAPcapacity online courses help people learn how to undertake iRAP-specification road assessments.

• The courses available are:
• Getting started and accessing results
• Risk Mapping and Performance Tracking
• Star Rating and Investment Plans from inspections
• Star Rating and Investment Plans from design
• Road attribute coding

Take an online RAPCapacity course now.

Case Study

Designers managed to boost significantly the length of road rated 3-stars or better during the building of the US$323 million World Bank-financed Second Gujarat State Highway. They used a range of safety countermeasures including traffic calming, pedestrian footpaths and crossings and street lighting to ensure that the characteristic ‘green tunnels’ of old roadside trees could be retained while mitigating their safety risk.

Star Rating A Road Design

The Star Rating of a Road Design can be completed as a stand-alone activity. The process is being used by road agencies, development banks and design consultants to objecitvely specify and measure the safety of a road design for all road users.

The process offers an opportunity for road owners to set a performance based star rating target for all road users (e.g. the new road must be minimum 4-star standard for pedestrians and cyclists and minimum 3-star standard for motorcyclists and vehicle occupants). It has been successfully used in conjunction with existing mechanisms such as Road Safety Audits and compliance with road design standards.

The impact on risk of various design iterations can also be explored to help harness the potential of designers to find creative solutions to challenging safety problems.

Design Refined

The risk reduction design improvements proposed in a Safer Road Investment Plan can be adjusted by local experts to improve the Star Ratings for different user groups. iRAP recommends that all new roads should be built to a 3-star or better rating and all existing roads upgraded to that level.

The 3-star or better minimum can be achieved through a combination of infrastructure improvements and speed management initiatives to ensure a minimum level of safety for all road users at the location.  On high volume roads, 4 and 5-star targets are often justified for specific road user groups (e.g. 5-star for pedestrians in CBD areas; 4-star or better motorways for vehicle occupants).

Investment Plans

A Safer Road Investment Plan is produced that makes the business case for investing in road infrastructure safety. The plans list a range of life-saving measures that could be used to improve a road’s Star Rating and reduce fatalities and serious injuries.

Processing

The raw data is processed in ViDA to create data reports about a road’s design and the level of risk for each road user group. ViDA is capable of performing risk and economic calculations for millions of kilometres of road.

All data is securely stored and project teams can determine who has access to results.

Data Preparation

Trained staff code the road attributes in 100 metre intervals and upload data into ViDA in an Excel.csv format under supervision from a suitably qualified iRAP partner or supplier. To ensure high standards of accuracy, the team undertaking the coding is required to give a weekly report which shows the level of accuracy for each road attribute.

Where a road agency already has data available (e.g. asset management register) this information can simplify the coding exercise and ensure good integration with existing systems.

Road Coding

Here is a visual representation of some of the key road infrastructure features that are assessed during a typical roads inspection. The inspection identifies levels of risk for all road users. By adding key infrastructure elements such as footpaths and street lighting or improving existing elements to reduce risk we can make roads safer for all road users.