Improving Road Infrastructure Safety in the Baltic Sea Region

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Safe transportation is an element in the overall objective of the BSR programme – to make the BSR an attractive place to work and live in. However increasing road traffic volumes in the BSR come at a price of accidents during which lives are lost and injuries caused. There are large differences among BSR countries in road safety performance. Transportation in the south-eastern part of the region is considerably less safe than in the north or west. Countries have achieved improvements in road safety over the last years, however further reductions in number of accidents, fatalities and injuries are needed. Action Plan of the EU Strategy for the BSR encourages joint actions and sharing of practices in road safety (priority “Improve Internal and External Transport Links“). The specific objective of the BALTRIS project is to develop tools and build capacity to better manage safety of road infrastructure in the BSR. Attention to road infrastructure safety and tools applied to manage it vary in the BSR countries. The Project focuses on the exchange of experience and joint development of road infrastructure safety management procedures: i.e. road safety impact assessment, road safety inspections, road safety audits, evaluation of high accident concentration sections. This is complemented by capacity building and dissemination activities. It is expected that the application of tools developed and strengthened capacity will lead to improved safety of road infrastructure as well as allow choosing cost-effective engineering solutions. Safer road infrastructure will result in improved overall road safety, especially in those parts of the BSR where number of accidents and fatalities are currently the highest. The Project partnership is composed of road safety authorities and universities from 4 BSR countries: Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Sweden. In this way the Project includes countries with the best and the worst road safety situation which allows addressing the most problematic areas in the region and provides opportunities for exchange of good practice. The Project is led by Lithuanian Road Administration. The support to the Project idea and readiness to co-operate was expressed by the Polish Road Administration, Latvian Road Administration, Baltic Road Association and Nordic Road Association.

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