All task participants investigated the current maintenance and operation procedures in their respective country with an interest on how these procedures can be used in the understanding, monitoring, or improving roadside safety. Participating organisations collected the current standards, guidelines and similar documents and then a summary of the contents was provided to the task leader. The current maintenance and operations practice for each country were assessed by identifying the answers to the following set of questions: How often should inspections occur ?; How often should repair works occur (plus response times) ?; What are the criteria of component replacement ?; Who reports the need for maintenance ?; What are the maintenance procedures after a road accident ?; Where is the information recorded and stored ?; Are there training systems for those responsible for maintenance?One goal was to identify a list of variables used in the maintenance activities which could be exploited for the later activity of developing maintenance guidelines related to safety. Costs related to maintenance activities were also researched for different types of road infrastructure for the potential use in cost benefit analysis activities. (Author/publisher)
Abstract