The general objective of the project is to overcome the barrier established by a formal interpretation of the two Directives 2008/96/EC (on road infrastructure safety management) and 2004/54/EC (on tunnels), that in practice doesn’t allow performing infrastructure safety checks inside tunnels.

The main problem is that, while from the user’s (drivers) point of view a road is a unique linear infrastructure generally in open terrain and sometimes in closed environment (tunnels), a strict application of the two Directives leads to a non-uniform approach to the infrastructure safety management outside and inside tunnels.

To overcome this barrier, Ecoroad aims at the establishment of a common enhanced approach to road infrastructure and tunnel safety management by using concepts and criteria of the Directive 2008/96/CE on road infrastructure safety management and the results of related EC funded projects.

Such objective will be achieved through the following specific objectives:

• Workshops with the stakeholders (European tunnel and road managers); Analysis/review of national practices regarding Road Safety Inspections (RSI) and Road Safety Audit (RSA), starting from the results of the 2 studies recently launched by DG Move to assess the impact of the two Directives 2008/96/EC (on road infrastructure safety management) and 2004/54/EC (on tunnels)
• Exchange of best practices and experiences between European tunnel experts and road safety professionals
• Pilot joint safety operations in some European road sections having both open roads and tunnels
• Recommendations and guidelines for the application of the RSA and RSI concepts within the tunnel safety operations

Thanks to the high transferability of the ECOROADS results, the present formal gap between the Directive 2008/96/EC and the Directive 2004/54/EC will be completely filled and will lead to “faster, more sustainable and better planned interventions."