In an effort to enhance road safety, the General Authority of Roads has adopted the Saudi Roads Code to determine the design speeds for roads to ensure their durability. These standards are part of ongoing efforts to improve the quality of life and achieve the highest levels of efficiency in the Kingdom’s road network.
The Roads Authority has emphasized that the Roads Code has defined design speeds based on factors that include the type of road, with speeds varying between expressways, arterials, local roads, and terrains. Speed is affected by plains, hills, mountains, traffic volume, and varies based on traffic density, vehicle diversity, and surrounding environment such as intersections, pedestrian crossings, and engineering elements like curves and gradients.
The Saudi Roads Code serves as a comprehensive technical reference for all entities responsible for roads in the Kingdom, including ministries, city development authorities, regional municipalities, city and provincial municipalities, and others. It aims to enable these entities to access the necessary information for planning, designing, implementing, operating, and maintaining all types of roads in the Kingdom while considering environmental aspects, requirements of self-driving vehicles, as well as guidelines, drawings, procedures, and checklists for all road networks in the Kingdom to achieve acceptable levels of quality, safety, security, economic efficiency, and sustainability.
This code was initially implemented as guidance until the end of last year, and has been enforced and applied to all government entities since the beginning of this year, with application to private entities set to begin in the middle of this year.
This move is in line with achieving the strategic objectives of the road sector, focusing on safety, quality, and traffic density, aiming to reach the sixth position globally in road quality by 2030.
It is worth mentioning that the General Authority of Roads is entrusted with supervising and regulating the road sector by establishing the necessary policies and legislation, including the launch of the Saudi Roads Code.
