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Audit shows Norwegian tunnels are not inspected per tunnel safety regulations
Norway is the country of tunnels. The country has around one thousand road and railway tunnels in all parts of the land.
Generally, Norwegian tunnels are known to have very high safety standards. But a recent report by the state inspection unit Vegtilsynet says that not all safety regulations area observed during tunnel inspections.
Vegtilsynet ('Road Supervisory Authority') established in 1992 is responsible for monitoring and inspecting Statens vegvesen (the Norwegian Public Roads Administration) and the state-owned construction company Nye Veier AS (New Roads Corporation). Vegtilsynet is an additional layer of state agency to ensure that the Norway's roads are well maintained and safe.
The Audit and the Report
Vegtilsynet report published on June 30, 2020 is the result of the audit that the organization performed to investigate whether the Norwegian Public Roads Administration ensures compliance with requirements set for safety inspectors. For this, the auditors have focused on the safety inspector's tasks and responsibility for tunnels.
The Vegtilsynet report says, according to Norwegian Tunnel Safety Regulations, the tunnel manager, Statens vegvesen (the Norwegian Public Roads Administration), must appoint a safety inspector for all the tunnels for which the tunnel manager is responsible. The safety inspector is one of several roles that were introduced through the tunnel safety regulations. The safety inspector shall coordinate prevention and protection measures for road users' safety, and has several tasks related to it. The 302 tunnels, which are covered by the tunnel safety regulations in Norway, shall each have a safety inspector
The objectives of the audit
According to the report, Vegtilsynet has looked for answers to the following:
- Does the Norwegian Public Roads Administration have a management system that describes the safety inspector's tasks?
- Does the Norwegian Public Roads Administration carry out the tasks assigned to the safety inspectors in accordance with requirements?
- Does the Norwegian Public Roads Administration carry out the tasks assigned to the safety inspectors in accordance with requirements?
The conclusions of the report
Normally for each of the 302 tunnels, Statens vegvesen (the Norwegian Public Roads Administration) must have appointed a safety inspector (one for each tunnel). Statens vegvesen has appointed three safety inspectors. These 3 safety inspectors have the following distribution of tunnels:
- 81 tunnels, area east and south
- 97 tunnels, area north and center
- 124 tunnels, area west (safety inspector for this area was only hired on 1 May this year)
The report says that "Lack of description of tasks and understanding of the safety inspector's tasks has affected the implementation of the tasks. This may also have led to the tunnel manager not having an overview of what resources are needed to solve the tasks for the tunnels covered by the tunnel safety regulations".
Auditors have found that the Staten vegvesen's handbook had some unclear tasks. An example they found was the task of "ensuring coordination with rescue services". It was not clear what this entails for the safety inspector. What the purpose is, what is to be coordinated and when the task is to be carried out. The safety inspectors during the interviews have stated that they have not ensured coordination with the rescue services, and that it is largely the fire protection managers who carry out the task. There are more such unclear tasks mentioned among the tasks assigned for the Safety inspectors.
Report finds two main deviations from the safety regulations:
- The Norwegian Public Roads Administration does not have a sufficient management system to ensure compliance with the tunnel safety regulations with regard to the safety inspector's tasks
- The Norwegian Public Roads Administration has not carried out all the tasks that the tunnel safety regulations impose on safety inspectors.
The report reaches the conclusion that
"The Norwegian Public Roads Administration does not have a management system that ensures compliance with requirements set for the safety inspector.
The requirements in the tunnel safety regulations are not operationalized in the management system, and the regulations' requirements for the safety inspector's tasks are not sufficiently known in the Norwegian Public Roads Administration. The Norwegian Public Roads Administration has not carried out all the tasks that the tunnel safety regulations impose on safety inspectors.
"The Norwegian Public Roads Administration does not have a management system that ensures compliance with requirements set for the safety inspector.
The requirements in the tunnel safety regulations are not operationalized in the management system, and the regulations' requirements for the safety inspector's tasks are not sufficiently known in the Norwegian Public Roads Administration. The Norwegian Public Roads Administration has not carried out all the tasks that the tunnel safety regulations impose on safety inspectors.
"
And?
Vegtilsynet and Staten vegvesen will coordinate to ensure that the safety inspections are brought in line with the regulations.
This is the full report on Vegtilsynet website. It is in Norwegian. I think it is a good report and if there is anyone in this group from a public road organization may find it very useful if they get it translated to their language:
cover tunnel photo by: Matt Brown from London, England / CC BY
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Sikkerhetskontrollørens oppgaver - Tunnelsikkerhet - Vegtilsynet
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