The Duties of the Swiss Federal Roads Office
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Contents 2006/2007 Page The duties of the Swiss Federal Roads Office (FEDRO) 2 Classification of motorways 3 Redistribution of financial responsibility: a reform project with significant consequences 4/5 FEDRO regional offices: locations, areas of responsibility 6 Via sicura – enhancing road safety in Switzerland 7/8 Status of construction work as of the end of 2006 9 Road works on the motorway network 10-13 1.321 billion Swiss francs for motorway construction in 2007 14 European trunk roads passing through Switzerland 15 Swiss motorway sections scheduled to be opened to traffic in 2007 16/17 Subsidised areas 18 Swiss motorway and main roads network 19 Total length by road category 20/21 List of motorway tunnels 22 Tunnel safety 23 Motorway service stations 24 Motorway police stations 25 Heavy goods vehicle inspections in 2006 26/27 Traffic volume on Swiss motorways in 2005/2006 28 Traffic volume on the north-south transit axes: statistics for 2006 29 Traffic flow on Switzerland’s motorways in 2005 30 Traffic jams on Switzerland’s motorways 31 Main causes of traffic jams in 2005 32 Registration of new road vehicles 33 2006 statistics for cars and motor cycles in Switzerland 34 Number of cars per capita in Europe 35 Administrative measures: statistics for 2006 36 New legal provisions governing road traffic 37/38 Approval of vehicle types and modifications 39 Cantonal civil engineering and motorway authorities 40 Cantonal police headquarters 41 Road traffic departments 42 Motorway maintenance offices 43 Financing 44 Construction, maintenance and operating costs 45 Income and expenditure in the roads sector 46/47 Useful web sites 48 2006/2007 Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft Confédération suisse Confederazione Svizzera 2 Confederaziun svizra BSwiss Federal Roads Office FEDRO THE DUTIES OF THE The Swiss Federal Roads Office (FEDRO) is the Swiss authority that SWISS FEDERAL ROADS is responsible for the country’s road infrastructure and private road OFFICE transport. It belongs to the Federal Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communica - tions (DETEC), and focuses on securing sustainable and safe mobility on the country’s roads, as well as providing a motor - way network that is permanently available and environmen - tally compatible. Main objectives: • To enhance road safety • To guarantee safe and secure access for road users and vehicles • To ensure that Switzerland’s road traffic legislation is kept constantly up to date • To secure integration into the trans-European road network • To review the existing network structure and adapt it where necessary • To define the basis for efficient traffic management • To complete the motorway network as planned • To support the expansion of the existing motorway network • To constantly evaluate weak points in the existing motorway network • To secure the availability of the motorway and main road networks • To secure the necessary degree of operational maintenance • To reduce the burden on the environment attributable to road traffic • To develop and implement construction projects in accordance with the principle of sustainability In order to achieve these objectives, the Swiss Federal Roads Office works closely together with cantonal, national and international partners, formulates principles and prepares decisions for a sustainable federal road transport policy. It also draws up, supports, co-ordinates and monitors suitable measures at the national and international levels. FEDRO moved into its new administrative centre in Ittigen in October 2005 Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft 2006/2007 Confédération suisse Confederazione Svizzera 3 Confederaziun svizra 3 BSwiss Federal Roads Office FEDRO CLASSIFICATION in accordance with the Motorways Act dated 8 May 1960 OF MOTORWAYS Motorways For motor vehicles only For all vehicles Category 1 Category 2 Category 3 Separation of traffic directions Access only at certain points Access as restricted as possible Access only at certain points Normally no intersections or Intersections or crossroads crossroads at same level normally at same level No intersections or crossroads at same level Emergency lanes desirable No emergency lanes Normally with emergency lanes Preferably no passage through built-up areas Expressways and lower-grade Motorways with 4 or more lanes Highways with 2 or more lanes motorways 2006/2007 Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft Confédération suisse Confederazione Svizzera 4 Confederaziun svizra BSwiss Federal Roads Office FEDRO Redistribution of financial responsibility: The redistribution of financial responsi - bility and the accompanying division of A REFORM PROJECT duties between the federal government and the cantons is one of the largest WITH SIGNIFICANT and most important reform projects to CONSEQUENCES be implemented within Switzerland’s political system. The electorate approved the necessary amendment to the Federal Constitution on 28 November 2004, while Parliament approved the required legislative amendments on 6 October 2006. The principal objectives of this project are to balance out traffic management on the motorway network is to be trans - discrepancies at the cantonal level and to increase efficiency. ferred from the cantons to the federal government. The central To accomplish this, the project focuses on two main activities: component for mastering this task is the construction and the reorganisation of the division of duties and the restructur - operation of a national traffic management centre in Emmen ing of financial responsibilities. Numerous state duties are (canton of Lucerne). Road traffic management is becoming currently shared by the federal government and the cantons, increasingly important. It encompasses the provision of traffic and it is often the case that the party that pays the bill is not information (bulletins), the management of traffic flow at the the same as the one that makes the decisions. On top of this, national and local levels, as well as traffic control (e.g. at junc - the existing system sometimes supports the most costly solu - tions and intersections, and in tunnels). tions instead of those that give rise to lower expenditure – To secure project-based maintenance, the Swiss Federal even though the associated activities may still be relatively Roads Office has created five regional offices within its Road extensive. The reform project sets out to redistribute and sep - Infrastructure division. The sub-division of the motorway net - arate the various state duties, and to regulate the associated work into five regional segments was based on economic and responsibilities more appropriately and more clearly. geographical considerations. These segments had to be selected in such a manner as to ensure as constant an invest - Road transport: shift from joint to sole responsibility ment volume as possible. Each segment also had to be of a cer - The area of road transport serves as a cornerstone of this tain size in order to make it possible to operate a maintenance reform project. In future, responsibility for motorways will no centre there with between 25 and 30 employees in an economi - longer be shared, but instead is to be transferred entirely to cally viable manner. Each regional office had to be located in the federal government. The new distribution of roles is as fol - the vicinity of its area of responsibility and also be easy to lows: the federal government is owner of the motorways, and reach by public transport, and this meant that they were estab - is now also their developer, which means it is responsible for lished at regional locations outside the major urban centres. In all strategic and operational development activities, and thus terms of organisation it was also important to ensure that the has to bear all associated costs. Until now, the federal govern - perimeters of the regional offices were identical to the bound - ment was responsible for an average of around 87 percent of aries of the areas of the non-project-based structural and oper - the construction and maintenance costs, and approximately ational maintenance activities for which the respective offices 67 percent of the operational maintenance costs. are responsible. The cantonal governments are still involved, since the com - pletion of the planned motorway network is to remain a Duties of the regional offices of the Road Infrastructure shared responsibility. As before, the cantonal authorities are division responsible for duties such as damage prevention and polic - The five regional offices are responsible for the majority of ing/emergency services. For the purposes of securing opera - tasks (construction, expansion, elimination of bottlenecks, tional and non-project-based structural maintenance, the maintenance, etc.) associated with the development of motor - cantons have joined forces by forming eleven regional units ways. These include the supervision of projects implemented by that are entrusted with the task of securing the country’s external providers, the definition of services, planning of con - motorways on the basis of service level agreements. tracts, implementation of procurement procedures, awarding of contracts, monitoring of construction work, acceptance of Swiss Federal Roads Office (FEDRO) – decentralisation of completed structures, and monitoring of the performance of certain functions guarantees. They also record the status of structures and moni - The transfer of ownership of the motorways to the federal tor the services of the cantonal units. government calls for the decentralisation of some