Monitoring dangerous goods transport on highways: the experience of Autovie Venete S.p.A

The safety of the transport of dangerous goods can highly benefit from an increased awareness of this activity. In particular, quantitative information about the amount of substances transported and their features can support further research and operative activities. This paper describes the approach of monitoring activities adopted by the Motorway Concessionaire Autovie Venete S.p.A. on the A4 highways Venezia-Trieste, in the northeast of Italy. Firstly, the paper briefly describes the architecture of the system, currently based on 24 on-line DGT monitoring gantries, and its functionalities. Some samples of the possible extractions of the collected data are presented. Then, an overview about how the Concessionaire uses the data collected are is provided. Besides the relevant aim of data collection for a better knowledge about DGT on the highway, the system implemented is intended to support the Road Operator in its strategy to increase safety. Data allowed, and the process is still ongoing, the fine-tuning of procedures, measures and actions for the effective management of DGT. Final consideration about the possible future scenarios is provided.