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Standardisation process guide for Road Administrations

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Authors:

This report was drawn up by the

CEDR’s Technical Group Standardisation

Hans Ingvarsson

Hans G Holmén

With contributions from the following countries:

Austria / Hubert TIEFENBACHER
Belgium Flandrai / Roland CHARLIER
BelgiumWallonia / Gauthier MICHAUX
Denmark / Bo TARP
Estonia / Mart KIISEL
Finland / Osmo ANTTILA
France / Serge LE CUNFF
Germany / BULL-WASSER
Greece / Gerasimos KOKLAS
Olga KOSTI
Ireland / Tim AHERN
Italy / Francesco SALVATI
Latvia / Guntis GRAVERIS
Netherlands / Paul van der KROON
Frits HOUTMAN
Henk VOOYS
Norway / Gisle FOSSBERG
Tore HOVEN
Poland / Witold ZAPAŠNIK
Portugal / Carlos MARTINS
Sweden / Elisabeth HALLSTEDT
Lars JACOBSSON

Edited and published by: CEDR’s Secretariat General

Preface

CEDR members are key stakeholders in the transport sector because they are both regulating authorities and public clients. Their roles are defined by the transport policy goals set by their national parliaments and governments. All of these policy goals seek to ensure road safety, environmental protection, mobility, accessibility, and an appropriate use of public funds. CEDR Technical Group (TG) Standardisation’s vision is therefore:

To promote a common (single) market that increases competition and, in so doing, decreases costs. For the members of CEDR, this will in turn result in more efficient use of public money.

CEDR TG Standardisation’s mission is to monitor, support, understand, and implement the European Commission’s initiatives towards a European Common Market within CEDR’s field of activities.

That being the case, this guide explains the impact on and of the Public Procurement Directive(PPD), European Technical Approvals (ETAs), product standards, design and execution standards, CEDR codes of practice, voluntary quality markings, and the Construction Products Directive (CPD), as well as other Commission Directives. It also provides advice on how to react in certain situations, i.e. by indicating which initiatives should be promoted, which initiatives should not be supported, and which initiatives should be acted upon.

This guide is also a tool for civil servants who have been nominated by their respective national road authorities (NRAs) to act as experts in the standardisation process. It was drawn up on the basis of the principle that such a guide must describe both the standardisation process and the harmonization process.

This guide is a complement to the information document entitled Impact and Importance of European Harmonisation governed by the Construction Products Directive (CPD) and the Public Procurement Directive (PPD) (Publication 2001:25E), which was published in May 2001 by the Swedish Road Administration. This document was developed by CEDR (formerly WERD) TG Standardisation.

This publication was endorsed by CEDR Governing Board (GB) at its meeting in Malta on
25 October 2007.

Hans IngvarssonHans G Holmén

ChairmanSecretary

CEDR TG StandardisationCEDR TG Standardisation

Table of Content

Preface

1.CEDR’s mission and strategy

2.The vision of the guide

3.Standards and standardisation

3.1Introduction

3.2The CE marking

3.3.Different technical specifications

4.What does standardisation mean for the civil servant?

4.1Overview

4.2Participation in technical work of committees or working groups

4.3Participation in public Enquiries for standards and technical approvals and/or European Technical Approval Guidelines and CUAPs

4.4Implementation of ratified standards and technical approvals

4.5Incorporation of standards into national legislation

5The impact of the CPD and the PPD

5.1Interaction between the CPD and the PPD

5.2Background to guidance papers under the CPD

5.3Relationship between guidance papers and the CPD Directive

5.4The relationship between guidance papers and mandates

5.5List of guidance papers under the CPD

6Other important directives

6.1General information about New Approach directives

6.2Important Commission directives for NRAs

6.3Products covered by New Approach directives

6.4Standardisation mandates

6.5The content of mandates

6.6Elaboration procedures for mandates

6.7How to influence standardisation mandates

7Attestation of Conformity

7.1Bodies involved

7.2Attestation of Conformity procedures under the CPD

7.3Procedures governed by other directives

7.4Basic modules of the New Approach directives (except the CPD)

8Notification of draft national specifications

9Notified bodies

9.1The capacities of a notified body

9.2The general responsibilities of a notified body

9.1Existing notified bodies

10Market surveillance

10.1General remarks

10.2The basic principles of market surveillance

10.3The role of national road administrations

11Structural Eurocodes

12CEDR collaboration with a view to obtaining relevant information

12.1The CEDR TGS website

12.2Important task groups

12.3Frequently Asked Questions

12.4Important websites

12.5Handbooks

13Bibliography

1.CEDR’s mission and strategy

The national road administrations (NRAs) of Europe are responsible for reaching political goals set by their governments. These policies seek to:

  • increase traffic safety,
  • decrease the environmental impact of roads and traffic,
  • increase accessibility and mobility, and
  • manage road networks effectively in order to ensure value for public money (reduced service life costs).

Effective road network management also calls for mechanical resistance and durability as relevant performance criteria for road, bridge, and tunnel structures.

The Conference of European Directors of Roads (CEDR) is a non-profit-making organization based in Paris, France (see ).

CEDR’s mission is to:

1contribute to the future development of road traffic and road networks,

2promote an international network for national road administrations (NRAs),

3provide a platform for understanding and responding to common problems,

4develop a strong involvement in the EU,

5use existing representatives in international groups, and

6make use of results in each member country.

The strategy chosen by CEDR to implement this mission comprises elements that relate to standardisation activities in the EU and in standardisation organizations. The relevant elements of CEDR’s strategy are to:

-seek agreement on best practice,

-exchange knowledge,

-use existing platforms in a more effective way,

-create an effective liaison with the EU,

-use both formal and informal methods of communication, and

-develop material that can be used by each member.

Both standards that are produced by standardisation organizations and European technical specifications in general are expected to use the existing knowledge. Moreover, standards are available and applicable to anyone who wants to use them. This shows that European standards and other European technical specifications such as ETAs are tools that support the elements of CEDR’s strategy.

CEDR members are key players in the implementation of European standards and European Technical Approvals in their respective areas of activity. It is the task of CEDR’s TG Standardisation (TGS), which is part of CEDR’s Thematic Domain Construction, to help CEDR members with this implementation task.

2.The vision of the guide

This guide was written for civil servants in the NRAs and those people who act on behalf of NRAs in the standardisation process that seeks to provide European technical specifications and standards for the road transport sector.

Vision: No civil servant in a European NRA who is acting in the standardisation process should ever lack understanding of the process or information about his or her role in the process or the aims and goals of the NRAs in the matters discussed.

This document is very important for three stakeholder groups in particular:

1those who are involved in standardisation work (who need guides to ensure that the European standard can be implemented),

2those who implement standards (i.e. national road administrations),

3those who use standards (i.e. manufacturers, consultants, and contractors).

Each stakeholder is involved in both the standardisation work and the standardisation process to a different degree. Civil servants, for example, are often involved as implementers and users, but are rarely involved as experts in the technical work.

The implementers are important as a group because they usually set the requirements that need to be fulfilled by the works/products. This group is often neglected in standardisation work because product standardisation is mainly dominated by those who produce the relevant construction products. From the users’ point of view, the standardisation process must seek to produce standards that are easy to use, i.e. references to standards in tendering documents and regulations must not be contradictory, which can sometimes be the case.

Different stakeholders are also involved in different parts of the standardisation process. The Commission initiates standardisation by issuing a mandate to CEN/CENELEC, inviting these organizations to elaborate harmonized standards. CEN produces standards (either harmonized under a New Approach directive or not); NRAs implement them. Implementation is a complex process. A European standard (EN) cannot simply replace an existing national standard because the new standard does not always have exactly the same scope as the existing national standard and usually refers to European test methods, which also replace national test methods. Consequently, NRAs are required to incorporate successfully the packages of European standards that cover construction products, test methods, and the design, execution, and sometimes maintenance of works.

3.Standards and standardisation

3.1Introduction

The starting-point of the standardisation process is the need for a common understanding between product manufacturers and their clients on the technical aspects of the products that need to be included in commercial transactions. Technical barriers to trade between Member States exist, hampering the free movement and use of goods on the Single Market. The mechanisms that have been put in place to achieve this aim seek to prevent new barriers to trade and to promote mutual recognition and technical harmonization. In order to reach these goals, the so-called ‘New Approach directives’ are issued by the European Council and the European Parliament.

It is, however, important to note that in addition to the Comité Européen de Normalisation (CEN), two other standardisation organizations act at European level. The first of these organizations is the Comité Européen de Normalisation Electrotechnique (CENELEC), which can be given mandates by the Commission and the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), which together with CEN are often referred to as the European Standardisation Organizations (ESO).

The second organization, whose members draft and issue European technical specifications for construction products is the European Organisation for Technical Approvals (EOTA). The members of EOTA issue, within the framework of the CPD,European Technical Approvals for specific products from specific/individual manufacturers in cases where these products are not (yet) covered by harmonised Euronorms (ENs).

On the one hand, NRAs are regulators, which means that the CPD impacts on them. On the other hand, they are also road owners, i.e. public procurement entities, which means that the PPD impacts on them as well.

The interaction between the CPD and the PPD is described in the publication Impact and Importance of European Harmonisation governed by the Construction Products Directive (CPD) and the Public Procurement Directive (PPD).

It is therefore essential that road authorities become involved in the European standardisation process and exert a real influence on it in order to ensure that European standards and European Technical Approvals support their efforts to achieve policy goals set by their respective national governments. It is therefore crucial that Europe’s NRAs exert sufficient influence on both the formulation and follow-up of mandates from the Commission to CEN/CENELEC and EOTA, and on the harmonisation work carried out by CEN and EOTA respectively.

However, because of the impact of the CPD and the PPD, the NRAs’ efforts to reach the goals set for them are dominated by European standardisation work carried out by CEN or harmonisation through European Technical Approvals (ETA) based either on ETA Guidelines for a product family, elaborated by EOTA,or based on internal EOTA documents called Common Understanding of Assessment Procedure (CUAPs), describing the assessment methods and criteria for individual products.

Directive 89/106/EEC foresees the issuing of mandates to either CEN/CENELEC or EOTA. On this basis, the Commission has issued about 30 mandates and 10 amendments to mandates to CEN for the elaboration of harmonised standards (hEN), over 30 mandates to EOTA for the elaboration of ETA Guidelines (ETAGs), and over 120 green lights forissuing ETAs without ETAGs (based onCUAPs).

Apart from construction products there is, however, a range of other Commission directives that must be monitored by NRAs. The reason for this is that the responsibilities of some of Europe’s NRAs go beyond that of the construction and maintenance of the road network. Moreover, CEDR is of the opinion that the role of the NRA is changing continually towards a greater focus on operation and services at the expense of construction and maintenance.

An overview of the standardisation procedure under the New Approach directives is available in the document Guide to the implementation of directives based on the New Approach and the Global Approach (Published by the Commission in 2000). In this document the process is described in twelve steps:

1A mandate is drawn up, following consultation with the Member States.

2The mandate is transmitted to European standards organizations.

3European standards organizations accept the mandate.

4European standards organizations elaborate a (joint) programme.

5The technical committee elaborates a draft standard.

6European standards organizations and national standards bodies organize a public enquiry.

7The technical committee considers comments.

8National standards bodies vote / European standards organizations ratify.

9European standards organizations transmit references to the Commission.

10The Commission publishes the references of those ENs in the Official Journal of the EU.

11National standards bodies transpose the European standard into national standards.

12National authorities publish references of national standards.

Civil servants are involved in many of these twelve steps. More details about these steps will be given in Chapter 4.

The CEN process aimed at initiating, producing, and ratifying standards is a very complex and carefully detailed process. The process produces various results, decisions, and documents delivered by the standard organizations. The deliverables have different statuses depending on their place in the process. There follows a list of the most important deliverables.

  • Harmonized European standards
  • European standards
  • Test method standards for works / products
  • Design standards (Eurocodes, energy-, noise- and fire standards) execution, maintenance standards
  • CEN technical reports (TR)
  • CEN workshop agreements (CWA)

3.2The CE marking

CE marking for construction products is not a quality mark in the usual sense, but rather a statement that the product is fit for its intended use and that it complies with the requirements of all relevant EU directives foreseeing the affixing of the CE marking. In its document Guide to the implementation of directives based on the New Approach and the Global Approach (Published by the Commission 2000), also known as the ‘Blue Guide’,the European Commission gives the following principles for CE marking:

  • The CE marking symbolises the conformity of the product with the applicable Community requirements imposed on the manufacturer.
  • The CE marking affixed to products is a declaration by the person responsible that:

the product conforms to all applicable Community provisions, and

the appropriate conformity assessment procedures have been completed.

A brief overview of the process leading to the CE marking of products in accordance with the Attestation of Conformity procedures under the CPD, is given in the process charts in Figures 1 – 3 inImpact and Importance of European Harmonisation governed by the Construction Products Directive (CPD) and the Public Procurement Directive (PPD).

As far as products for CE marking are concerned, the Commission’s Blue Guide states that:

  • The CE marking is mandatory and must be affixed before any product subject to it is placed on the market and put into service, save where specific directives require otherwise.
  • Where products are subject to several directives, which all provide for the affixing of the CE marking, the marking indicates that the products are presumed to conform to the provisions of all these directives.
  • A product may not be CE marked, unless it is covered by a directive providing for its affixing.

However, the general CE marking under the New Approach must be regarded with caution, as the CE marking under the CPD has a different aim and content. The construction product is not universally safe because it has a CE marking in accordance with the CPD. The CE marking here only means that the manufacturer assumes responsibility for the performance(s) of his product for a number of product characteristics and this informationaccompanies the CE marking. Furthermore, it means that these performances have been determined on the basis of a common harmonised European specification (hEN or ETAG or CUAP). It is then up to the designer or the public procurer to specify the rightproduct for the right work or intended use, in order for these to fulfil the essential requirements as laid down in the national or regional regulations and/or codes. Therefore, contrary to CE marking in other fields,a construction product is not safe for any intended use. As a regulator or procurer, you can choose between products with certain performances or certain characteristics determined in a common harmonised European specification under the CPD.

Finally, it is worth noting that when the existing specification takes the form of an EN (not harmonized), any additional aspects can be added by the regulator. The standard only specifies that the product in question shall have certain characteristics and that the regulator does not need to rely on other characteristics, only to use the framework of the EN.

3.3.Different technical specifications

Technical specifications in relation to the concept ‘standard’ is defined in Annex VI of the Public Procurement Directive PPD (Directive 2004/18/EC), as follows:

‘“standard” means a technical specification approved by a recognised standardising body for repeated or continuous application, compliance with which is not compulsory and which falls into one of the following categories:

  • International standard: a standard adopted by an international standards organisation and made available to the general public,
  • European standard: a standard adopted by a European standards organisation and made available to the general public,
  • National standard: a standard adopted by a national standards organisation and made available to the general public;’

4.What does standardisation mean for the civil servant?

4.1Overview

A civil servant or expert’s involvement in the standardisation process usually takes the following forms: