Reporting and Managing Environmental Incidents on the Victorian Arterial Road Network

Abstract

Environmental incidents are, unfortunately, an inevitable aspect of road development and maintenance works. Incidents can range from minor on-site reversible incidents to those that require extensive remediation. Incidents mainly occur due to inadequate environmental management, such as not following set procedures. However, abnormal weather events, accidental damage and other off-site impacts can also be contributing factors. In order to manage and learn from environmental incidents effectively, it is necessary to have a defined process for reporting and managing them.

So what constitutes an environmental incident? How does one define its severity? How are staff members encouraged to report incidents? And should one use environmental incidents as an environmental performance indicator? These are all questions that VicRoads has addressed over the last few years as part of the ongoing development of its environment incident management system.

VicRoads has found that ongoing engagement with staff on the importance of incident reporting is essential. The use of environmental incidents as a performance indicator needs to be carefully managed, and one option is equating the number or proportion of preventable environmental incidents to outputs, such as level of expenditure or kilometres of roads.