SECTION 5 – SUMMARY

These guidelines are intended for use by all relevant bodies involved with the Scottish road network. Transport Scotland has prepared these guidelines with the intention that they be used as a best practice guide for all relevant bodies associated in managing the impact of high wind on the Scottish road network.

The key focus of these guidelines is ten basic steps to high wind management embracing pre-planning, incident management and information dissemination prior to, during and after a wind incident has occurred. The scope, complexity and effort required to manage each task will vary dependent on site specifics and the level of perceived risk and disruption at each location. A summary of these steps, which can be applied to all areas of the road network, is presented below:

Step 1 – Risk Identification

The identification of locations/sections of the road network that are susceptible to the impact of high wind.

Step 2 – Organisational Agreements

The development of organisational agreements to clarify the roles and responsibilities of each stakeholder prior to, during and after an incident for sections of road deemed to be at risk.

Step 3 – Diversion Route Planning

The preparation of plans to agree the appropriate diversion routes, to safely manage the diversions and to provide efficient information dissemination.

Step 4 – Monitoring

The facilitation of meteorological forecasts and real-time monitoring to obtain advanced warnings of high winds and measurable data prior to, during and after a high wind incident has occurred.

Step 5 – Define High Wind Level Thresholds

The determination of threshold values for wind speed/direction to be associated with the application and removal of each level of restriction applied to that section of the road network.

Step 6 – Develop the Levels of Restriction

The agreement of both the level and management of restrictions to be applied.

Step 7 – Enforcement

The development of enforcement procedures to be applied for each level of restriction.

Step 8 – Implementation of Traffic Management

The agreement of local traffic management procedures to ensure the implementation of restrictions in a quick and efficient manner.

Step 9 – Information Dissemination

The agreement of communication procedures to ensure a timely exchange of knowledge between the authorities involved in managing the road in order that response plans, procedures and information dissemination to the travelling public can be implemented successfully.

Step 10 – Relaxation of Restrictions and Information Dissemination

The agreement of the decision-making process regarding the relaxation of restrictions and any post-incident actions.

This document and its appendices have also presented an example of how Transport Scotland applies this to the motorway and trunk road network via the trunk road maintenance organisations, the local police forces and the Traffic Scotland control centre. Additionally, a worked example of the ten step solution shows the intended relationships between the principal stakeholders.

These guidelines can be applied on any part of the Scottish road network and indeed the principles of the ten step approach can be used to develop operational procedures for other incidents on the network, e.g. flooding.

With regards to developing wind management procedures, the level of effort required to undertake the specific tasks is site specific and will largely depend on the individual characteristics of each location.