India - Grand Trunk Road Project - environmental assessment (Vol. 14 of 18) : Construction period road safety plan v. 6

NATIONAL HIGHWAYS AUTHORITY OF INDIA Northam Trunk Rt"e in Ancisrt hnt Xe-(Ra*p MMMurtnf) Grand Trunk Road Improvement Project Construction Period Road Safety Plan T,unk Xt,!rsolume VI - w \s ~mftr+nm Trunk Rout*6 in M.di*Wt Indi 'A.O , _ W E432 Volume 14 No,ttwnf Trunk Roadf (G.T- Road) fli.I %o v raAe"A *t-s-~~ ~ ~~~~~~~~~ m *-4 - PropoGcl Trunk Ra Networ k t (2007 A.D) iiN,~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~~~~~~~~~~&ur 200 7} 7 Propsed rUn F ILE COP South Asia Pvt. Lt X .. f . i'Mr  The Independent Review of Environmental Assessment and Consolidation of Environmental Assessment & Management Plans and Resettlement Action Plans consists of: VOLUME I: ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT VOLUME IA: ANNEXURES TO EIA VOLUME II: INDEPENDENT REVIEW REPORT VOLUME III: AIR QUALITY ASSESSMENT VOLUME IV: NOISE QUALITY ASSESSMENT VOLUME V: ROAD LANDSCAPE AND TREE TRANSPLANTATION PLAN VOLUME VI: CONSTRUCTION PERIOD ROAD SAFETY PLAN VOLUME VII: GAUTAM BUDDHA WILD LIFE SANCTUARY Lea Associates South Asia Pvt. Ltd. NllewDelhi Lea Associates New Delk  TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. SAFETY PLAN DURING ROAD CONSTRUCTION ..1..................................... 1 1.1 OVERVIEW ................................................1 1.2 OBJECTIVE OF CONSTRUCTION PERIOD SAFETY PLAN ................................................1 1.3 PROJECT ROAD . ................................ ........ ......2 1.4 ROAD USER SAFETY DURING CONSTRUCTION ..............................................4 1.5 CONSTRUCTION SCHEDULE ...............................................7 1.6 SAFETY OF WORKERS AT SITE ............................................... 11 1.7 REPORTING SYSTEM ............... ................................ 13 1.8 QUANTIFICATION ................................................ 13 1.9 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ...................... ................ 14 I-ea Associates ~Z7> oa2= oz~C  1. SAFETY PLAN DURING ROAD CONSTRUCTION 1.1 OVERVIEW The 1400km long National Highway-2 (NH-2) connecting Delhi with Calcutta is one of the most important high-density corridors in the country. The NH2 carries between 12,000 and 33,0000 passenger car units (PCUs) daily (1998 estimates), of which, a substantial part (48% to 86%) of the traffic is goods traffic. The traffic volume on most of the sections is projected to grow up to 40,000 PCUs between 2005-2010 AD and in some sections would be as high as 1,25,000 PCUs by 2015 AD. The existing highway is a two-lane carriageway, with traffic bottlenecks, various highway deficiencies as well as lack of proper facilities. To cater to such increased high volume of traffic, there is an urgent need for capacity augmentation of the highway. Capacity augmentation of the NH-2 is proposed under the Golden Quadrilateral Project (6500km highway joining Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Calcutta) of the National Highway Development Programme (NHDP) of the Government of India (Gol). The widening of the NH-2 stretch between Agra and Dhanbad is being carried out by NHAI as part of the TNHP and GTRP, with assistance from the World Bank. The implementation of the contract packages to be taken up as part of TNHP has commenced (January 2001) and the GTRP implementation is to start by October 2001. This document'provides the safety guidelines' to be adopted during construction period for the various contract packages of GTRP. 1.2 OBJECTIVE OF CONSTRUCTION PERIOD SAFETY PLAN Research from other countries have indicated that accident rates are usually higher at roadwork sites and these accidents tend to involve more vehicles than are found normally operating sections of a network. Any construction activity causes interruption to the normal flow of traffic. This becomes all the more serious when the construction traffic also mingles with the normal traffic. During both maintenance and construction work it is important to ensure as safe an operating environment as possible for both workers and road users. Highway construction activities require traffic to be moved through restricted areas or diversions during construction operations. Detours and temporary control measures often create serious traffic hazards with resultant accidents. Specifications covering temporary traffic control measures need to prescribe in considerable detail the respective responsibilities of the client and the contractor for road safety measures. During the construction of roads, workers should follow the safety procedures relating to the plant they are operating, and during rehabilitation work or maintenance, where the road is still open to traffic, greater care is needed. The objective of preparing the safety plan is to provide a safe travel to the road users all the time of the day throughout the year and provide protection to the Project Workers when they are on the work. Obviously, it involves different situations on the highway including construction Specific traffic safety and management plans/ measures to be worked out during construction shall be worked out by the contractor (based on the guidelines spelt in this report). The contractor shall carry out these plans after the approval of the Engineer.  Construction Penod Road Safety Plan Grand Trunk Road Improvement Project zones, lane closure, traffic diversions, construction activity etc. This document incorporates requirements for such situations. The guiding principles for safety measures shall include: (i) Warning to the drivers unambiguously and sufficiently in advance of the situation on the highway; (ii) Providing clear demarcation for movement of vehicles; (iii) Providing devices to guide the drivers and their movements through construction zones/lane closures/traffic diversions etc. (iv) Protection to Project Workers on work site. Safety of the Road Users and Project Workers is of paramount importance on the Project Highway and will be the responsibility of the contractor during the construction period including extension thereof, if any. 1.3 PROJECT ROAD This section presents salient characteristics of the GT Road including traffic volume, existing RoW, road inventory, accidents and safety conditions. 1.3.1 TRAFFIC The average daily traffic along GT Road ranges from the maximum of 32000 PCUs to as low as 11000 PCUs in different sections (see Table 1). By and large, traffic on most packages varies between 15,000 to 20,000 PCUs. Table 1: Average Daily Traffic (PCUs), 1998 Package Section/ Station Station ADT AADT Chainage IA Agra - Tundla 207 32,100 32,742 Tundla - Firozabad 223 19,756 20,151 Firozabad - Shikohabad 247 18,759 19,697 IB Shikohabad - Sirsaganj 264 13,733 14,420 Sirsaganj - Jaswant Nagar 279 9,932 10,429 Jaswant Nagar- Etawah 307 15,055 15,958 IC Etawah - Sarai Ajitmal 347 18,212 19,305 IB Near LML factory on Kanpur bypass 4 17,997 NA Near RoB on Kanpur bypass 16 23,483 NA Police station - Maharajpur 20 13,924 NA IVA km 317.000 - km 318.748 NA NA 20,703 Varanasi bypass NA NA 10,959 km 21.000 - km 70.000 NA NA 15,759 IVC km 115.000 -km 134.000 NA . NA 18,317 VB Barhi NA 11,083 NA Barakatta NA 11,738 NA Source: Compiled From DPR of Packages IA, IB, IC, 11B, IVA, IVC, VB, NHAL 1.3.2 RIGHT OF WAY Analysis of RoW along GT Road reveals a highly varied picture. Over 50% of the total length has an average RoW width of 40-45m (nearly 203km) followed by 22% with 30-35m RoW. A substantial portion of the length, i.e., about 17.5% has a liberal RoW of about 60m or more (Table 2). Lea Associates 2~  Construction Period Road Safety Plan Grand Trunk Road Improvement Project Table 2: Distribution of Right of Way, 1988 Right of Way (RoW) Length (km) %age Less than 20m 0.53 0.10% 20m to 25m 0.27 0.1% 25m to 30m 0.60 0.1% 30m to 35m 88.40 22.0% 35m to 40m 9.18 2.3% 40m to 45m 202.99 505% 45m to 5sm 10.50 2.6% 50m to 55m 18.80 4.7% 55m to 60m 63.31 15.8% 60m to 65m 3.40 0.8% More than 65m 3.60 0.9% Total 100.00% Source: Compiled From DPR of Packages IA, I, IC, 118, IVA, IVC, VS, NHAI. In Package IIB, particular stretches where the RoW gets too narrow are between chainage 16.000 to 16,300 near Rooma, between chainage 20.800 to 21.000 near Maharajpur and between chainage 33.400 to 36.000 near Purwamir. In Package IVA, a similar narrow section is between chainage 45.9000 to 46.4000. Similarly, in Package IVC, between chainage 114.000 -127.000 and another for 200m between 131.100 and 131.300, RoW remains between 30 and 35m. In such stretches temporary acquisitions may be required during construction stage. 1.3.3 CROSS SECTION The carriageway on the existing highway is uniformly 7m with completely absent or very narrow paved shoulder width varying from 0.5 to 1.5m. Earthen shoulders are sometimes as wide as 2.5m but with limited usability due to the level difference with the carriageway brought about by erosion. Typical embankment height varies from 1.5m to 2.5m. For limited lengths, it goes up to 15m such as in Package 1IB and 4A. Table 3 provides a summary of existing cross sectional details for GTRP. Table 3: Existing Cross Section details Package Paved Carriageway Shoulder Earthen Shoulder Embankment Height (m) Width (m) Width (m) Width (m) Typical and maximum values I-A 7 0 to 1.5 1 to 2.5 6-2.5 I-B 7 C 2 to 2.5 6-2.5 I-C 7 C 2.5 6-2.5 Il-B 7 Unpaved 2.5 1 10,12 IV-A 7 1.5 0.5 15.1 IV-C 7 1.5 0.5 1.5 9.5 V-B 7 1.5 (partly) 1.0-2.5 2.0, 8.0 SoLrce: Compiled From OPR of Packages IA. IB. IC. IIB IVA, IVC, VB. NHAi Lpa Associates 3  Construction Period Road Safety Plan Grand Trunk Road Improvement Project 1.3.4 ROAD INVENTORY Package IA has maximum number of intersections with a total of 136 minor and five major intersections. On an average, each package has about 100 minor and 2 to 5 major intersections spread all over the stretch. In all, GTRP part of NH2 has to negotiate five railway crossings and five ROBs. Further, there exist a total of 8 major bridges and 23 minor bridges, which either need replacement, duplication or major repairs (see Table 4). Table 4: Road Inventory No. of major No. of minorNo. of Minor No. of bridges (>60m or bridges (<60 - No. of Railway Package Major intersections intersections culverts span length >30 individual ROBS Level m) Span <30 m) Crossing I-A 5 136 109 1 6 1 1 I-B 3 117 90 0 3 0 1 I-C 1 96 86 0 2 0 0 I1-B 5 131 61 3 4 2 2 IV-A 4 96 2 0 IV-C 2 84 0 I V-B 2 104 approx. 138 4 10 0 0 Source. Compiled From DPR of Packages IA, IB, IC, 11S, IVA, IVC, VB, NHAL 1.3.5 ACCIDENTS & SAFETY All GTRP packages have traffic more than their capacity that results in congestion. Further, absence of median leads to conflicts between opposing streams of traffic. Any overtaking, weaving or turning manoeuvre may directly result in head-on or side collisions or other kind of accidents. It is expected that widening, provision of paved shoulders and separation of opposing flows by a broad median will result in substantial reduction of such kinds of accidents. Redesigned intersections, some of which will be grade separated, will further ensure a lesser probability of conflicting movements. Also, a substantial portion of GTRP, specially the one falling on Package IIB is proposed to have raised carriageway. This will ensure complete separation of long-distance and local traffic and provide additional safety. 1.4 ROAD USER SAFETY DURING CONSTRUCTION During construction such high traffic with varying constraints discussed above makes the road works highly unsafe for road users if proper measures not adopted. Hence, the following sections discusses about the safety measures/considerations during road works. Firstly the measures for traffic control and safety are dicussed followed by measures to prevent or avoid risks to workers. 1.4.1 SAFETY MEASURES IN CONSTRUCTION ZONE In order to plan and provide appropriate traffic management and safety measures, it is necessary to appreciate the concept of a construction zone. A construction zone can be defined as an area of the highway which involves the conflict of the right of use between the road users and authority responsible for the maintenance /improvement of the highway. From traffic safety point of view, a construction zone comprises four sub-zones described herein under: Lea Associates 4 7W 7  Construction Penod Road Safety Plan Grand Trunh Road Improvement Project G Advance Warning Sub-Zone The advance-warning sub-zone is meant to prepare the driver for an alert behaviour and is an essential part of any traffic control system. The warning system shall prepare the driver well in advance by providing information regarding distance, extent and type of hazard ahead so that he can gradually reduce the speed of his vehicle. The information in this sub- zone is conveyed mostly through a series of traffic signs along its length. 3 Transition Sub-Zone The transition sub-zone is the area in which the traffic is steered and guided into and out of the diverted path around the work sub-zone. This is the most crucial sub-zone from safety point of view since most of the movements are turning movements. The traffic in this sub- zone is mostly taken across with the help of barricades and channelizers. 9 Work Sub-Zone This is the actual area where construction or maintenance activity is taking place and the main concern, therefore, is the safety of the workers at the site from the plying traffic. The path of the traffic must, therefore, be very clearly delineated to avoid intrusion of vehicles moving into the work area. The work sub-zones shall not be close to each other and the distance between the two work sub-zones shall be such that the flow of traffic can return to normal stream by permitting fast moving traffic to overtake slow moving vehicles. These distances shall preferably be 2 km on urban sections and 5 to 10 km on rural sections of the highway. T,he length of work sub-zone will vary. The length of warning and transition sub- zones shall be basically governed by the speed of approaching vehicles and shall be regulated as shown in Table 5 below: Table 5: Recommended Length of Construction Zones Average Speed Length of Advance Length of Transition Length of Work Sub- (kph) Warning Sub-Zone (m) Sub-Zone (m) zone (m) 50 100 50 51-80 100-300 50-100 Varies 81-100 300-500 100-200 Over 100 1000 200-300