SWECO has been awarded an assignment by the Swedish Automobile Association to rate around 6,000 km of the Swedish main road network, using a star grading system. The objective is to rate safety on various stretches of road.

The star grading is part of a larger Project, the European Road Assessment Programme EuroRAP. This is the first project in Europe where road safety is being rated in this way. Two main routes between Stockholm and Gothenburg have already been assessed and the Swedish Automobile Association has already published the first star-rated maps that SWECO have produced, using GIS-techniques; digital maps with information related to a spatial location.

SWECO’s assignment is to develop measurement methods, to inspect, award points and produce star-rated maps for around 6,000 km of road. Apart from the inspection work, the assignment partly involves the new development and refinement of methods and routines to simplify the collection of data.

“It has been an exciting job, since it is the first time in Europe that road safety standards have been graded in this way,” advises Bengt Djuvfeldt, SWECO’s project leader.

EuroRAP has ramifications for the rest of Europe and it is likely that there will be further work in Germany, the U.K. and the Netherlands.

The project is financed partly by EU funds and also to a certain extent by Toyota. The assignment is being implemented by SWECO’s office in Karlstad, Sweden.