PSI - Issue 44

E. Renzi et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 44 (2023) 355–362 E. Renzi et al./ Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2022) 000 – 000

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Systems of the road managers. Such aspects are significant to optimally allocate the resources for the interventions implemented to improve the structural safety: the mere evaluation of maintenance defects found during visual inspections is not enough for the correct assessment of risk and need to be framed in the local context and placed in the most general perspective of the road network performance improvement. As stated above, when considering the complexity of the activities performed by the road managers and the necessity of considering many aspects and procedures (in order to correctly manage the road network in terms of safety performance), the final goal ought to be the systematization of procedures/activities according to an Integrated Management System which opportunely considers (and combines) all the different significant risks. ANSFISA is strongly engaged in the endeavor of the development of informatic tools aiming at this objective and for the definition of acknowledged international standards. 4. The Integrated Risk-Based Safety Management System Proposed by ANSFISA A Safety Management System (SMS) implements safety management activities and gives an overview of the definitions of safety and safety management. The development of SMSs was boosted in the last years by research into ‘safety’, ‘management’ and ‘system’ th eories, risk analysis techniques, safety audit tools and related standards. Consequently, the study of SMSs became a multidisciplinary topic and through modelling the SMSs, a generic framework was established aiding the effectiveness of SMSs (Àlvarez-Santos et al., 2018, French and Steel, 2017, Li and Guldenmund, 2018). The Italian “National Safety Agency for Railways and Roads” (ANSFISA) developed the “SMS Guidelines” to drive the road managers towards the implementation of integrated SMS. The guidelines were adopted with the ANSFISA Directorial Decree n. 16575 (issued on April 22, 2022). Starting from the ICAO (2016) and ITF (2015) world standards and best practices and from the EASA (2017) and ERA (2018) European ones, the ANSFISA guidelines contain the specifications to implement a management system independently form the mode of transport which can therefore be easily applied to infrastructures. ANSFISA has placed three fundamental principles as pillars of the regulatory development project: “just safet y culture”, continuous improvement, and a performance -based approach to safety management. The guidelines and certification specifications for the SMS are fundamental tools that facilitate the implementation, certification, and continuous monitoring of the performance of an SMS. By sharing an SMS framework, a regulatory agency contributes to standardizing the understanding of the SMS and supports its implementation through communication. Tab. 1 provides the principal components and sub-components of the proposed SMS, which have adopted a similar framework of as the ICAO, EASA, ERA, FAA (US Federal Aviation Administration) and FTA (US Federal Transit Administration). The level of detail of the framework should be commensurate with user audience expectations. The principal innovative feature of the proposed integrated SMS is the possibility to consider both the main aspects related to the safety of “road superstructure” components (such as pavements, guardrails, safety barriers, signs, etc.) resulting from the application of the “vertical rule” (i.e. Directive 2008/96/EC) and the structural performances (with regards to the main identified risks) of bridges, tunnels and geotechnical/hydraulic works (assessed and classified according to their specific “vertical rules”). The GMEB, described in the previous paragraph, represent one of the most important vertical rules due to its relationship with the structural safety of the “domain” of bridges, for what concerns all possible relevant risks and, in particular, for what concerns the seismic risk. The rules also allow the classification of the different segments of the road network, as well as the possibility to optimize the scheduling/execution of the different interventions, which are required by the application of t he distinct “vertical rules” procedures .

Tab 1. Framework of the integrated SMS proposed by ANSFISA. Framework

Components

1. Management commitment 2. Safety Accountabilities and Responsibilities 3. Appointment of key safety personnel 4. Coordination of Emergency Response planning 5. SMS Documentation

Safety Management Policy and Objectives