Reproduced from Brazil’s Ministry of Infrastructure website using machine translation

The National Department of Transport Infrastructure (DNIT) has advanced in the safety assessment of Brazil’s federal highways using the iRAP methodology,  From a survey covering 54,503km of paved roads, a total of 26,014km has already been coded (46.94%). Of this codified extension, 68.43% of the roads were rated with 3 or more stars, which are considered safer.

Brazil is one of the signatory countries of the Global Plan of the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030, which aims for highways to reach at least 3-stars in safety performance.

The IRAP methodology makes it possible to collect data, code and classify federal road sections in stars – from 1 to 5-stars – according to the respective technical safety standards. According to this coding, 5-star highways are the safest, while 1-star highways are the least safe.

After coding, countermeasures are proposed to correct the identified high-risk road sections and an investment plan is developed to implement the proposed solutions.

DNIT expects to complete the coding and star rating process in 2022.

“With this, we will have a great picture of how safe the federal road network is according to the iRAP methodology. The next step is to set investment targets to achieve better results in terms of road safety”, explains DNIT’s Planning and Research Director, Luiz Guilherme Rodrigues de Mello.

Star ratings are also being included as the road safety performance indicator in several road concessions, ensuring the protection of road users for years to come.

Star Rating Map for Brazil’s Federal Roads thus far

DNIT was awarded an iRAP 5-Star Performer Award in February 2022 for its exceptional leadership in the successful creation of the BrazilRAP programme as well as its outstanding efforts to build local capacity and apply the iRAP methodology extensively on Brazil´s federal roads.

Images source: Brazil Ministry of Infrastructure and iRAP