Revision of guidelines and manuals for roads in Norway

The Norwegian Public Roads Administration (NPRA) led a thorough revision of existing manuals and guidelines for road transport to consider also climate change impacts, such as flooding, landslides (especially more frequent wet landslides), drifting snow, intense rain events, erosion and sea-level rise. This included all NPRA guidelines for planning, design and construction of new roads and bridges, operations and maintenance of existing roads and bridges as well as preparedness and emergency planning.

The project also proposed four new manuals: ‘Rockslide protection of roads’, ‘Debris flows and slush avalanches’, ‘Roads and snow avalanches’, and ‘Roads and drifting snow’. The new manual on ‘Debris flows and slush avalanches’ was developed in the face of the new phenomenon of wet landslides and their likely increase in the future. Most of these new manuals are currently in the final stages of approval by the road administration. 

The report is in Norwegian language. A brief summary in english is provided, as well.